'Intel Inside' ad campaign shifts to web

Intel is asking its partners participating in the "Intel Inside" advertising program to shift more of their advertising dollars online and minimize it in traditional media like television and print.

According to Intel executives, consumers are turning more and more to the online media when they consider buying products like computers and other digital products. "In the last year, there appears to be an acceleration of attitude-forming, opinion-forming, online, instead of in the traditional media, and we have to respond appropriately", said Sean Maloney, EVP Marketing at Intel.

A survey of how consumers were influenced in their buying decisions undertaken this year by Intel showed that "three or four out of the top five sources have something to do with the online media," including search engines, blogs and Web sites, Maloney said.

"TV, print, can play a role," he added, "but once you're researching a purchase, we need to engage with you in a deeper way."

The program spends hundreds of million annually and beginning in 2008, Intel will require companies that take part in the program spend a minimum of 35% of the money that Intel provides to them on online marketing.

Some of the companies participating in Intel's program are Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba.

Mike Abary, SVP Marketing Sony said "Some of the "Intel inside" co-op ads Sony is running appear will appear on YouTube.

Al Jazeera Goes YouTube & Signs Ad Deal

Al Jazeera and Google signed a commercial agreement last week to share advertising revenue on th Al Jazeera's YouTube channel.

Al Jazeera, the world's 5th most popular brand, sees YouTube as an efficient platform to distribute their content and monetize it on non Televisions mediums. Al Jazeera الجزيرة, which means "The Peninsula" in Arabic, is a television network headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Initially launched as an Arabic news and current affairs satellite TV channel it has since expanded into a network with several outlets, including the internet and specialty TV channels in multiple languages, and in several regions of the world.

Microsoft Launches Health Search Application

Microsoft launched a free web site for managing personal health and medical information called HealthVault. The site search will be powered by Live.com and the web site will be ad supported.

HealthVault enables users to search and find information about health care and provides users a repository to store health-related data such as medical histories, immunizations and records from the doctor's office and hospital visits as well as measurements from devices like heart rate monitors.

The web site enables users to invite and share their information with doctors and family members and other people they trust.

There isn't a standardized solution in the health care industry and Microsoft is seeking to capitalize on that. Microsoft purchased MedStory earlier this year.

The American Heart Association, American Lung Association, Johnson & Johnson and others are developing applications that will enable users to sync their data with HealthVault. The goal is to create a web based medical platform for hospitals, doctors and insurance companies.

Microsoft said CapMed and Kryptiq have already created applications for HealthVault that help doctors send and receive information without having to switch from technology they already use.

Google has plans of its own. Recently, Marissa Mayer took charge of Google's Health initiatives.

UC Berkeley Goes YouTube

UC Berkeley has joined the internet revolution and is making available courses for free via YouTube.

University officials announced that over 300 hours of UC Berkeley classes and events are available online at the web address www.youtube.com/ucberkeley. The classes include lectures on peace and conflict studies, bioengineering, sciences, technology and computer programming.

UC Berkeley was one of the first major universities to embrace webcasting and podcasting and now YouTube.

Personalized Search & Privacy

Google is using YouTube to post videos that explain how, when, and why they collect information about searches, and how you can protect your privacy while using our search engine.

In the first video, you can learn about some of the information collected eg. IP addresses, cookies, and search queries and how they this information is used to improve your search experience as well as prevent against fraud and other abuses.

Google's search algorithms are designed to take your personal preferences into account, including the things you search for and the sites you visit. They provided the example about the Louvre in Paris. You are more likely to get results about the French capital than about Paris Hilton.

In the second video the are offering a closer look at personalization and the privacy tools available when you choose to personalize your search. Personalization has been an area that raises concerns about privacy, and Google wants you to understand how they personalize search results while protecting your privacy with tools such as “pause” and “remove” buttons designed to help put you in control of personalization.

Microsoft Live.com (Dead) Is A Time Waster

Microsoft yesterday announced additions to its search engine and the company believes that they have done it. It was seriously over hyped.

The company introduced new features such as;
- auto-spell correction, with the option of leaving words misspelled
- mouse over capability on links and images
- better word handling (sometimes you need the "the" when searching: Office or The Office), they felt this was critical

Just as they said the new improved search was more relevant things started going wrong. After entering the word “dog” into Live Search, the number three result shows a paragraph from Wikipedia’s entry concerning digital on-screen graphics. The fourth result is also from Wikipedia, and relates to the dog’s place as a zodiac animal. Google’s top ten results all connect to dogs in the sense of dachshunds, collies, and golden retrievers, which is what everybody had in mind.

Microsoft also spoke of significant enhancements to core algorithms and expansion of Rich Answers and substantial improvements in understanding queryintent. What does that mean? In other words they are trying to do Universal Search like Google. Too much time was spend by management inventing new search terms to convince the crowd that they understood search.

Doug Caverly was unimpressed. Danny Sullivan said the improvements were incremental. I am sticking with Google.

Google DoubleClick Hearing: New World vs Old

There is the transcript of the statement made by David Drummond, Chief Legal Officer, Google on the proposed acquisition of DoubleClick by Google (GOOG).

It explains in simple english Google's existing online advertising business and DoubleClick's display ad technology and business.

David went on to say that "Google’s business model has focused on what’s known as the “long tail” of the Internet – the millions of individuals and small businesses that cater to niche interests and markets. We lower the barrier to entry for these small publishers and advertisers, and we match them up with users who are interested in what they have to say or sell."

There is the statement made by the opposing party Brad Smith, SVP & General Counsel, Microsoft.

Smith said, "While there are millions of web sites and advertisers on the Internet, there are actually a very small number of “intermediaries” that provide the tools and services that connect them. If you are a web site and want to sell ad space on your site, or if you are an advertiser who wants to display your ads online, you have to work with them or one of their intermediaries."

Happy Birthday Google

Happy 9th B'Day Google! It's hard to imagine that only 9 short years ago Google was birthed. And what a journey it's been for the company. With its mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful", Google started like most other startups in the Valley from humble beginnings in a Stanford University dorm room by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to become a force that "is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine -- an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second". Their name has even become a verb with Google it being a very common expression to hear.

Google has since and continues to make its foray into every area imageinable: video, social networking, mapping, payments, mobile, email, docs, and much more. (Google Products)

Their philosophy as stated on their site is:

Never settle for the best
"The perfect search engine," says Google co-founder Larry Page, "would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want." Given the state of search technology today, that's a far-reaching vision requiring research, development and innovation to realize. Google is committed to blazing that trail. Though acknowledged as the world's leading search technology company, Google's goal is to provide a much higher level of service to all those who seek information, whether they're at a desk in Boston, driving through Bonn, or strolling in Bangkok.

To that end, Google has persistently pursued innovation and pushed the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use search service that can be accessed from anywhere. To fully understand Google, it's helpful to understand all the ways in which the company has helped to redefine how individuals, businesses and technologists view the Internet.

