The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is trying to position itself for a new run for Yahoo’s search business. Microsoft has approached other media companies, asking them to join it in a deal that would ultimately lead to the acquisition of Yahoo.
According to the article, Microsoft has already been in talks with Time Warner and News Corp. As it seems, Microsoft only has an interest in Yahoo’s search engine business and therefore needs another party that will continue Yahoo’s other business units after a breakup. Time Warner’s AOL or News Corp.’s MySpace are be possible partners.
This new attempt at acquiring Yahoo once again shows just how desperate Microsoft is to get into web search big time, which would instantly push Microsoft to the number two spot behind Google in terms of web searches. And Microsoft really needs YHOO’s search business, because otherwise they might never be able to catch up with market leader Google. From my neutral point of view I would say that, despite a possible merger with Yahoo, they might never be able to catch up in any case.
You know, I love Google. I use their search engine and many of their other products, but I still believe that more heated competition will lead to more innovation and more advances in Internet technology in the long run. That’s why I’m still somehow keeping my fingers crossed for MSFT to successfully buy Yahoo.
Google is so successful on the Internet today, it can easily be compared with Microsoft’s market position in the software business. At some point, however, Microsoft has fallen behind with innovating, which they now try to make up for by heavily investing in this space, and I hope the same won’t happen to Google. Higher competition could drive and further motivate Google, or any other company in the search business, to innovate and provide enhanced products not only today, but in the future too.
As you may have read, Mozilla has been going to set a new world record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours. The official numbers and confirmation from Guinness World Record are in now: In the first 24 hours, Mozilla FireFox 3 had been downloaded more than 8 million times. All in all, it has now been downloaded about 28 million times since its release.
On a slightly related note, I received a letter (postal mail, yes) a few days ago from the guys at QualityNonsense.com, who asked me to take a look at their domain lookup extension for FireFox. I haven’t tried it myself, yet, but if you’d like to use it you can find the add-in on http://tools.qualitynonsense.com/domainlookup/.
I’ve always been a user and supporter of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. In fact, I’ve thought that it is a good product (I still do so). But after installing the latest version of Mozilla FireFox on my computer yesterday, all I can say is this:
FireFox 3 is just better. I think that it is the best browser currently available.
It is much faster than version 2, at least that’s been my impression. It also offers an improved intelligent address bar that makes navigating to visited websites faster. On top of that, you can still upgrade FireFox by installing useful add-ons and plug-ins.
After all, I can recommend FireFox 3 to anybody who enjoys surfing on the web. But I also have a question for those long-time FireFox users of you:
Which are good add-ons or plug-ins you’re using and that you can recommend? Currently, I have the following add-ons installed:
It’s now official, Yahoo has entered into a non-exclusive search advertising partnership with Google. This decision should make it more difficult for Icahn to sell the company to Microsoft. Personally, I don’t like the idea of the Internet’s two biggest search engines working closer together, because this could be a first step towards a huge monopoly in web search and targeted advertising.
Microsoft/Yahoo could have rivaled Google at some point in the future, but Yahoo/Google will only help Google and put more money into Yahoo’s pockets, hence leaving Microsoft’s Live.com web search further behind.
Google Announces Non-Exclusive Advertising Services Agreement with Yahoo! in U.S. and Canada
Companies will also Enable Interoperability Between Their Instant Messaging Services
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif (June 12, 2008) — Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) today announced that it has reached an agreement that gives Yahoo! the ability to use Google’s search and contextual advertising technology through its AdSense(TM) for Search and AdSense for Content advertising programs. Under the agreement, Yahoo! has the option to display Google ads alongside its own natural search results in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, Yahoo! can serve contextually targeted ads on its U.S. and Canadian web properties as well as on its current publisher partner sites. Yahoo will continue to operate its own search engine, web properties and advertising services.
In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services bringing easier and broader communication to users.
“This commercial agreement provides Yahoo! with the opportunity to deliver more relevant ads to users and provide advertisers and publishers with better advertising technology to help them succeed in their own businesses,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google. “This agreement will preserve the competitive and dynamic online advertising space.”
As a result of the agreement, Yahoo! will be able to complement its own advertising program with Google’s advertising technology. As a result, advertisers will be able to better reach consumers, and Yahoo! and its current publisher partners can generate more revenue. Yahoo can use Google’s advertising technology on as many or as few of its search results and content pages as it chooses.
This non-exclusive agreement allows Yahoo! to enter into similar agreements with other advertising providers. In addition, Yahoo! will maintain relationships with its own advertising customers and will continue to rely exclusively on its own advertising program outside of the U.S. and Canada. The agreement has a term of up to ten years: a 4-year initial term and two 3-year renewals at Yahoo!’s option. Financial terms between the two companies were not disclosed.
Although Google and Yahoo are not required to receive regulatory approval of the arrangement before implementing it, the companies have voluntarily agreed to delay implementation for up to three and a half months to give the U.S. Department of Justice time to review the arrangement.
When I just tried to go to Gmail.com I was blocked and got the following error message:
We can’t provide service under the Gmail name in Germany; we’re called Google Mail here instead.
If you’re traveling in Germany, you can access your mail at http://mail.google.com.
Oh, and we’d like to link the URL above, but we’re not allowed to do that either. Bummer.
For general information about Google, please visit www.google.com or www.google.de.
Now, I knew Google hasn’t been allowed to promote its email service under the Gmail name in Germany due to trademark issues, but it had always been possible to access my Gmail account via Gmail.com. Unfortunately, as it seems, Google is now blocking German users from using this domain name so that they will have no choice other than to use the longer, bulky URL above. Alternatively, one can also go to GoogleMail.com, but this is still not as nice as Gmail.com, in my opinion.
