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Posts Tagged ‘Google’

Yahoo! Introduces New Do-It-Yourself Ad Program

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Yahoo! has teamed up with AdReady to form a new advertising system designed to give customers more control in the process of promoting business online. The program, My Display Ads, is shaped for small businesses that cannot necessarily afford extensive advertising. Google introduced a similar setup last year, but Yahoo! believes its system is more advanced.

Smaller companies tend to choose search advertising because they are able to select specific keywords relative to their business. The process is also relatively cheap. Yahoo! hopes to gain more customers through My Display Ads, as Google currently possesses 70 percent of the advertising market. Advertisers pay Yahoo! via pay-per-click.

In the new system, ad templates can be sorted by performance, use, and age. “With Yahoo! My Display Ads, we hope to make display as easy, effective and accessible as search,” said Aaron Finn, AdReady CEO.В  AdReady and Yahoo! launched a pilot program of the system last year which was only available to Yahoo! small business customers. Klaussnerhome, a small furniture business based in North Carolina, reported record sales after using the do-it-yourself ads.

With Google leading the way in nearly every search engine category, Yahoo! hopes that it can increase revenue by reaching out to small businesses and giving them more options in advertising.

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Google Adapts to Microblog Growth

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

The popularity of microblog websites such as Twitter has continued to increase in recent months. Despite this growth, users have found it challenging to search for specific posts throughout such sites. In response to this, Google is reportedly working to launch a new tool for these services.

Google has stated that real-time search is one of its greatest challenges. Links from Twitter rarely show up on a Google search results page, a problem that also confronts other search engines. Twitter has developed its own search tool to try to solve this problem, but results are limited only to Twitter entries and are sorted by date as opposed to by relevance.

While nothing has been confirmed yet, it appears that Google is working to address this situation. The search engine issued a statement expressing that their main goal was to provide all of the world’s information to its users: “While we don’t have anything to announce today, real-time information is important, and we’re looking at different ways to use this information to make Google more useful to our users.”

With the rapid increase of popularity to microblogging websites, Google’s new tool, if efficient, could greatly benefit the search engine. Along with the addition of Google Squared, the new microblog search tool could bring even more notoriety to Google, and recover some users who made the switch to Bing.

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Though Experimental, Google Squared Could Change Internet Searching

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Google has introduced Google Squared, an experimental search tool designed to gather an array of information on a topic. Results are organized on a spreadsheet, making it easy to view a variety of relevant data on a particular subject. Google Squared’s main objective is to eliminate the hassle of searching for information on a topical subject.

The launching of Google Squared can be seen as a response to increased competition from Microsoft’s recent launching of Bing. While Google Squared is only a tool used to improve searches, Google hopes that the new feature will bring buzz back to their search engine.

Google Squared can be helpful when comparing products; information such as price and other features can all be viewed on one page. Name, Image, and Description are three default categories. Google also adds a few other relevant columns to the square. Users can also add and delete columns as they wish. The source of the information can be found by hovering over each cell.

Wolfram Alpha, a similar search tool, was also launched recently. Here, information such as stock performance, synonyms, and historical timelines appear as results of an entry. This tool is more of a statistical analysis than Google Squared.

While the idea of Google Squared is great in theory, it remains in an experimental state, as it is often difficult to create an errorless spreadsheet. The tool has already been in the news for stating that Barack Obama and Prince William both were dead. While still a work in progress, Google Squared could eventually revolutionize Internet searches.

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Microsoft’s Bing Brings a New Look to Search Engines

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Microsoft has introduced Bing, a new search engine that replaces its predecessor Live Search. With Google taking up most of the search engine market, Microsoft hopes that added features and a new name will make Bing a prominent search tool. While most of Microsoft’s search services previously came from MSN users, the company hopes that Bing will draw interest from all over the web.

While most reviews give Google a slight edge in search result content, Bing has a few features that make it unique. Perhaps the most useful is a small passage of text that appears as users scroll over results. This saves a lot of time as there is no longer a need to visit an entire web page to see if it has relevant information regarding the search topic. Bing also offers a related searches tab and a more user-friendly video search results page.

The emergence of Bing could push for innovation throughout the search engine realm as competition increases. Some users will switch to Bing, but Google is expected to remain at the front and center of the search engine world, as most people will not want to tolerate learning a new format.