Ten things Google has found to be true:
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.
(Source: http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/tenthings.html)

The next nine years is shaping up to be equally interesting.

Out Googled: What Is Your Google Strategy

Out Googled is a period series covering the strategies of companies and even entire industries to counter the enterance of Google (GOOG) in to their domain.

At its core Google is search and advertising, however the company has many tentacles and its looming presence can be felt in many areas such as;
- online applications
- mobile & telephony
- ecommerce & content
- social networking
- gaming & virtual worlds
- hosting services
- measurement & analysis
- publishing & broadcast
- space technology

Google is rapidly moving into new markets and reshaping existing industries. As long as there is a web component to a product, given its sheer reach and power, Google is possibly better positioned to serve the needs of the 6 billion plus addressable market for web based products independent of platform.

So what is your Google strategy? Send us your story.

Online Advertising: Search vs Display

According to eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey online ad spending will expand 28.6% this year and 32% next year, amounting to nearly $28.8 billion.

Branded and video advertising are fast on their way to matching the budgets spent on search.

"With video, you can do a heck of a lot better job of storytelling," he said.

Web videos are watched by 72% or 135 million people on the web every month. Ad spending on web video is expected to reach $775 million this year, and $1.3 billion by next year.

Google's (GOOG) YouTube is poised to lead the web video market, and grab the bulk of ad dollars flowing into the medium, according to Ramsey.

Web Video Ads Increase Web Site Traffic

There is a highly correlation between online video ads watchers and an increase in web site traffic. Online video watchers are more likely to act on after watching web video ads. This is according to an online survey conducted by Google and AOL, as part of larger effort to get marketers to move their ad budgets from other mediums such as television to online video advertising.

- 78% of respondents said that online video ads provide as much or more of an opportunity to learn about an advertiser than television
- 64% of respondents indicated they have taken action after seeing an online video
- 44% went to a company's Web site after watching an online video ad
- 33% searched for the product or service after watching an online video ad
- 22% visited a bricks and mortar store
- 21% discussed the advertised product with friends or family

75% of respondents survey said they watched more video online than they did a year ago and more than 50% expect to watch more online video in the next year. Further, 32% characterized the feature product as "innovative", 32% said it was "creative" and 30% said it was "fun".

Google Party Over For Ad Agencies

Google is set to scrap its subsidy payments for European search advertising agencies.

The program, called Best Practice Funding, which has made subsidies to the tune of US$100M, will wind up at the end of 2008. It is in effect across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The program gives agencies that used Google's search engine to book ad dollars, a percentage of money back based on how much they spent on behalf of clients.

The goal of the program was to drive search advertising across the region by allowing investment in technology, training and research to create better campaigns.

Agencies get from 3% to 8% of their ad spend returned each quarter depending on how much money they place with Google and other qualifying factors.

The program is similar to incentives TV and other media ad channels offer agencies, discounts for buying ad slots and rewarding agencies that do higher volumes with more discounts.

Participating agencies get to train two staff members as Google Advertising Professionals and approximately 2,000 have gone through the process to date.

"Agencies are now at a level where they don't need a subsidy," said Damian Burns, head of agency relations for Google EMEA.

Mr Burns did add that there had been a "mixed" reaction from some agencies at the news.

For those agencies that have based their business model on using subsidy as profit in place of the traditional discount for volume buying, will have to rethink their business model.

Google's rival Yahoo! last year modified its agency discount system for search campaigns to offer a maximum of 10% rebate, down from 15%.

MSN has maintained its discount rate at 10%, according to one media agency source.

Google Launchs Link Sharing Service

Google has launched a link sharing service called Google Shared Stuff. It is very similar to the bookmarking service (Google Bookmarks) released in 2005 and Delicious.

The service allows you to add links to your “shared stuff page” by adding a bookmarklet to your web browser’s “Links” or “Bookmarks” bar or by clicking this Share button, which currently only seems to be available on Google Video but is likely to be made available for embedding on any website.

Upon clicking the icon, a popup allows you to choose whether you want to share a thumbnail image and article preview taken from the website or just the link.

Click here to try Shared Stuff.

NY Times Web Site Purses Online Ads

Two years ago the NY Times began a subscription program charging $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives.

Yesterday, the NY Times abandoned this program and opened up its entire site to all readers. In addition archives from 1851 to the present will also be free.

“But our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising,” said Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of the site, NYTimes.com.

Most of the NY Times readers ended up on the site from search engines and links on other sites instead of coming directly to NYTimes.com. These readers, unable to get access to articles because of the subscription model quickly left the site. The Times hopes that opening up the site will increase page views and in turn on-line advertising revenue.

“What wasn’t anticipated was the explosion in how much of our traffic would be generated by Google, by Yahoo and some others,” Ms. Schiller said.

This is also a win for the writers and columnists who were not getting any visibility due to the restricted access.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the web site gets about 13 million unique visitors each month, thus the potential for increased revenue from advertising, versus subscriber revenue, is so much more attractive.

Now the Times can also deploy better SEO strategies to increase traffic and better target its advertising to get premium rates.

Google Adsense For Mobile

Google announced the availability of AdSense for Mobile, its service for placing contextual ads with mobile web content.

AdSense for Mobile is identical to AdSense for Web sites, which places ads on participating publishers' sites that correspond to the publishers' content.

"We've just launched AdSense for Mobile, which can help you expand your online content to new platforms," said Alex Kenin, AdSense product marketing manager, in a blog post." If you have a Web site optimized for mobile browsers, or are interested in creating one, you can start monetizing your mobile site by accessing a growing number of our mobile advertisers."

Mobile advertising is expected to generate about $3 billion by the end of the year and $19 billion by the end of 2011, according to ABI Research. There are about 6.6 billion people in the world and about half that many mobile phone subscriptions, according to The Mobile World, a U.K. mobile phone consultancy.

Publishers of Web sites designed for viewing on mobile phones now have the option to make some money through Google's (GOOG) AdSense program just like publishers of non-mobile Web sites.

AdSense for Mobile will be available in 13 countries: England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Ireland, Russia, Netherlands, Australia, India, China, and Japan.

The WebGuild September Event on Mobile Advertising.

Baidu Launches Online Video Ads

Baidu, has launched "Baidu TV", an online video advertising service, expecting it to be a new profit driver to help widen the gap with its rivals, Chinese versions of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO).

Baidu TV is the result of a partnership between Baidu and Ads it! Media Corporation, a Chinese online video advertising platform provider.

Baidu will provide advertisers access to about 160,000 domestic websites under the Baidu Union, where they can post online video ads.

Ads it! mainly deals in advertising-related technical and marketing issues.

"Baidu has been dedicated to developing its core business by maximizing its customer resources ... Baidu TV is a logical step in that direction," said Shen Haoyu, Baidu vice-president, business operations.

