Bill Gates Pursues Greener Pastures in 'Growth,' Sergey Brin Gloats

Following the withdrawal of its Yahoo bid, Bill Gates says Microsoft will focus on growing its online ad and search businesses. The Associated Press reports Gates express confidence about Microsoft's ability to compete against Google, which, he admits, has a "strong lead" in search and advertising. Microsoft is now rumored to be pursuing Facebook. And while Gates […]

Posted: Friday, May 9th, 2008

Microsoft Creeps Up Facebook's Skirt; Yahoo Suitors Drop Like Flies

A source for the Wall Street Journal claims Microsoft has asked Facebook whether it is interested in selling. Last year, Microsoft purchased 1.6 percent of Facebook for $240 million. Microsoft's investment bankers allegedly approached the social networking site around the time the company decided to withdraw its bid for Yahoo. Facebook's response to the proposal was not […]

Posted: Friday, May 9th, 2008

Search Rankings for Europe Issued, Russian Engine Beats Yahoo, Microsoft

Google leads in the European search market with more than 19 billion searches conducted in March - or 79 percent of the market - according to the comScore qSearch 2.0 rankings (via MarketingCharts). No. 3 Yandex of Russia outpaced both Yahoo and Microsoft, the data showed . Eastern Europe Search Players a Factor Google's top position […]

Posted: Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Yahoo, McAfee Partner for Secure Search Experience

Yahoo is partnering with McAfee on a system that flags potentially unsafe search results. The system integrates McAfee's Site Advisor technology into results from Yahoo Search. Red text and other alerts will warn searchers if a site contains any malicious software or is affiliated with any other online fraud activity. The security offering was christened SearchScan […]

Posted: Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Microsoft Sweetens Yahoo Bid; Yahoo Again Declines; Microsoft Exits Stage Left

Following insider speculation that Microsoft had increased its bid for Yahoo "by a few dollars," resulting in merger talks, Microsoft announced Saturday that it is withdrawing its bid for the search company. The change of heart occurred when CEOs Steve Ballmer and Jerry Yang, as well as Yahoo co-founder David Filo and Microsoft online president Kevin […]

Posted: Monday, May 5th, 2008

Microsoft and Yahoo Get Their Merge On

Insiders reveal Microsoft increased its bid for Yahoo "by several dollars," which has — at long last — sparked active merger talks. The news brings closure to what appeared to be a public stalemate between the two giants, which in turn followed an emotional ultimatum by Microsoft — and Yahoo's cool decline. The original buyout offer valued […]

Posted: Monday, May 5th, 2008

Ballmer Sways, Considers Higher Yahoo Bid

Microsoft is reportedly willing to raise its bid for Yahoo to $33 a share, reports The Wall Street Journal. The news gives legs to a recent rumor that, despite Steve Ballmer's threats to oust Yahoo's board, he'd prefer a non-hostile takeover. Following Wednesday's board meeting, Microsoft's directors gave Ballmer discretion to either go hostile or give up […]

Posted: Friday, May 2nd, 2008

PIXSTA Fuses Advertising to Image-to-Image Search

London-based PIXSTA has launched a search engine that lets users search for images with other images — a capability unmatched by text-to-text and text-to-image search engines. PIXSTA visitors query by clicking on a product's photo, which returns items of similar color, shape or texture. Clicking on the new options re-submits them as search terms, further terracing […]

Posted: Thursday, May 1st, 2008

Click Fraud Rate Down Slightly in First Quarter

The average click fraud rate for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was 16.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008, down slightly from the 16.6 percent reported in 4Q07. 16.3 percent is, however, up from the 14.8 percent rate reported in Q1 last year, reports the Click Fraud Index, MarketingCharts writes. Click Forensics issued the data from the […]

Posted: Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Google Developing 'PageRank' for Image Search

Last week at the International World Wide Web Conference in Beijing, Google researchers presented VisualRank, an algorithm that blends image-recognition software with techniques for ranking similar images, reports The New York Times. VisualRank is positioned as PageRank for images. Google's PageRank helps determine a site's value, based on content and scaled from 0-10. The higher the […]

