Mokono Company Aims

« Paul Flynn's views on the Afghan War | US Major shoots soldiers at Fort Hood »

Mokono Company Aims

by SeasideMan ^Pro @ 2009-11-05 – 14:00:57

Mokono are the company who run blog.co.uk.

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mokono

mokono specialises in blog advertising solutions and brings marketers, agencies and bloggers together. It operates one of Europe´s largest blog community networks including portals such as blog.co.uk, blog.fr or blog.de.

mokono draws from the knowledge of hosting some 1M blogs across Europe and has pioneered new ways of using advertising in the blogosphere by using participative formats. mokono has started measuring campaign results via the increase in volume of mentions which have proven to significantly increase after a campaign, including clients such as Nokia, T-Home or BMW. This concept of measurement has initiated a discussion among advertising experts beyond Germany. In May 2009, the iab made volume of mentions an integral part of it´s social media definitions.

With over 4 million unique visitors a month in Germany and over 40M uniques in Europe, mokono provides significant reach for marketers and agencies that wish to address the most influential web crowd in Germany and the rest of Europe. Furthermore, mokono supports agencies and companies in the web2.0 - environment by actively providing knowledge and expertise. In February 2007, Germany´s media giant Burda acquired a stake in the company.

mokono was founded in 2006 by Florian Wilken and Vasco Sommer-Nunes. The two high school friends form a complementary team, with mokono being their second venture. From 1997 to 2002 they founded and managed an online dating company, which was acquired in 2002, by then the third largest online dating property in Germany.

-----

Thoughts?
Options:
Tags:
- profile
- company
- mokono

24 Comments to Mokono Company Aims

Hide subcomments

- la_spice
- 2009-11-05 @ 14:05:28
Two words:

MONEY TALKS
- - SeasideMan ^Pro
  - 2009-11-05 @ 14:11:11
  I agree. I predict here and now that the announcement about tagging that will come out "in a few hours" will be mostly waffle and will say that they are not going to undo the change. I think this is because these changes will have been introduced at the request of their advertisers. The loss of even hundreds of bloggers is insignificant to them, given their levels of traffic, so it's no surprise that they do things like this which show a complete lack of consideration for this community we have here.
  
  I'll also say here and now that it will make me happy to be wrong about this.
  - - vasco ^team
    - http://sommer.blog.de
    - 2009-11-05 @ 16:45:25
    Hey SeasideMan,
    
    the tag system change is not related to advertisers. It is a technical change which is vital to keep up performance in the future. It would have been developed regardless of advertisers.
    
    The loss of hundreds of bloggers is a nightmare and far from being insignificant. We do try to develop formats which suit the blogosphere, but it´s a new space and clients as well as us have to learn still. We understand that the BMW-ads on the main page were regarded as too intrusive. We´ll work on improving formats such as the blogAd, which help to give bloggers more visitors when they are featured in an ad.
    
    I strongly disagree on the point that we show complete lack of consideration however - as I indicated above, the technical changes or vital. What regards advertising, we try to go beyond standard ad formats (we´ve had our first payouts to bloggers in the UK last months). So hopefully I provided my fair share of information to make you happy / prove your wrong on this.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Vasco
    - - SeasideMan ^Pro
      - 2009-11-05 @ 17:00:42
      Hello Vasco, thankyou for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it.
      
      I'm a computer man myself and if there are good technical reasons why this is needed in order to maintain performance then that is fine. However, this was the announcement about the changes:
      
      "Dear bloggers,
      
      You can tag posts, blogs, profiles and media, and in the very near future, there will be a few changes to the tag system to make it even better.
      
      Soon tags will be completely 'international' - you'll be able to use characters from other languages in tags, as well as numbers and other symbols. Pretty much everything will be useable as a tag, except HTML code. Tags will soon have to be at least two characters and could potentially consist of up to fifty, as well as up to five separate words.
      
      They will also be displayed exactly as you enter them, and to allow our system to process all the new tags, special characters will not appear alongside the letters, numbers and hyphens in the URL of the blog post.
      
      User tags and Interests will be limited to 150 tags, and posts, groups blogs, normal blogs, friends and designs will be limited to a maximum of fifteen tags.
      
      Unfortunately, old tags that do not fulfill the criteria mentioned above will be deleted. If the changes affect any of your tags, you'll receive a Private Message from us informing you which ones have had to be deleted.
      
      As always, feedback is more than welcome.
      
      Your BCUK team"
      
      There is absolutely no mention in there that this was done for performance reasons. Furthermore there was no consultation with the user base on this issue, and the notification itself was in a group blog that many users do not read. The first most of us knew about was the PMs saying that many of our tags had in fact been deleted.
      