Baidu's revenue mainly relies on text ads, but this is "far from enough, and it should try to find more niche markets to fuel growth", said Tian Xin, search engine analyst with iResearch Consulting Group.

Yahoo's Casualties in Search War

Semel maybe out but so are 10 of Yahoo's 26 executives (see then and now). A 40% turnover in executive management in one year is pretty high. I guess the battle against Google is taking its toll. Semel, who didn't know what email was before he arrived at Yahoo has left behind a trail of destruction. The vacancies are being filled by Susan Deckers' friends according to sources. Susan, who takes over as President of Yahoo, is famous for saying that "Yahoo's goal is not to be number one in search". Besides losing all this "talent" in a short time, the company is losing millions in severance compensation. Several employees said that Farzeed Nazem, CTO, spent more time filing papers with the SEC over stock options purchases and sales during his 11 year hibernation. The WSJ says it reinforces doubts about Panama when the guy overseeing the global rollout leaves smack in the middle of it. A senior Yahooligan (Yahoo employee) described Panama as larger than the Titanic and that it will help Yahoo capture more search advertising dollars.

Here is the list of executives jumping ship:
Terry Semel, CEO
Susan Decker, CFO
Lars Rabbe, CIO
Dan Rosensweig, COO
Farzeed Nazem, CTO
Chris Castro, CCO
Lloyd Braun, President, Yahoo! Media
John Marcom, VP International, Yahoo!
Phu Hoang, VP Engineering
Daniel Finnigan, VP Classifieds

At the annual shareholder meeting Jerry Yang had nothing to say about Yahoo's business but human rights. Yesterday, he released a statement saying "Terry has given Yahoo! six of its best years".

Yahoo, hosting the Titanic party at its campus in Sunnyvale, CA.

Yahoo Focused On The Past

Angry shareholders voted down proposals to tie executive pay to competitive performance and challenged the company's human rights policies in China at their annual meeting. The meeting was focused on the past three years and a little about the how the company intends to respond to Google's growing dominance.

"I am going to sell all my shares!" said Dotty Webber of Sunnyvale, CA. "He was talking about macaroni and cheese and how people like to eat it. There was nothing about their internet strategy. I went to the Google meeting and Eric Schmidt talked about how Google plans to help the world with the internet."

There was very little said about search, online advertising or Panama. Little to no mention about the acquisitions such as RightMedia or inroads Microsoft is making. No mention about the growing influence of MySpace among brand advertisers or the lock YouTube has on online video. "I don't see much change going forward, the performance of the past three years is set to repeat itself", said Eric Jackson, President, Jackson Leadership Systems. Jackson is a shareholder activist and has a even launched a campaign on YouTube against Terry Semel.

There was more talk about the human rights violations in China and Yahoo's efforts to change that. "They see this as a problem and are looking into it", said Patrick Doherty, Comptroller, The City of New York. A memorandum was issued outlining Jerry Yang's view on human rights to all.

"Search Is History", says Yahoo!

As the company realizes that it can no longer compete with Google, it is saying the future of web search is history. Yahoo says the model for getting information via the browser is outdated. In the future relevant information will be delivered directly to readers. "The future of the web is about personalization. Where search was dominant, now the web is about 'me.' It's about weaving the web together in a way that is smart and personalized for the user," said Tapan Bhat, VP, Yahoo!'s Personalised Home Page.

Interestingly, iGoogle is about personalization and Google has been making alot of noise of about it. Suddenly, it has become the core focus at Yahoo. Yahoo has been losing market share to Google in search and has been recasting itself as a company not focused on search. In fact Susan Decker, CFO, Yahoo has said previously that "Our goal is not to be number one is search". "They've realised they can't compete with Google on search." said Deborah Schultz, a Silicon Valley-based marketing consultant.

Search continues to gain wider adoption as an enabler for online commerce and soon may become the platform for commerce. Billions of dollar are being channeled into search as major marketers and brand advertisers see the efficiency of the medium. The river of money is finding its way mostly to Google. In fact the company does more in reveune in a single quarter than Yahoo does in a year. The entire Searchnomics conference is focused on the importance of search to web sites and online businesses.


On Tuesday June 12, 2007, Yahoo holds it annual shareholder meeting. Yahoo's Terry Semel was the highest paid CEO in 2006, with total compensation of $71.7 million, according to the AP. That is two times more than the $27 million in total compensation for the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez, baseball's highest-paid player, and higher than the typical pay A-list stars like Brad Pitt who earn $20 million a movie, plus 20 percent of the gross box office take.

There is even talk that Microsoft may buy the company. That would give Semel a graceful exit. However, the word is that the company is not attractive enough to any single major buyer to advance their product line, not at that price. Jeff Clavier, a venture capitalist at SoftTech, said: "The problem with Yahoo! is that they're trying to be all things to all people but they don't do any one thing particularly well."

All this is making investors, partners and customers very nervous. Several advertisers and partners are moving to Google; Friendster, a social networking site, moved to Google from Yahoo to better monetize its user base with Google's larger ad platform and deeper inventory. If this trend continues, Yahoo maybe history before search is.

82% of Experts Say Web Analytics Misunderstood

According to a survey of over 1000 web analytics professionals, consultants and end-users:
- 82% said web analytics was largely misunderstood within their organisations
- 56% found web analytics difficult

Most respondents had at least two years of experience with the relevant technologies and approximately 25% had over five years experience.

The survey was conducted by Web measurement guru Eric T. Peterson and Jim Sterne, co-founder and chairman of the Web Analytics Association.

According to Mr. Peterson only 8 percent of companies worldwide are taking a process-oriented approach towards web analytics. "In my experience, process is the key to both success and achieving positive and recurring return on investment from web analytics technology and staff", he said.

Mr. Peterson will be the opening speaker on web analytics at the up coming Searchnomics conference, Brett Crosby from Google and Avinash Kaushik and John Squire from Coremetrics will also be speaking at Searchnomics.

Search Conferences

Some of you might find this listing of search conferences useful. It is a listing of the conferences Google Webmaster Team will be speaking at. Searchnomic is on the list. Shashi Thakur will be speaking on Search Engine Friendly Design and Greg Grothaus will be speaking on Search & Dynamic Web Sites and SEO for Web 2.0.

Yahoo's CTO, Farzad Nazem, Resigns

Farzad Nazem, Yahoo's CTO for the past 11 years has called it quits. Couple of weeks ago Susan Decker quit as Yahoo's CFO. An SEC, filing outlines that Farzad will not we able to work for a competitor such as Google or Microsoft for 3 years nor can he solicit or contract Yahoo employees.

Yahoo CFO Out: Goal Not To Be No. 1 In Search

Susan Decker, the former CFO of Yahoo has been replaced by Blake Jorgensen. He will begin his new job on June 4, 2007. Susan was famous for saying that "It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search." and that is precisely the plan the company has been sticking to. Here is the press release from Yahoo.

