Google crazed Microsoft in its quest to beat the search giant has become blind to reality. First, there was the outrageous $6 billion the company paid for aQuantive a month after Google announced the acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. DoubleClick was the market leader in digital display advertising and aQuantive was a distant second player. Hence the company should have commanded a much lower price. Then there was Facebook, then Tellme, now Powerset which is worthless junk and on it goes.
But many industry insiders are shaking their head in disbelief over More»

Labels: google, Microsoft, Search

Powerset claims to be the next big thing. Would you sell the next big thing for $100 million? Here is my initial assessment of Powerset - It was an opportunistic play to make a quick buck on the Google craze.
I was right and this transaction proves it.
When Barney Pell was at Mayfield Fund several years ago, he thought that investing in search was a bad idea. Mayfield was actually clueless about the space. However, after the Google IPO, everybody suddenly became a search expert. Mayfield started investing search related startups and Pell started More»

Labels: google, jotspot, mayfield, Microsoft, Search

Microsoft positioning itself for a new run for Yahoo Inc.’s search business, has approached other media companies in recent days about joining it in a deal that would effectively lead to Yahoo’s breakup, say people familiar with the discussions. More>>
Microsoft Statement Regarding Icahn’s Letter
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Labels: Microsoft, Search, Yahoo

Here is the video of the Web Usability Event on June 25 featuring Tom Chi, Senior Director - User Experience, Yahoo!, Jeremy Ashley, Vice President, Applications User Experience, Oracle, and David Nelson, Sr. Experience Designer, Adobe Systems.

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Labels: localization, Search, social media, usability, usability 2.0, user experience, web 2.0

Google has been developing a new algorithm for indexing textual content in Flash files of all kinds, from Flash menus, buttons and banners, to self-contained Flash websites. Google has improved the performance of this Flash indexing algorithm by integrating Adobe’s Flash Player technology. In the past, web designers faced challenges if they chose to develop a site in Flash because the content they included was not indexable by search engines. They needed to make extra effort to ensure that their content was also presented in another way that search engines could find. More More»

Labels: flash, Search

In a seminal article titled The Long Tail, published in October 2004 on Wired, Chris Anderson described a new niche strategy where it became possible to sell large numbers of unique items in relatively small quantities.
In fact, what would have been uneconomic in brick and mortar businesses was becoming possible AND profitable thanks to the Internet.
This concept of the “long tail” flourished and now applies to many other situations, such as domain names, for example, as well More»

Labels: Big Tail, Chris Anderson, internet, john battelle, Long Tail, media, monetization, Search, social media, UGC, web 2.0

According to Compete.com gloomy search terms helped drive more traffic to web sites. eg Hotel Carter showed up in the list because of its number one ranking on Trip Advisor’s “Dirtiest Hotels”. The finding site that typically sporting events, celebrity gossip and big-budget marketing pushes caused spikes in various search term referrals, but gloomy search phrases top the list. The chart below shows the 25 high volume search terms that grew the most from April 2008 to May 2008.

The most common theme among the top 25 searches is death (indicated by black bars). More»

Labels: internet trends, Search, traffic

Russian search engine Yandex, is opening a facility in Palo Alto. The company has hired Vishal Makhijani, who was previously general manager of Yahoo’s search group.
“We did not hesitate to go the extra mile to find this rare talent,” said Arkady Volozh, CEO of Yandex, the parent company. “We are excited to add a leading technology and business veteran in Silicon Valley to the Yandex team. Vish and his group at Yandex Labs will help to extend and improve Yandex’s core technology capabilities including the quality of algorithmic search for the Russian audience.”
See: More»

Labels: Search, Yahoo, yandex

In an interview with the Financial Times Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gives credit to Google for seeing the potential of search and innovating in search. Ballmer admits:
1. Microsoft didn’t see the business model for search.2. The five year development cycle of Windows partly to blame.3. Online represents a huge opportunity for Microsoft.4. Live Cashback is not a strategy to buy market share.5. Cloud computing and world’s media moving online.6. Google is a single product company.
Here is the interview transcript.
FINANCIAL TIMES: So, More»

Labels: cloud computing, Microsoft, Search

I am puzzled, was Yahoo in such dire straits that they could not negotiate a better deal? Yahoo has agreed to pay Google a break up fee of $250 million if the partnership falls apart within the first two years.
If the Services Agreement is terminated by either party within 24 months … Yahoo! is required to pay to Google the sum of $250,000,000…
Under the proposed deal Yahoo anticipates on making $250 million to $450 million in operating cash flow in the first 12 months following implementation. On More»

Labels: Advertising, Search, Yahoo