Microsoft’s launching of Bing has again brought up talk of a possible Microsoft/Yahoo! merger down the road. The two giants would hope to team up in an effort to pool resources and bait users away from Google.

Bing brings new features to the search engine field and it could steal a small percentage of Google users. However, Bing will have to prove itself over a long term basis.

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Obama Administration Eyes Google Warily

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

After a previous battle with the DOJ regarding a merger with Yahoo!, Google is now a target of more strict antitrust enforcement from the Obama administration due to its dominance among competition on the web. After few antitrust lawsuits arose under President Bush, authorities are now taking a stance similar to that of the European Union. While Google is receiving a considerable amount of scrutiny from the government, the likelihood of an antitrust case arising is slim.

Google has already been a victim of private suits by small companies; as long as its competitive nature stays intact, Google will remain a consistent target of such allegations. Blair Levin, a former FCC official, stated that there is nothing wrong with becoming the powerful force in a market. “The question is: Once you’ve attained [dominance], what are the rules of the road?” Levin said.В В 

Authorities will continue to monitor Google in order to ensure that it does not use its search engine notoriety as an advantage in new ventures. It is moving into the social networking realm with Google Profiles, something that could give competition to websites such as Facebook and Twitter. User profiles would appear as search results, which could give Google Profiles an advantage.

Google accounts for 64% of the market in America, and while it may be a big force in online business, there are currently no grounds for an antitrust case. “You have to be big, and you have to be bad,” said Andrew Gavil, a legal professor at Howard University. Although no antitrust lawsuit is imminent, government authorities will continue to monitor Google.

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In a Down Economy, Search Prospects Still Rosy

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

In a turbulent economy, many companies suffer losses.В  Even Google and Microsoft have struggled in terms of earnings.В  Microsoft’s recent quarterly reports show job cuts and sub par earnings.В  Said CEO Steve Ballmer, “We are not immune to the effects of the economy.”В  Google didn’t fare much better.В  While it managed to beat analyst estimates, Google’s company earnings declined for the first time.

In terms of the search industry, however, the story is different. В Interestingly, though not surprisingly, Microsoft’s ad revenue last quarter was up seven percent.В  The revenue increase is due to the growth of search queries and impressions per user.В  Ballmer said that Microsoft would add “a few thousand jobs in areas like search where we continue to see incredible opportunity to do good work.”В  Backing up that statement, Microsoft is also still intent on acquiring Yahoo!’s search business.В  Though we have been down this path before, there have been some discussions between executives at each corporation.

The search industry is relatively insulated from a roiling economy.В  Search engine marketing benefits your business right now because the costs are lower in comparison to traditional marketing mediums such as TV, radio, or print.В  Have your business take advantage of this growing area as well.В  You can always request a free quote or feel free to call us with any questions.

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Google’s Pinstripes

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Looking back at 2008, the biggest newsmaker in the search engine realm was Google – again.В  Whether it was the Yahoo! acquisition saga, its continued dominance of search engine market share, or its acquisitions of companies such as Begun and Omnisio, the ramifications of Google’s actions were followed carefully across the web and in the Search Concepts blog.

At some point, one can’t help but compare Google’s popularity, power, and of course, spending, with that of the New York Yankees.В  While the Yankees’ success is not quite analogous to that of Google in recent years, other trends are similar.В  For example, the list of Google’s acquisitions over the past seven years is staggering.В  The Yankees, after missing the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, committed $423.5 million to three free agents this off-season and now boast a roster that includes the four highest paid players in baseball.

Both have the evil empire reputation in many circles, as Google is regularly described as Machiavellian and the Yankees spending habits are criticized as being “bad for baseball.” Neither seems to be completely recession proof, but both still play by different rules even during an economic crisis.

As the Yankees have found in recent years, spending the most money doesn’t guarantee success.В  Will Google learn the same lesson in 2009?В  Could the sometimes criticized acquisition of DoubleClick be Google’s Hideki Irabu?В  Or does Google’s dominance in search engine share insulate it from acquisition mistakes?В  Google can’t afford to take its position for granted, because in the ever evolving and amoebous Internet world, the next big company is always lurking and ready to dethrone the reigning heavyweight.В  Just ask Yahoo! or Microsoft.

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