US online social network ad spending is predicted to near $1.6 billion this year according to a survey by eMarketer. The figure includes all forms of advertising appearing on social network sites, including branded campaigns as well as search, video, local advertising and ads delivered via ad networks. According to the survey 29% planned to spend over $2 million, 11% planned to spend between $1 - $2 million, 26% planned to spend up to $1 million and 34% planned to spend less than $300,000.
Breakdown of Online Social Network Planned Marketing Spend by Marketers and Marketing Agencies - March 2008
More»

Labels: Online Advertising, Search, social networks, video

Google has finally figured out a way to pay for the YouTube acquisition. Video ads, have started appearing on Google’s search results page according to a report from Digital Inspiration. Video ads from AT&T appeared on the Google search page for the keyword “phone” - the video clip remains hidden until you click the “Watch Commercial” link. You then get to see the video in a neat drop-down video player. Google is possibly charging higher rates for the video ads since it is served only on-demand when requested by the user. Though these video More»

Labels: Online Advertising, Search, video

In February, Google Sites extended its share of core searches to 59.2 percent, up from 58.5 percent the previous month. Yahoo! Sites ranked second with 21.6 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites (9.6 percent), AOL LLC (4.9 percent), and Ask Network (4.6 percent).
comScore qSearch 2.0 Report - Total U.S. Home/Work/University Location
Share of Searches (%) More»

Labels: Microsoft, Search, Yahoo

Interesting comment by David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer
“Several elements unique to the Internet will support continued US ad spending growth even if other media falter.”
“The greater ability to measure ads online will likely encourage marketers with reduced budgets,” Mr. Hallerman said. “Those same marketers are finding that the audiences they need to target are spending more of their media time on the Web.”
Search will account for the largest portion of online ad spending in 2008, at 40%. That percentage will decrease slightly through 2012, More»

Labels: Online Advertising, Search, social media

Is Google evolving into a portal? That was the debate at SES New York. Of the 1.2 billion or so search queries on Google during a one-week period in January 2008, 17% of the queries were sent to Google destinations reports James Lamberti, SVP, Search and Media, comScore.
“The search result page is beginning to operate as a destination. The consumers are a priority. Not the marketers,” said Lamberti. Google sent nearly 400 million search referrals to their own multi-media properties, such as YouTube, over six months. That includes 148 million referrals to YouTube and More»

Labels: online services, Search

crgslst announced the launch of a slick multi-city search tool for Craigslist. Craigslist presently does not have a multi-search service. The tool combines RSS feeds from Craigslist with AJAX to populate the search fields. Housing Maps, does a similar thing, the site displays the apartment listings on Craigslist using Google Maps.
More»

Labels: Craigslist, online services, Search

Google has recently launched the ability to search within a site from the Google search results page. Smack dab in the midst of your search results, you can be served up a search box to directly search the site you are seeking. The idea is to get you to the exact page on the web site.

More»

Labels: google, Search

China’s 920 million telephone users have a new way to search online for information. Baidu.com (BIDU) just announced its new voice-activated search. Upon dialing 400 666 8585 the call will be answered by a Baidu engineer who will performance the search and offer search results based on the request. Search results can be provided back to the search requester (user) using voice or sent via SMS to the user’s mobile phone.
More»

Labels: Baidu, Search

Baidu (BIDU), China’s leading search engine has selected Omniture (OMTR) to provide web analytics and online optimization services. Baidu is looking to improve the advertiser experience by providing better data points on China’s fast growing web audience.
Omniture’s timing is great because the U.S. economy is slowing and ad spend budgets for ad services, tools and infrasture will follow. By signing up Baidu, Omniture is getting some insulation. Omniture’s clients include companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL, and eBay More»

Labels: Search, Web Analytics, Web Optimization

Search engines continue to be the primary way Internet users navigate to key industry categories. Comparing February 2008 to February 2007, the Travel, Entertainment, Business and Finance and Sports categories showed double digit increases in their share of traffic coming directly from search engines.
U.S. Category Upstream Traffic from Search Engines and GooglePercentage Change February 2007 - 2008

Category Search Change Google ChangeHealth and Medical More»

Labels: Search