Google searches web's dark side

One in 10 web pages contains malicious code that could infect a user's PC. Researchers at Google scrutinized 4.5 million pages to and 10% or 450,000 were capable of launching so-called "drive-by downloads", sites that install malicious code, such as spyware, without a user's knowledge, and a further 700,000 pages were thought to contain code that could compromise a user's computer.

Drive-by downloads are an increasingly common way to infect a computer or steal sensitive information. They usually consist of malicious programs that automatically install when a user visits a booby-trapped website.

"To entice users to install malware, adversaries employ social engineering," wrote Google researcher Niels Provos.

"The user is presented with links that promise access to 'interesting' pages with explicit pornographic content, copyrighted software or media. A common example are sites that display thumbnails to adult videos."

Some downloads, alter bookmarks, install unwanted toolbars or change the start page of a browser. However, increasingly, criminals are using drive-bys to install keyloggers that steal login and password information.

Other pieces of malicious code hijack a computer turning it into a "bot", a remotely controlled PC.

Drive-by downloads represent a shift away from traditional methods of infecting a computer, such as spam and email attachments.

The vast majority exploit vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to install themselves.

Google will start to identify all web pages on the internet that could be malicious.
Google, part of the StopBadware coalition, already warns users if they are about to visit a potentially harmful website, displaying a message that reads "this site may harm your computer" next to the search results.

"Marking pages with a label allows users to avoid exposure to such sites and results in fewer users being infected," the researchers wrote. This is similar to the browser install produced by McAfee called SiteAdvisor, which alters users to spyware, spam, viruses and online scams. SiteAdvisor, alerts users of web site's safety by assigning color codes next to the severity of the threat posted. However, the constant pop-up that alerts users of a sites threat level can get annoying and time consuming.

The Google report also identified the other methods by which criminals inject malicious code on to innocent web pages.

1. Spam email - are a common way to infect a computer. It found that the code was often contained in those parts of the website not designed or controlled by the website owner, such as banner adverts and widgets.

2. Widgets - are small programs that may, for example, display a calendar on a web page or a web traffic counter. These are often downloaded from third-party sites. The rise of web 2.0 and user-generated content gave criminals other channels, or vectors, of attack, it found. For example, postings in blogs and forums that contain links to images or other content could unwittingly infect a user.

You're a Nobody Unless You Google Well

If your name does not come up on Google you are nobody according to an article published by the Wall Street Journal.

Today, employers frequently Google their candidate prior to even calling. Interviewers often search to see if what a candidate say on their resume could be verified online. More than 80% of executive recruiters said they routinely use search engines to learn more about candidates, according to a recent survey by executive networking firm ExecuNet. Nearly 40% of individuals have used search engines to look up friends or acquaintances with whom they'd lost touch, according to a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Microsoft Corp.'s MSN unit.

Parents to be are turning to Google to find unique names for their children. They explain they want their children to stand out. Google, John Smith and you will get 209,000,000 searchresults and as people flood the web this is going to be a growing problem.

To increase visibility musicians are turning to unique sites like Gruuve where they can be found. Eg. a search for "U2" on Google is getting very noise but a search for "U2" on Gruuve brings us the band.

For web professionals WebGuild is building its own version on an online directory. People in the web profession can add themselves to the directory and use it as an online biography which they could provide to reporters, employers, for speaking engagements and more.

Yahoo Auctions & Yahoo Photos To Shut Down

Yahoo has told users it will shut down its auction site in U.S. and Canada. This is the second service the Yahoo is shutting this month.

Yahoo posted a message on it website saying the service will no longer accept new auction lists from June 3. The last day to bid or buy goods and services on the auction site is June 16.

On Friday, Jeff Weiner, executive vice president of Yahoo's Network Division, said in a company statement: "We are making great strides in our ongoing efforts to align Yahoo's resources and focus on core strategic priorities."

According to audience measurement firm comScore Inc., online auction leader eBay Inc. accounted for more than 94 percent of online auctions activity among U.S. Web users last week. Online retail giant Amazon.com Inc.'s U.S. auction site accounted for one-third of a percentage point, while Yahoo's auctions held only an 0.2 percent share.

"It comes with little surprise given Yahoo's advertising relationship with eBay, and eBay's massive dominance of the auction category," Hitwise research director LeeAnn Prescott wrote in a blog post.

A year ago, eBay and Yahoo announced a strategic alliance to cooperate on a range of services in their core U.S markets.

Google Analytics Gets New Look

Google announced a redesign of the popular Google Analytics application. The new redesign will make the analysis even more accessible and easy to use while improving the data reporting capabilities of the Web site usage monitoring service.

Products like Google Analytics continue to rise in importance as companies strive to understand how people arrive at their Web sites and what they do once they are there.

Knowing that helps webmasters make their sites more effective tools for displaying online ads, providing sales leads, and generating e-commerce transactions.

According to Brett Crosby, Senior Manager, Google Analytics, "The overall goal of this upgrade is to make the product more intuitive to use and its data clearer and easier to digest so that it can be used effectively to make business decisions."

Brett will be giving an indepth workings of the product at the upcoming Searchnomics Conference as part of his talk on Using Analytics To Improve Your Marketing Efforts.

Sir Martin Says Google Is Frienemy

I was at "The Future of Advertising Conference" at Stanford and Sir Martin Sorrell, Chairman, WPP, the largest advertising holding company shared some interesting stats about the advertising business.

1. WPP has a market share of approximately 25% of the global ad business, annual billings of $60 Billion and yet only $200 M of that is with Google.
2. Google's revenues are approximately $11 Billion and at $200 M, WPP is one of Google's largest customers. So Google's tail is very very long and they are just getting started.
3. He went on to say that Google is a FRIENEMY - Google is your friend in the short term and enemy in the long term. His reasoning was Google wants access to large advertising account, that they do not have relationships with and that is where the friendship begins.
4. There was little mention of Microsoft or Yahoo and it understandable as their respective foot prints in this space is still considered baby steps.

On May 16, 2007, the WebGuild will be having an event of The Future of Online Advertising with all the heavy weights including Google. The panel will share insight into the future of online advertising from several perspectives of paramount importance to web professionals, seos, sems or search engine marketers, web analytics professionals, online merchants, venture capitals, entrepreneurs and anyone that uses a website to acquire customers, service customers or monetize customers. There are still a few spots left. If you miss this then there is always Searchnomics, which delves deep into search advertising and search & marketplaces and must attend for all web professinal.

In Search of Traffic

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on why website owners need to harness the power of Search Engines and deploy SEM and SEO strategies to find customers.

Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are often shoppers' first stops when they're looking for a product on the Web and thus it is crucial for websites to show up prominently in search-engine results.