The Gmail.com forward is still working for incoming emails, which is good, and I hope Google will continue to offer this @gmail.com to @googlemail.com catch-all function for German users. Otherwise it might result in emails being sent to wrong recipients or not being delivered at all.
The OECD will hold a ministerial meeting on the future of the Internet in Seoul, Korea on June 17-18, 2008. Ministers, CEOs and technology experts will debate social and economic trends shaping the Internet economy.
In an effort to get more input from anybody using the Internet, the OECD has set up a channel on YouTube where it encourages people to answer the question: “How can the Internet make the world a better place?” If you would like to comment on this topic or if you have a strong opinion to share, you can post your video comment at http://www.youtube.com/futureinternet.
In a security advisory published on May 30, 2008, Microsoft urges its Windows users to stop using Apple’s popular Safari web browser, because Safari doesn’t ask for user permission before downloading files, including certain executable malicious files which are often automatically downloaded from visited websites in the background. These malicious files could then be activated by a second attack, so they represent a serious security problem, according to Microsoft.
Local ad spending online may be the nexus of traditional publishers’ greatest hopes for future growth, but the anticipated spoils have already generated fierce competition, according to a new report from Borrell Associates.
Local ad revenue online looks likely to grow by 50% this year to $13.1 billion from $8.7 billion in 2007, Borrell said. The expansion can’t sustain that pace much longer, though; its compound annual growth over the next four years is likely to fall to 15% from 48% over the last four years.
Local advertising offers many opportunities to both pure web companies and “traditional” media companies that are now extending their offerings to the Internet. But looking at different types of ads, some ads are better for local marketing than others, in my opinion.
CPM advertising, as still offered mostly by websites of newspapers and by the bigger online portals, doesn’t offer as much value to advertisers as contextual sponsored links, individual flat-fee advertising deals and classified ads. This is because most CPM advertising campaigns are still untargeted and they do not offer any incentives for publishers to offer related quality content. Instead, CPM advertising might induce publishers to simply concentrate on the number of pageviews their site generates. PPC ads, flat-fee ads and classifieds, on the other hand, rely very much on traffic quality and high conversion rates. Thus these types of ads offer publishers an incentive for creating quality content and attracting quality traffic that will convert well into actual leads and sales for their clients.
That is why I think both publishers and advertisers should try to make more use of contextual advertising and classified ads, especially in local marketing, as it should result in more value being created in the long run.
Now that Microsoft didn’t buy Yahoo and isn’t going to do so in the future, it is considering new ways to gain share in web search. The company is going to sort of buy share by offering users cash as part of its Cashback program for using its Live.com search engine:
Search for cashback deals at Live Search cashback. Each time you click a Live Search cashback listing, you’ll find great deals on the product you chose. Your results will clearly list the cashback savings you’ll receive off the store price, and your final bottom-line price that includes tax and shipping costs. Also look for this icon (omitted) when you search for a product on Live Search to find great cashback deals.
Compare and sort products by the bottom-line price. Click the best deal to go to the store. Everything you buy during that store visit will be eligible for Live Search cashback. On your first time using Live Search cashback, we will ask you for an email address so we can tell you how to quickly set up your free cashback account.
Keep saving money each time you use Live Search cashback. Every time you make a qualifying purchase, we’ll send you an email to confirm your Live Search cashback savings. When your cashback account reaches a balance of at least $5, you can claim your cold, hard cash.
This is an innovative approach to growing insofar that no other competitor in the search engine market has taken this road before, as far as I can tell. But I’m not convinced that Live Search Cashback will actually work out in the long run and help Microsoft close the gap between Live.com and Google.com. The software giant certainly can afford to give money away to its users, it is sitting on a big pile of cash. The question is, however, whether the incentives offered through Cashback will result in sustainable growth.
I remain skeptical, because I believe Microsoft will need innovative search products in addition to innovative marketing if it wants to seriously compete with the world’s number one search engine Google.
I’ve read two interesting interviews involving Guy Kawasaki today. The first one is a discussion about blogging with Guy interviewing Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net, in the other one Guy is interviewed by Lee Odden of the Online Marketing Blog, also on the subject of blogging and social media:
Excerpt from first interview:
Question: How much can a blogger, assuming she is working hard and creating good content, really make?
Answer: The vast majority of those who blog don’t even consider the idea of making money from their blogs. They blog for fun, to keep in touch with family and friends, as a hobby and as a result making money doesn’t enter their minds (and in most cases it shouldn’t because making money from personal blogs is an uphill battle).
When it comes to bloggers who are in it for the money, the sad reality is that most don’t make a lot. Last time I surveyed my readers at ProBlogger about their monthly earnings the majority were earning very little (49% said that they earned under $100 a month). Many of these are new bloggers (ProBlogger has a very large percentage of it’s readers in their first months of blogging) but unfortunately even many mare experienced bloggers don’t earn much despite working hard and writing good content. …
You’re no stranger to marketing and promotion and the “brand of Guy Kawasaki” is known world wide. What tips do you have for online marketers that want to stand out from the crowd?
The only tip that really matters is this: “Market something good.” That’s the secret. It’s very hard to market a piece of crap. It’s very easy to market something good. I believe all marketing is based on good products and services.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft is trying to position itself for a new run for Yahoo’s search business. Microsoft has approached other media companies, asking them to join it in a deal that would ultimately lead to the acquisition of Yahoo.
On a slightly related note, I received a letter (postal mail, yes) a few days ago from the guys at QualityNonsense.com, who asked me to take a look at their domain lookup extension for FireFox. I haven’t tried it myself, yet, but if you’d like to use it you can find the add-in on 
I’ve always been a user and supporter of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. In fact, I’ve thought that it is a good product (I still do so). But after installing the latest version of Mozilla FireFox on my computer yesterday, all I can say is this:
The OECD will hold a 
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