• (Feb 7.) Skimlinks usage by Pinterest is publicized by Josh Davis
• (Feb 8.) A lot of incorrect information is spread very quickly… from several posts: here, here, etc.
• (Feb 8.) Skimlinks CEO defends Pinterest and social discovery sites
• (Feb 9.) Josh makes corrections to his story
• (Feb 15.) Pinterest CEO responds to Josh and updates policies reflecting the affiliate practice
• (Feb 16.) News spreads that Pinterest drops SkimLinks

I agree with Scott Jangro (please read his comment) and others who are educated in the affiliate industry. There isn’t anything wrong with what Pinterest was doing, but it should have been stated somewhere.

Journalists love “scandals” and “uncovering secrets” which is why there were so many exaggerated headlines. The journalists, and those who are uneducated in the industry, quickly make a mess of things they do not understand.  For example, a post titled “Covert Affiliate Link Scheme Exposed”.  Really David?  Are you selling a tabloid? Clearly the title of this article was meant to capture attention and readership, tabloid style.  Based on the contents of user comments on that article, I’m not the only one who feels that way.

Oh well moving on…

Why should they keep Skimlinks?  It is a solid revenue stream.   Other user generated social shopping sites like Svpply make money off affiliate links, nobody says boo.

Why shouldn’t they keep Skimlinks?  On the contrary, if Facebook implemented affiliate links, everyone would cry.   The big picture is about user experience, community and expanding a viral social network.  Any thing that can take away from that is not good practice.  With the large investments they are receiving, any amount of affiliate commissions is going to be a minor issue, especially if they are only at 16 employees.  Relative to the massive amount of content (Pins) posted, I really don’t think there is too much in the way of e-commerce anyway.

It makes sense that the CEO stated they were testing things out, but I think it was actually just an initial way for a startup to generate revenue and prove viability to investors – more so then a long term strategy.  Side Note: How much revenue/traffic did Skimlinks just lose because of this?  Eeek.

I don’t like the fact they were so quick to drop it, but I do understand.  At the end of the day Pinterest has a bigger picture right now then generating revenue from affiliate links.  And that’s fine.

The API is currently accessible directly in the Google API Console, so it is super easy to get started with.

Publishers will benefit from the ability to look up Advertisers as well as access order and lead transactions.  The Event and Order Details lookup will probably be most useful feature (at least initially) because of the rich data that can be retrieved.

From PerformanceInsider:

Events data is also available, through the API. For affiliates that prefer to manage all of their earnings reporting, within their own internal reporting system, getting access to this data will prove invaluable. The granularity of event reporting data is impressive. Data can now be pulled all the way down to the SKU level, if part of the advertiser’s program. The API release should save Google affiliates a lot of administrative and reporting time, allowing them to redeploy resources back into revenue-generating activities.

Advertisers will also benefit with the Publisher lookup feature.

Still product search capability or integration with the Google Search API for Shopping is no where to be found.

Access to Advertisers’ promotional offerings via the API would also be nice feature.  Currently GAN still offers a daily promotional feed called OrangeLinks (from the Performics days) via FTP or E-Mail, but nothing in this version of the API.

Documentation for the API can be found here.

That being said, it is no surprise that at #1 is “twitter” well ahead of all the other phrases.  Over 2,500 different e-commerce websites have used the term since late 2009 to offer discounts on their goods or services to consumers.  The phrase “FREESHIP” came in at #2 and was the most common term used to get Free Shipping.  What was a bit surprising was that the code “blackfriday” ranked all the way up at #3, above both “tweet” (#4) and facebook (#8), and “CYBERMONDAY” (#9) which also made the top ten.  Black Friday, arguably thought to be the official start of the holiday season, has traditionally been known more for its in-store brick-n-mortar savings, but each year is becoming more of an online sales day as well.  The list is also filled with many other holiday related terms such as “EASTER” (#53) and GOBBLE (#99).  The term “XMAS” (#50) came in midway down the list, just after “MOM” (#49). Note that the phrase “MOM” ranked well ahead of “DAD” (#85), obviously showcasing who is more important to shop for (just kidding Dads!). 

Altogether there were about 8 different social media related coupon code phrases in the top 100: twitter, TWEET, twit20, facebook, TWEET10, twitter20, TWEET20, and TWIT.  If you are checking out at an online website this holiday season and can’t find a coupon code, trying “twitter” might be worth a shot!

You can download the full list as a PDF here.

CouponFollow is our social media based coupon code search engine and directory mashup, which utilizes the Twitter API.

Remember those Laminated Reference Guide sheets you could get to study for tests?  This one is for Extreme Couponers and Deal Hunters, and just in time for Black Friday and the Holiday Season! 

Source: couponfollow.com

With the 2500 / day query limit, the API’s real-world usefulness is limited, and features are still missing from what was in the original Google Base API.  Note that the Google Base API had unlimited calls, with restrictions on 2 per second per IP address. 

One issue above all was that the Tax and Shipping information was no longer included in the API results.  It was the first issue reported, back in January.  Today, after roughly a quarter of the Group’s members reported they wanted the feature back, it was finally addressed and fixed.  It has been exactly 9 months since the issue was first raised to the Google’s Shopping API Group.  It may have taken so long because of the requirement for Merchants to include Tax and Shipping deadline was the 1st of September, but who really knows. 

This is an essential enhancement, and congrats to the Google API team for getting it done.  That being said, in general, the Google API support team has been moving at a snails pace in taking on any issues addressed by public developers, and generally seem to have their own agenda.  With what could be the most powerful Shopping search API available, Google is either holding back intentionally or not committing enough resources. 

Hopefully this enhancement is a sign that things are moving in the right direction, and as Google continues to enforce stricter datafeed policies on the Merchants’ end, perhaps these changes will translate into a more robust API for developers.  In the mean time, continue to look elsewhere for Shopping Search APIs from price comparison sites like Shopping.com, ShopZilla, or PriceGrabber who have viable and tested API offerings for production-level applications.