The is the focus of the upcoming Searchnomics 2007 Conference aimed at web and internet marketing professionals. Search has become the enabler for business. It is the most efficient medium connecting business and customers. Searchnomics is where the leaders of the search industry meet to share cutting-edge knowledge, best practices, and trends in:

• Search Engine Marketing
• Search Engine Optimization
• Design and Development
• Branding and Promotion
• Web Analytics
• New Innovations and Opportunites

The article is only available via paid subscription. Here is the link http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117769688676085058.html?mod=wsj_right_click

Ask.com to launch contextual ad platform

Ask.com is getting ready to launch a new advertising platform for contextual ads some time next month. The offering will debut with other IAC (Ask.com's parent company) properties such as TicketMaster.com, Match.com and Evite before rolling out to non-IAC-owned sites.

The contextual ad product will be a feature of the current sponsored listings service offered by Ask.com. The service will provide marketers a customized ad display with placement options for ad display, relevancy and pricing. Advertisers will also have reporting tools and referrer blocking.

Contextually relevant ads have a better chance of appealing to users than random ads that simply pop up on a webpage. This is another way Ask.com to monetize the traffic on IAC properties.

Local Search Marketplace

Local.com has launched "Local Promote" a service for small businesses.

The service allows small businesses to establish a Web presence with a landing page on Local.com, in addition to various distribution, pay-per-click and featured placement options.

The free basic version includes the ability for businesses to post and update business name, description and contact info. This will make it easier for lots of small business to form a Web presence.

Local.com is one of several companies along with Google Maps, Krillion, Gruuve and others that are enabling the "Webification" of the the local search marketplace. These services enable local business to establish a web presence easily and essentially expand the addressable market of online advertisers.

Once there, they are hoped to evolve into paid marketers, whether that be a subscription service like Local Promote, featured placement or paid search on Google.

Search Engine Awards Launched to Recognize Industry Leadership

There is now an award for the best search engine web site. This is the very first award of its kind to recognize leadership, outstanding achievement, and innovation in the search engine industry.

Entry is open to all search engine websites and there is no cost for participation. The winners will be decided by a panel of judges comprised of industry professionals and nominations received for each search website. Search engines websites are encouraged to have their users vote for their favorite search engine website.

To submit your entry please visit http://www.webguild.org/meetings/2007/searchnomics/search_awards.php.

For more information vist http://www.sys-con.com/read/367042.htm.

Google's New Search Page on IE

I rarely use Microsoft IE, so today when I searched using IE the Google search results page on IE was different to the search results page on Firefox. I guess Google is doing a browser detect and displaying different looks on the different browsers. I would like to hear everyone comments on this.

Google search results on IE



Google search results on Firefox

Google DoubleClick

Google has announced its intention to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. On March 29, 2007, I wrote that DoubleClick and Performics were being shopped and that Microsoft was one of the suitors. I also said that Microsoft would not end up buying DoubleClick and that it would be a better fit for Google.

Google's is the leader in search advertising. DoubleClick the leader in display ads. Display advertising accounts for almost half of the online ad market. Via a DoubleClick acquisition Google would become a dominant player in display ads and extend its reach with advertisers, ad networks, agencies and publishers.

Also, Google would gain key capabilities in the production, brokering and distribution of online ads. DoubleClick brings a network that runs ads across multiple advertising venues, such as AOL and Yahoo, providing Google with deep penetration into the overall online advertising market.

Google reported "Our goal is to make advertising on the internet work better: better for users with less intrusive ads and better privacy protection, better for advertisers with greater accountability and effectiveness, and better for publishers with improved monetization and cleaner site integration."

Google coming to a TV near you!

Google is entering the $65 billion U.S. TV-as-sales market. Google has announced the creation of an automated platform for ads running on EchoStar DISH Network's 125 networks. Google will gain access to DISH ad inventory from across all channels and dayparts; Google's platform will then allow it to sell that inventory and provide measurement on those buys.

The buying of DISH Network ads will work much like AdWords and use a web-based auction system. The real-time reporting allows advertisers to see how their ads performed on a second-by-second basis and adjust creative or daypart scheduling accordingly. Data will be pulled anonymously from the four million DISH boxes currently in use.

According to Google's CEO Eric Schmidt, this will allow for the ads delivered to be more relevant and therefore more valuable to the viewer and advertisers. Google will start by selling 30-second spots for broadcast networks, cable programmers and operators.

As part of the effort, Google is also launching a SpotRunner-esque program allowing advertisers to create TV ads on the fly. That toolset could attract some smaller companies that haven't tried TV advertising because of the high cost of creating those ads.

Advertisers can upload their TV commercials, bid on desired time and channel, and choose national area coverage. They can also choose to target by age demographic. The ads will be attached at the satellite operator level, not on the subscriber's set-top box.

The system is scheduled to start in May, and will sell ad space only on cable networks, including ESPN, CNN, Discovery, Lifetime, Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. There are no national broadcast channels or local affiliates involved in the deal yet.

Television experts say the deal is a stepping stone to greater advertising control, but that Google really needs to sign an ad deal with one of the major cable networks, which are known for their ability to target ads sometimes as narrowly as neighborhood level.

Google is also reportedly planning to launch a marketplace that matches up marketers who don’t have experience creating ads with agencies that do.

DoubleClick/Performics Shopping

Rumors are circulating that DoubleClick is up for grabs and Microsoft might be interested. The price tag is $2.5 Billion (Microsoft rarelyl buys anything more than $1 Billion). If the rumor is true then the DoubleClick acquisition by Microsoft will represent a key piece in the dinosaur's battle against Google.

DoubleClick is the owner of Performics the largest search marketing company in terms of revenue. A big share of their business is with Google. The acquisition would make more sense for Google, which has a lock on search ad dollars to expand its on-line display ad business.

Here is why I think that the deal will not happen;
1) Microsoft does not have the traffic to channel the ad inventory.
2) Microsoft has no experience in the online ad industry and it is clueless when it comes to operating one.

Viacom the next Olivetti - Lawsuit Business Model

Olivetti once ruled the office terrain until IBM and Microsoft arrived. The once mighty typewriter company has been reduced to a manufacture of compact discs and printer drives for Microsoft. Disc are dead and Microsoft is in trouble. Viacom the owner of MTV and other TV brands is going through hard times and even more hard times await the company's future. TV audiences are shifting to the internet, Tivo, cable and other mediums. Following the TV audiences are advertisers. Today, production costs have dropped so much that major studio backing is not necessary to produce professional quality movies or music.

However, distribution is as important as ever and YouTube is distribution without the expensive overhead. Also, content creators no longer need to get into restrictive licensing and ownership agreements with the studios in the hopes of getting distribution. YouTube provides them control over their content and efficient ways to monetize it.