      I wondered if these tags constituted content that BCUK shouldn't be deleting, and I got this response:
      
      http://the.blog.co.uk/2009/11/05/tags-revisited-7312844/
      
      "§5.3 clearly states that we can delete any content anytime, of course it is not our intention to do that just cause"
      
      This stark response does not help those who have lost many tags that they used for personally indexing their posts, and comes across very badly indeed.
      
      I'm sure you are aware that some people have already cancelled their subscriptions because of this fiasco and I won't be surprised if more do. The precedent of making such a large change as this without consultation and with only limited prior notification is a very bad one indeed.
      
      It would be good if you could put at rest my mind and those of other bloggers that measures will be put into place to prevent this sort of fiasco from reoccurring.
      
      Regards, Tom.
      - vasco ^team
        
        http://sommer.blog.de
        
        2009-11-05 @ 17:20:09
        
        The mokono team have met early this morning in an extraordinary meeting to discuss how we should proceed on this matter, with the announcement you linked as one result. The other results can be taken from the announcement itself. Among those is the feature to re-tag those posts which had deleted tags. So nothing should be lost once the feature is available. We´ve postponed all other developments to bring it live as soon as possible.
        
        I understand that quoting the § could have been misleading. But that´s simply there to abide to regular jurisdiction and to get rid of unlawful content quickly. My apologies if this has been misunderstood.
        
        What´s much more important aside from the technical aspect is that we learn to communicate better and consult the user base in the right way. We´ve decided on means to improve this today and are determined to become better.
        
        Reply to comment
        
        Permalink
        
        Show this thread
        
        SeasideMan ^Pro
        
        2009-11-05 @ 17:26:14
        
        Your final paragraph was exactly what I wanted to hear, and thankyou for it. Better communication on this issue would have completely defused the issues before they started.
        
        Have you considered setting up either a User Group or a Focus group? I used to work for a software company and we started a User Group for the users to get together and discuss problems, suggest improvements and generally let us know how they felt about us. You might be able to design a way to implement an online version of such a concept that fits withing your structure.
        
        I hope your remedial activities go well, and I look forward to hearing about the future developments to aid communications.
        
        Regards, Tom.
        
        Reply to comment
        
        Permalink
    - - technomist
      - 2009-11-05 @ 21:45:31
      I think you come across as an arrogant fellow.
      
      You could have discussed this with your users on BCUK and understood their needs. 5 word tag limits may make some small sense in German, a language which has long nouns constructed from many different elements to create a single word, but in the English language, the limit is stupid.
      
      Your inability to show even the slightest humility towards all the people you have annoyed and to learn from them will hamper future progress.
      - vasco ^team
        
        http://sommer.blog.de
        
        2009-11-06 @ 13:41:22
        
        Hello Technomist,
        
        I am grateful for criticism, especially if it provides a recommendation on how to improve. So I will definitely question the way I communicate.
        
        Regarding the 5 word tags however, may I explain that this decision was a decision based on data only. We looked at how many users used multiple word tagging, and the results suggested an optimum of 5 word tag limits, with system performance and percentage of usage by users taken into account. Using the data pool was the best way of depicting actual real usage made by users in our view and superior to getting individual opinions from users on the subject only.
        
        However, I disagree on your last statement. Even with the chance of making an arrogant statement, there is no doubt in my mind that we are able to show humility towards the community. Plus, we are very willing to learn - our statements on the.blog.co.uk should be a manifestation of that. What I do agree on is that we have to become better still.
        
        Reply to comment
        
        Permalink
- banana ^Pro
- http://poetry4fun.blog.co.uk
- 2009-11-05 @ 14:09:09
Sounds good to me. Everything on the web is to do with advertising in the end - a company that can tap into that effectively is ensured a long and successful life - which means longevity for our blogs.

One thing I do know is that this blog system consistently gets me into the top Google results without me having to do anything much at all.

We are so much better off than Blogger and other blog sites - have you ever popped along to the front page of those blog sites and tried to find interesting blogs to read?

It is impossible - at least here we have a very welcoming front page that promotes our content and brings in new readers.
- - SeasideMan ^Pro
  - 2009-11-05 @ 14:13:56
  That's a fair point and since you yourself are using this place as an advertising medium I understand why you say that.
  - - banana ^Pro
    - http://poetry4fun.blog.co.uk
    - 2009-11-05 @ 14:22:15
    Well that only started in the last few weeks.
    
    And only because my blogs have done so well over the last few years that I thought it was worth trying to get my book out
    
    I'm hardly Bill Gates and Microsoft LOL
    
    I think there is no benefit for big advertisers to rain on our parade. The more readers we get - the better they do. Messing up our success is shooting themselves in the foot.
    It makes no business sense.
    