Posted: Monday, April 28th, 2008

Rumor: Ballmer May Raise Yahoo Offer on the Quiet

As the US Justice Department quietly roves the antitrust status of the Yahoo/Google sponsored search liaison, CEO Steve Ballmer told conference-goers in Milan, Italy that Microsoft is "prepared to go forward without a merger." "We are offering a lot of money," Ballmer said. "If Yahoo!'s shareholders like it, that's great." Microsoft's takeover bid for Yahoo stands at […]

Posted: Friday, April 25th, 2008

Top 20 Health Conditions, and Top 15 Prescription Brands, Researched Online

"Pregnancy" and "cancer" are the two most frequently searched health conditions, at 8.8 million and 7.7 million search queries, respectively. Smoking-cessation treatment Chantix topped the list of frequently searched brand drugs, according to comScore. Common health conditions such as diabetes, depression, and flu were in the top 20 but generate fewer searches than cancer and pregnancy, […]

Posted: Friday, April 25th, 2008

Consumers Use Social Media to Vent about Customer Service

To make purchasing decisions, affluent online consumers use social media channels to share customer-service experiences and learn about others', according to a new study from the Society for New Communications Research, MarketingCharts reports. Some 59% of survey respondents use social media to "vent" about customer-care experiences. Over 300 active internet users participated in the survey, sponsored […]

Posted: Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Justice Department Takes Closer Look at Yahoo/Google Liaison

Yahoo's two-week test partnership, whereby Google sold search ads on its search page, has attracted the interest of the US Justice Department, reports The Los Angeles Times. It has not been revealed what the Justice Dept. is looking for, but the two companies say they have provided the requested documents. The inquiry likely involves anti-trust […]

Posted: Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Top Four Portals' Ad Revenues to Weather Rough Economy in '08

Google's strong financial results for Q1 2008 — including a 33 percent growth in net US advertising revenues — confirms projections that the "Big Four" internet portals will weather much-hyped economic turmoil, says eMarketer, writes MarketingCharts . Google will record a 32 percent growth rate in online ad revenue in '08, eMarketer projects: Even as MSN's net revenue […]

Posted: Thursday, April 24th, 2008

Newspaper Ads Drive Online Research, In-Store Purchases

Print newspaper ads reach people at all stages of the buying cycle, inspiring web research at the beginning, and prompting in-store/web purchases at the end, said the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), citing a Google study (via MarketingCharts). Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo conducted the study for Google. "Newspaper advertisements drive readers to the web, where they search, […]

Posted: Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Google's Paid-Search Performance Metrics Improve in Q1

Google accounted for 77% of total search spend in the first quarter of 2008, up 3.3 percentage points from 1Q07 in search spending share, according to the "Search Engine Performance Report: Q1 2008" by Efficient Frontier, MarketingCharts reports. Compared with 1Q07, in 1Q08 Google registered gains in all of the metrics analyzed in the report: Return […]

Posted: Monday, April 21st, 2008

Yahoo Sued Over Faulty Overture Affiliate Program

Online collectibles retailer BigReds.com has filed suit against Yahoo for click fraud-related issues, reports ComputerWorld. BigReds.com says between 2002 and 2006 it was charged more than $936,000 in pay-per-click charges. The company began using Overture as a PPC vendor in 2002. Overture was acquired by Yahoo in 2003. According to BigRed, Overture developed an online affiliate program […]

Posted: Monday, April 21st, 2008

Google Cashes in on Q1: Profits Rise 31 Percent Over '07

Despite gloomy news surrounding its vulnerability to the weak economy, Google saw Q1 profits rise 31 percent over the same period in 2007, reports The Associated Press. The increase brings Google's earnings to $1.31 billion in the first quarter of the year. For the first time, over half its earnings came from operations outside the US, […]

Posted: Friday, April 18th, 2008

Industry Buzz & Snippets: 4/17/08

Ad Networks and Analytics: Tremor Media has launched Acudeo, a video ad delivery platform that gives publishers control over when and where ads appear in videos. Buddy Media announced the creation of a "social media ad network" open to select developers of Facebook and OpenSocial applictions. IAC is rolling out its HealthCentral ad network, using the site it […]

Posted: Thursday, April 17th, 2008