The lawsuit by Viacom against YouTube's parent Google is a desperate attempt by dying company to stay alive. Also, going forward you will see more as the old studios and networks adopt lawsuits as a key piece of their business model, claiming that shows and recordings that are not being watched on TV or listened to on the radio are being consumed on the internet. Get with the program.

Friendster says Ya Who? & Runs to Google

Friendster, a social networking website switch to Yahoo competitor Google. It is forecast that Google’s display ads based on web search will be integrated in Q2 of this year. Google paid out $3.3 billion to its online advertising partners in 2006.

Friendster hopes that this new deal with the search giant will generate much needed revenue by improving access to advertisers. "As a top-25 global web brand with 19 million monthly unique visitors and 6 billion page views per month, this agreement with Google allows Friendster to leverage the best industry platform to monetize our high-growth business," said Friendster business development VP Aaron Barnes.

Friendster boasts 37 million registered users spanning 75 countries of which 1.3 million are in the U.S compared with around 61.5 million at MySpace, according to comScore.

This leaves Yahoo out in the cold, just weeks after launching their advanced ad platform, Panama.

Local.com Lands $8M

Local.com Corp. which provides technology and services for helping retailers advertise and consumers search for locally available products, has received $8 million in financing from Hearst Interactive Media and Greenway Capital.

Local.com Corp. (NASDAQ: LOCM) attracts about 10 million visitors a month seeking information on local businesses, products, services, people and jobs.

Google, Yahoo and other provide local search as side offering of their core platform. eg. I did a search on Google and Local.com for Chinese food in my zip code. Local.com displayed sponsor/paid listings first (which I quickly skipped) and when organic results. The results we displayed by the closest to my zip code in miles which made it easy. However, the map and directions went the best user experience.

I did the same search on Google and the closest venue to my zip code was third. If I was new to an area this would be useful information. Google Local in now integrated with Google Maps and it was very easy to use.

Click Fraud Rates Less Than 0.02%

Google reported that the rate of click fraud for which advertisers seek a refund represents less than 0.02% of all clicks. The company reported "every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million/year in potential revenue foregone", thus is in the interest of Google to reduce this rate.

On the other hand ClickForensics puts the click fraud rate at 14.2%. However ClickForensics' rate is an overall average of click fraud across the search industry. The rate of click fraud across different ad industry sectors and different search providers varies widely. Those buying expensive keywords as triggers for their search ads, for example, are more likely to be targeted by click fraudsters than other advertisers. Also the second and third tier search engines with do not have Google's technology to detect nor correct these problems.


Also, ClickForensics and others that build their business model around this issue are not about to say that they are in a small and declining market. Then, there are others with inferior technology that are utilizing this issue as part of their marketing strategy.

The bottom line is search marketing is the most effective medium to reach customers and even if the rate of errors is 14% it is better than displace where there is little relevance and metrics.

Branding with Adwords Coming

Marketers interested in online branding using display advertising will soon be able to do so with Google Adwords. Google plans to introduce cost-per-click (CPC) ad buying in March, to give another payment option to its advertisers who use AdWords to place display ads on select sites.

Presently, display advertisers can purchase ads on a only cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis when using the site-targeting option to select specific sites on which to place their ads.

Some advertisers have been asking for a CPC option as they look for more flexibility in their ad planning and CPC makes it easy to measure ad campaign success.

Check Out "Checkout"

Google Checkout icon will be updated to better image to the Google Checkout buttons used by merchants on their website. The new image will help shoppers to more easily identify Google Checkout merchants. It will also be appear on the shopping cart on ads in the Google advertising network.

Google Checkout helps users find convenient, secure places to shop through tight integration with AdWords, the advertisements on the Google search results pages. Merchants who decide to offer Google Checkout as a checkout option on their sites are identified by a shopping cart when their ads are displayed on Google.

New media getting more ad money

According to a study from the American Advertising Federation, as much as 73% of online marketers are reserving 20% of their ad budgets for new and emerging media. About 12% of those marketers say they reserve between 21% and 40% of their marketing budgets for new media.

Advertisers are betting on new mediums like television programs viewed over the internet, text messaging and social networking to be among the top categories. The study also indicates that marketers want new ways to use traditional media (78%), a balance of traditional and non-traditional media (75.5%) and increasing awareness of new media properties (57.7%) in order to remain competitive.

One surprising result from the study is that many of those polled believe traditional mediums are in need of a make-over. The respondents indicated that newspapers (51.4%), network television (34.5%), radio (33.8%) all needed to be overhauled to remain competitive with new media like social networking sites, online video and other consumer generated media.

Magazines are not exempt from the overhaul message that marketers are sending. According to the categories of business magazines (46%), women's service (25%), fashion and beauty (18.8%) and men's (17%) magazines are all in need of a make-over to remain competitive in today's market.

The WebGuild event on Feb 15, 2007 held at Google Headquarters examine Online Video: Revolutionizing Advertising & Marketing. The panelists will be;
YouTube Jordan Hoffner, Director, Worldwide Web Syndication, YouTube
AOL Timothy Tuttle, Vice President, AOL Video, AOL
Fox Todd Murtha, VP, Business Fox Interactive Media, Inc.
NBC John Saroff, Content Acquisition Leader, NBC
Moderated by
Daya Baran. Chief Gruuve, GRUUVE

Paid Search nears $10B

According to "The State of Search Engine Marketing 2006" report, paid search campaigns in North America reached $9.5 billion in 2006. About 86% of that spending ($8 billion) went to pay-per-click ads. Spending for organic search engine optimization topped 12% (about $1 billion). Paid inclusion declined to about 1% ($94 million), and SEM technology platforms accounted for 1.3% ($122 million) of the search spend in 2006. SEM spending is expected to double by 2011 to $18.6 billion.

The data was based on spending trends by agencies and in-house advertisers. The SEM programs surveyed include paid placement, paid inclusion, organic search engine optimization (SEO) and SEM technology platforms.

SEM continues to poach budget from other marketing channels, especially offline marketing programs. "SEM is bringing results and is helping to fuel the Internet-based economy which in turn is driving SEM spending," said Kevin Lee of Did-It.

More than 75% of search advertisers polled say search engine optimization is their preferred venue, rather than paid search ads. One new development for search advertisers is that they prefer to grow direct sales from campaigns rather than brand awareness. Roughly 58% of search marketers wanted direct sales while 57% wanted to grow their brand awareness.

"We have moved from the first wave of adoption of search-based marketing to the myriad of small and medium sized businesses, many of them startups, using SEM as a fundamental part of their business," said Kevin Lee.

Google Adwords led the pack for search ad providers with roughly 96% of advertisers using their platform. About 75% say they also purchased pay-per-click ads through Yahoo, and 68% say they also bought MSN search ads in 2006.