    I'm sure they'll fix it soon.
    - - SeasideMan ^Pro
      - 2009-11-05 @ 14:24:26
      We'll see - there should be an announcement later on today.
      - Reply to comment
      - Permalink
- brokendownangel ^Pro
- 2009-11-05 @ 14:32:39
I hope they have taken on board the views of what seems to be a majority on here - I don't see very many blogs backing the changes! And they will sort something out that is satisfactory - I love it on here, it has been a real lifeline at times and for some others too, and I would hate to lose people from what has been a brilliant community x
- - SeasideMan ^Pro
  - 2009-11-05 @ 14:44:41
  I hope it gets sorted out too, I really do.
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink
- Bushka ^Pro
- Bushka
- 2009-11-05 @ 14:38:10
Ditto Banana's Comment! I started out on blogspot....spent three months there...found it the most impersonal contact I've ever experienced in life.....then, by chance 'lighted' on blog.co.uk...Been very happy here...BUT...who am I? Just a 'rookie'...
- - SeasideMan ^Pro
  - 2009-11-05 @ 14:48:03
  In a sense I'm a Rookie too as I've never tried blogging anywhere else although I have been using computer networks for a loooong time. It's the precedent here that disturbs me, of just implementing something without consultation and minimal notification. But if they reverse the change and implement procedures to prevent upsetting so many people in the future then they will come out of this creditably. The announcement later today on this will be crucial.
  - - banana ^Pro
    - http://poetry4fun.blog.co.uk
    - 2009-11-05 @ 14:58:29
    Don't know if you've ever used facebook or other media sites Tom.
    But it is pretty common for stuff to be implemented irreversibly over the heads of the users.
    
    One notorious example was one of them (can't remember which one) that unilaterally made the user's actions public so that the company could highlight them to advertise the site or whatever - the only way to stop it was to search for the small print in some obscure location on the site and then sign a 'keep my stuff private' request.
    
    But most people were and are unaware of that and so their activities were no longer private.
    
    I'm completely against that sort of rough shod behaviour - but one reads the T's and C's and if they say that a company can do that sort of thing - then they can do it.
    
    I agree that if we don't like a change it is also perfectly valid to protest against it and see if we can regain what we have lost.
    
    It is hard for me as I can see both sides of this.
    
    The ideal would be to roll back the changes - make suggestions to people who have relied on the tagging system - but this time give enough time so that they have time to implement a substitute system - I suspect just putting commas between all the words will work - and then when everyone is settled and ready - re-implement the change if it is necessary for smooth operation of the site.
    
    I think the real problem here is there was not enough analysis of how tags were being used and not enough help and information to allow people to put their systems straight before rolling this change through.
    - - SeasideMan ^Pro
      - 2009-11-05 @ 15:10:05
      Yes, I'm aware of Facebook doing that. They made another change to their T&Cs that made them the owners of any uploaded content too - that didn't go down too well with photographers and it's one reason I stopped using the place. But this was the first occasion I am aware of BCUK doing this and I don't like it one bit. Changes like this need extensive consultation and long notification and we had neither.
      
      I also think they must roll back the changes and if they say they can't do it, I'll be crying Shenanigans!
      - Reply to comment
      - Permalink
  - - Bushka ^Pro
    - Bushka
    - 2009-11-05 @ 16:24:44
    I'm learning a lot about blogging these last few days..I feel sure this will be resolved...hopefull amicably...for the mutual benefit of all...
    - - SeasideMan ^Pro
      - 2009-11-05 @ 16:38:49
      The announcement is out now:
      
      http://the.blog.co.uk/2009/11/05/tags-revisited-7312844/
      - Bushka ^Pro
        
        Bushka
        
        2009-11-05 @ 17:28:13
        
        Thanks for that Tom.I was just about to 'check it out' Thanks....
        
        Reply to comment
        
        Permalink
- DominicGee
- 2009-11-05 @ 15:24:45
If it keeps it free, then that's fine.
- Reply to comment
- Permalink
- safriz
- http://www.conspiror.blog.co.uk
- 2009-11-06 @ 14:43:28
I know we bloggers are not happy about some changes on BCUK,but one thing has to be appreciated.That is the human touch on BCUK.
We complained,and all BCUK team was readily available to address our complaints.Instead of sending out generic emails or messages,they are posting on blogs and replying to comments,and that is very good.Hopefully this open discussion will help them to adress the problems we pointed out,and for the members to understand what the BCUK team is up to.
- - SeasideMan ^Pro
  - 2009-11-06 @ 14:55:43
  Indeed, as Vasco comments above, increased communication will benefit all of us.
  - Reply to comment
  - Permalink