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Posts Tagged ‘yahoo!’

Don’t Forget About Yahoo!

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

The media’s continued attention on the battle between Microsoft’s Bing.com and Google has somewhat pushed Yahoo! out of the picture. Downfall in revenue has forced Yahoo!, former number one search site, to resort to pink slipping workers. However, news has improved for Yahoo! of late, as the search engine released a new home page on Tuesday.

The new page features links to several popular third-party sites including Facebook and eBay. Users can see headlines from such sites by simply moving the cursor over a toolbar titled “My Favorites” on the left side of the page. Yahoo! has also introduced a “trend-setter” box that highlights the popular searches of the day. Some experts feel the move is an attempt to attract Microsoft back into talks regarding a search advertising deal.

Negotiations have been intermittent for months, with each party hoping that teaming up could give Google considerable competition. According to reports, talks are closer than ever, with Microsoft executives meeting with Yahoo! in California. In the deal, Microsoft would reportedly pay for several billion dollars worth of Yahoo!’s search advertising business. Despite this recent news, the tide can turn quickly: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz once said that the search company would “be better off if we had never heard the word Microsoft.”

It is hard to deny that a deal would certainly bring more competition to Google. Users can only hope that such a battle will bring consistent improvement throughout the search realm.

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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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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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