SideStep Steps into $15 Million

Travel search engine SideStep said it raised $15 million in its Series C round, led by Norwest Venture Partners. "SideStep will use the funding to aggressively scale key areas of the business, while growing its leadership position in vertical search and building out its media and user-generated content offerings." To date, SideStep has raised approximately $32 million. Other competitors include Kayak which has raised $30 million.

Lately, Norwest, Charles River Ventures, WorldView and many other hardware oriented venture capitalists have been investing in consumer internet. This is the domain of seasoned pioneers like Ram Shriram of Google. Forbes calls him the man with the midas touch. Ram has many stellar successes to his name including Junglee which was acquired by Amazon and Netspace - in which he was a key player.

Norwest is an investor in Turn (the new CPA ad network), which wants to challenge Google Adsense. Turn is led by Jim Barnett. Jim Barnett sits on the board of SideStep.

Also, Norwest is an investor in Yatra, an India based travel search engine. Ram is an investor in ClearTrip.

It is yet to be seen if the new entrants can stay in the kitchen when it gets hot. After all the were the same folks asking Serge Brin and Larry Page, why another search engine was necessary when Yahoo and MSN existed. I am betting on the "clear" winner.

Google Earth gets Local

Google Earth will now incorporate local advertisements. The move will let advertisers place local ads in the form of map markers around the site as clickable links. Logos and contacts details will help users find the exact location of a certain business.

"If you've created Local Business Ads in you AdWords accounts, they'll now appear on Google Earth in addition to Google Maps," Google wrote in an email to customers.

"Advertising a hotel in Lake Louise? A neighbourhood cafe in Paris? Google Earth users across the globe can zoom in on your business. Don't forget to add a customised icon to make your ad stand out," the company added.

Google Earth was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole. It is now available under three different licenses - Google Earth, Google Earth plus, and Google Earth Professional.

Google Earth, Google Local and Froogle will be a lethal combination for marketers. It will be a one stop ad purchasing and delivery system.

Krillion - Local Search

Brand search engine Krillion helps consumers find where they can buy products in their markets after conducting online research. Other companies that provide a similar service connecting online product research and offline buying are ShopLocal, StepUp, NearbyNow, Yokel, CNET, Become.com and data provider Channel Intelligence.

According to Michael Yang CEO Become.com online product research and offline buying is expected to be a multi-billion market by 2010. That tells me a smart version of Google Local and Froogle is on its way soon.

Danny Sullivan - 'Social Media Engines' are Next Big Search Thing

Danny Sullivan said recently that 'Social Media Engines' are Next Big Search Thing

Social Media engines like Gruuve, Digg and StumbleUpon are the new traffic powerhouses. Now search marketers have another channel to reach consumers in addition to Google and Yahoo.

According to Danny, TechCrunch gets much of its traffic from Google, Digg and StumbleUpon. These "social media engines" are not merely smaller vertical search engines about which search marketers can say "oh, I'm not up on Digg. I might look into it later," Sullivan writes.

These vertical engines are becoming the equivalent of major search engines in their niches. Eg. Gruuve is creating the Google of Music. Gruuve has over 20 million bits of music information. Thousands of users from MySpace come to the site everyday for discovery and recommendations.

The WebGuild Social Search event featured Gruuve, Digg, StumbleUpon and Delicious.

Search Engine Friendly Design, Part II

This is an addition to my January 14, 2007 post on Search Engine Friendly Design. I found some additional tips that might be useful on HighRankings.

Best Search Websites 2007

Submit and rate your favorite search websites
Click here.

If you can't find the site you are looking for or if it is not on the list please submit it.

Rating Criteria
Accessibility:
Weak - contents are accessed by scrolling through site's pages
Acceptable - contents are made more accessible via a simple search engine or other finding aid
Strong - site incorporates its own search engine with sophisticated search capabilities

Content:
Weak - site consists primarily of links to other sites, some of which are broken or not useful
Acceptable - some unique material; links to other sites are annotated, up to date, and useful
Strong - contains material unique to this site; goes into sufficient depth for research purposes; is accurate and up to date

Authority:
Weak - site's creator is not identified or lacks the credentials or training to present material of value to serious researchers
Acceptable - site's creator is clearly identified and can reasonably claim the authority to present research quality material
Strong - individual or organization maintaining site is recognized as an authority in this subject area

Navigation:
Weak - site is not organized into manageable segments or is confusing to navigate
Acceptable - site is well organized and navigation is clear and consistent
Strong - material is presented in manageable units; access to contents is logical and intuitive

Design:
Weak - site is bland or else so loaded with graphics and features that it is torture to wait for the connection
Acceptable - graphics contribute to the material being presented and enhance the aesthetics of the site
Strong - site loads quickly when initial connection is made; graphics are well-integrated into the design

Accessibility:
Weak - contents are accessed by scrolling through site's pages
Acceptable - contents are made more accessible via a simple search engine or other finding aid
Strong - site incorporates its own search engine with sophisticated search capabilities

People Power Search

Last week Jimmy Wales Wikipedia foounder, announced the launch of user-based search. Now there is another start up called ChaCha put a different spin on called people power search. On the company's website it says is ChaCha is a smart search engine powered by human intelligence, a place to find exactly what you're looking for without sifting through millions of results and intelligent search results from people who are knowledgeable about the very thing you are looking for.

I tried it out but for now I will stick with Google and for social search I will stick with GRUUVE where I am the Chief Gruuve and maybe Wikipedia.

One Click Mobile Search

4Info announced the launch of one click mobile search. Users simply send a query via SMS to 4Info and the results are sent directly to the phone. From sports scores to maps, users can now get the information they want right away.

According to 4Info advertisers and online marketers can deliver ads when a mobile search is conducted by a user. The company will use the data to deliver behaviorally targeted ads based on demographic information.

However, I believe Google is way ahead in terms of reach and possibly even technology. Google has a unified network to better understand the user on many platforms. I certainly would like my mobile preferences to be managable from a central account from where I can get email, customize alerts and set up hotlist. Also, Google is locking up the mobile real estate. Last week Google teamed up with Samsung to have the "One Click" hard coded into the handsets of Samsung phones. And today Google announced a partnership with China Mobile the world's largest mobile service provider, to offer mobile search to its users. Not far behind is China's Baidu.com which teamed up with Nokia to offer mobile search services. Baidu.com will have their icon appear on the Nokia handset.

Wikipedia founder to launch search engine

Jimmy Wales, the creator of Wikipedia, is planning to enter the search engine market with a user-based search recommendations engine.

He said that the human judgment is better than any computer search algorithm. “Essentially, if you consider one of the basic tasks of a search engine, it is to make a decision: ‘this page is good, this page sucks’. It usually only takes a second to figure out if the page is good, so the key here is building a community of trust that can do that.”

Mr. Wales said the technology will be similar to the that he perfected at Wikipedia. The venture will be called Wikiasari. The commercial venture will be developed by Wikia, also founded by Mr. Wales. The venture will be backed by Amazon.com.

In my opinion this is very similar to StumbleUpon where a community of users generate recommendations to web sites based on the users likes, similarity and relevance. This phenomenon is also know as social search. For more on StumbleUpon and social search visit WebGuild Social Search

Another twist to user generated search engines, is the Google Custom Search Engine (which I wrote about in October), which allows users to have control over what shows up in their search index.

The Google Custom Search Engine enables users to restrict searches to specific pages and websites, offering them the possibility to customize searches. They can choose which pages will be included in their search index, how the pages are arranged in order of priority and what the final page will look like. They can even decide if other users can contribute to the index. The user has total control over the search process. The big idea is to sift the relevant information from the irrelevant, in contrast to generic search engines that make no discriminations. To try out the Google Custome Search Engine please check out the top right hand corner of this page.

Advanced Search Marketing

At WebGuild's Advanced Search Marketing yesterday Barbara Coll, Jessie Stricchiola andMassimo Burgio shared their thoughts on a range of topics such as landing page optimization, organic search, paid listings, a little bit on click, web analytics and tools. The event was filled with very rich and practical learning tips and advice. Please listen to the podcast to learn more.

Here are 7 top takes away that I picked up on;
1. Make use of your title tag
2. Get a good web analytics tool that integrates with your content management system
3. Move offline content online
4. Pay the $300 and get into Yahoo directory
5. Use the Google Webmaster SEO tips
6. Have realistic goals for measuring your success
7. Add contact info on homepage

Also, Jessie shared some interesting tools and plugins for Firefox.

One of Firefox plugins "SEOpen" enables you to view some very useful and frequented sites with a single click. Here are some site that are expressed linked.
Yahoo Backlinks
Pages in Yahoo Index

Google Backlinks
Google Cache
Pages in Google index
Google Translate to English
Google Related
PageRank Check
MSN Backlinks
Pages in MSN Index
Alexa Overview
Alexa Traffic
Alexa Related

Alexa Backlinks
"Mass Check" multiple sources at once
Check DMOZ Inclusion
Keyword Density
Page Size Checker
HTML Validator
Server Header Viewer
Wayback Machine
Check robots.txt
Whois Info

IAC's Ask wants to be Google

IAC's Ask.com wants to be Google, at least for its sister properties such as Ticketmaster, Match.com, ServiceMagic etc. Given the success of Google, who doesn't want to be Google.

IAC provides Ask.com with a unique advantage to provide it sister
properties with search results. IAC's properties are some of the
fastest growing and most recognized brands on the internet.

Like MSN?
The cornerstone of the IAC strategy is to lock down its home territorry
using Ask.com and grow externally using their internal advantage. I
think this is similar to MSN's strategy. MSN has invested heavy in
search however commands less that 10% of the market. Even Yahoo! has
not made much head way.

Is it Search or Linking?
For example, a user searching for tickets on Ask.com could be (will be) direct to
tickets on Ticketmaster.com, a user looking for travel services to
Hotwire.com and a user looking for a date to Match.com. So all of IAC's
properties win all the time but not necessarily the user.

If Ask.com wants to be like Google (even for it's sister properties) it
has to be achieved on its merits as a search engine or users will
quickly notice that it is nothing like Google. Search is a very
competitive business and keeping up with Google will be more difficult
than it appears.

Search Continues To Allude Microsoft

Microsoft today turned to the print world to talk about its capabilities in online search. Full-page print ads will appear in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Seattle Post-Intelligencer and San Jose Mercury News. Even worst, the campaign is being executed by McCann, an agency that is barely able to execute it own online campaign.

The ads highlight the recently launched Windows Live Search engine's image search, local search, and mapping tools capabilities. The ads position Microsoft as the search underdog against Google. It reads "Before we begin, let us state the obvious. We're late to the game. We admit it. But instead of shrugging our shoulders and becoming a footnote in search history, we've decided to write a few new chapters."

Microsoft's share of the search pie is about 12 percent, down some 3.5 percentage points from last year. Microsoft's online division has revenues of $539 million, and made a profit of $68 million gain versus a loss of $136 million last year.

Significant Growth?
Microsoft SVP and CFO Chris Liddell, as quoted by SeekingAlpha, forecast revenue in the Online Services business to grow between 7% and 11% for the year and to be up 3% to 5% in quarter two. The full-year growth number implies significant year-over-year growth in the second half, based upon growth in both search and display advertising revenues."

Overture Passed Over
Three years ago Microsoft passed buying Overture. See 'Search Wars" Microsoft will have to buy its way into this party. This sector is projected to grow 27% to US$15.9 billion in the U.S this year according to eMarketer. And with Google locking up MySpace and YouTube it will be tough days ahead.

This WSJ article Tough Days For Microsoft sheds some great light http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116139351306899766-i4VZXbDLKR8oTbVOGvh_ZzjMN18_20071022.html

AOL's FullView is a Mashup

This morning I took AOL search engine with the new "FullView" feature for a spin. The interface has a slick clean look and it is nicely integrated with Google search results. Further, the site also integrates multimedia, news and other content from AOL and its partners.

The search engine more like a mashup than a search engine. It integrated the relevant search results from the Google, AOL and partner sites. This helps the user discover more information relevant to the user's search query by including stock charts, videos, images, news, local results and other tidbits specific to the user's query.

For example, a search for "Google" presents ten standard web search results powered by Google, included on the right hand side is the delayed stock quote for Google and an image of the stock chart. Also, included are relevent news headlines about Google and from "AOL Inside".

Neat Features
"Click to Expand" link opens additional results from "AOL Inside". Floating boxes helps users link faster to relevant results, limit search results or get additional informations that is specific to the user's query.

"Search On History" icon on mousing over displays a list of your most recent searches. From this box, you can clear your search history, turn search history off, or click through to a full page where you can manage your search history. It has many other neat features view your search query.

I enjoyed using this however I am not sure if these feature will make me switch to AOL Search.

Google's Custom Search Engine

Google's just announced the launch of their Custom Search Engine service. The service makes it easy to add a customized search engine to your website or blog.

See the top right-hand side (channel) with "Google Custom Search" for a quick implementation of this service.

This service lets user choose the order and display of search results by specifying Google or non-Google vertical search engines to show at the top of Google search results.

How to Create your own Search Engine
Go to www.google.com/coop/cse to get started. There you can find a control panel with FAQs and other information about the service. The control panel is very user friendly and simple to use. I created this search engine in 30 seconds.

Step 1 - specify sites you want to include or exclude from your search engine.
Step 2 - you can enter sites in any order and you can add and delete sites as you wish
Step 3 - do a quick test - you can customize the look and fine and other refinements later
Step 4 - click "Code" - copy and paste the code to your web site or blog
Step 5 - now you are ready to gruuve

You can also add collaboration and money making tools to your search engine.