Cincinnati Internet Marketing Blog

Google Launches A Web Browser: Google Chrome

Today Google released a new open-source Internet browser program, called Google Chrome.

The link above will take you to a comic-book like site that explains the process in which Google Chrome was developed and the advantages Google is claiming Chrome has over other browsers, including asynchronous processing and that if one tab locks up that event does not crash the other tabs that are running.  Another interesting feature is a privacy mode called "Incognito" in which nothing that occurs in the browser is logged on the computer.

Here is the link to Download Google Chrome.  If you click on the Learn more about Google Chrome link you're taken to a page with videos (from YouTube of course, which Google owns) that demo the various features and at the bottom of that page are videos on the story behind Google Chrome and a link to the comic book mentioned (and linked to) above.

Here is an International Herald Tribune article on the launch of Google Chrome.

I've downloaded Google Chrome and my first impression is it seems pretty cool and does seem to be faster than IE & Firefox.  Google is not only trying to dominate the web, but also the desktop so I hope this new development helps to show you why Microsoft has been trying so hard to acquire or merge with Yahoo to compete. 

I welcome your feedback on Google Chrome and thoughts on what Google's launching an open-source browser means for the future of the web. 

Is Cuil Cool?: New Search Engine from Ex-Google Employees Launches

A new search engine, Cuil (pronounced "Cool") has been developed and launched by some ex-Google engineers backed by $33 million in venture capital.

Cuil is claiming their index of websites is largest, three times larger than Google and ten times that of Microsoft's Live Search and that their engine methodology is based more on web page content and less on popularity (inbound links). 

Cuil is also promoting a greater level of privacy as they are stating they do not save search histories or surfing patterns, as Google does.

Here is an AP article on the launch of Cuil an article from WebProNews and a pretty detailed article by search engine expert extraordinaire Danny Sullivan on his site Search Engine Land.

Based on my brief test today my first reaction is similar to those of others I've read -- I'm not impressed at the results and it seems they are trying to work out the kinks as pages are taking a long time to load with many images not displaying.

What are your thoughts?  Is Cuil cool?  Do we need something better than Google?     

Yahoo Rejects Another Microsoft Offer

The ongoing Will They or Wont They? Yahoo-Microsoft saga keeps on rolling along just as it as for the past 2 years.  Any day now I'm expecting Brett Favre to be named Yahoo CEO and starting Quarterback in a deal that will send Jerry Yang to the Packers for an Internet pioneer to be named later.

Over the weekend Yahoo rejected an offer from Microsoft and Carl Icahn that would have sent Yahoo's search business to Microsoft and allowed Icahn to run the rest of Yahoo's business.  This Bloomberg story has the current Yahoo-Microsoft details

We may finally see some resolution soon as Yahoo is will to accept $33/share for the whole company, which by the way is what Microsoft offered in May.  Yahoo's shareholder's meeting on August 1st promises to be fun.

I think the key takeaways here are that 1) Google is so powerful Microsoft REALLY feels they need some type of merger with Yahoo to compete and 2) Search is and is expected to continue to be the cash cow of online marketing and that's why Microsoft is trying so many different things to get a hold of Yahoo's search unit.   

Stay tuned.  Maybe Carl Icahn will show up at Packers training camp in two weeks to compete with Aaron Rodgers for the starting job. 

      

Internet Marketing News Articles from June 26 Meeting

We had a great Cincinnati I-marketing Group meeting this past Thursday.  My thanks go out to all those who attended for coming and participating in the discussion, as well as Ed Estes of Web Media Tools for hosting us.  Our next meeting will probably be in August or September.

Here are links to news articles I went through and we discussed at the meeting

UK Online ad spending to overtake TV this year: http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1748087420080617?rpc=28

Facebook Heads MySpace in Unique Visitors: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/302914bc-40a7-11dd-bd48-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

Big dollar signs for microblogging service Twitter: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/06/big-dollar-sign.html

Google insists its Android phone is still on track: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-insists-its-android-phone-is-still-on-track-852884.html

It was really enlightening and satisfying for me to see that online ad spending will exceed TV this year in the UK, and in a few years that will likely be the case in the USA as well.  For all of you out there still doubting the Internet as an effective advertising medium... WAKE UP!!!

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon.com participated in the $15 million round of funding for Twitter, which had over a million unique visitors in May.  Twitter and Facebook are really hot Internet marketing topics right now. 

   

March 2008 Search Engine Market Share Data

Everyone knows Google is the most used search engine, but I'm often asked what their (and their competitor's) actual market share is, so I thought I'd post these Nielsen/Netratings numbers for March that were included in a Nielsen Online press release from last week.  The press release also lists total number of searches and year-over-year growth for each engine in the top 10, so if you click on the link you can that data too.

1. Google 58.7% of searches
2. Yahoo 18.1%
3. MSN/Windows Live 12.0%
4. AOL 4.1%
5. Ask 2.4%
6. My Web 0.9%
7. Comcast 0.5%
8. NexTag 0.4%
9. AT&T Worldnet 0.3%
10. Dogpile 0.2%

I usually tell people the "Big Three" (Google, Yahoo & MSN) handle 90% of searches in the US and according to this data for March the number was 88.8%, so 90% is a pretty close estimate.

It's important to keep in mind this data is for total searches done on each engine and does not reflect paid search or "PPC" market share.  With respect to PPC, I am finding with my clients that Google gets about 3-4 times the traffic Yahoo Sponsored Search and the Yahoo is about 3 times to volume of MSN (Microsoft adCenter).

Google Stock Goes Up $89.87...In One Day

How's this for staggering numbers?

Yesterday (Thursday), Google stock (Ticker Symbol: GOOG) closed at $449.54 and today it went up $89.87 or 19.99% to close at $539.41.

So what prompted such a run up in Google stock.  Staggering numbers of course, specifically Google's Q1 numbers which were released after the close of trading on Thursday.  As detailed in this AP story, Google's 1st quarter profit rose 30% from the first quarter of 2007 to $1.31 billion or $4.12/share.  Revenue for the first quarter was $5.19 billion, which is 42% higher than their revenue for Q1 of '07.

One company with over 5 billion dollars of revenue in 90 days.  Pretty staggering huh?  Still don't believe in Internet marketing?   

   

Yahoo Adds Voice Commands To Mobile Search

Today Yahoo unveiled new features for its' oneSearch mobile search service including the ability to search using voice commands.   This article from Yahoo Finance describes the new features and explains briefly the concept of "semantic web" search. 

"Semantic web" is a term you should know.  If you're not familiar with this term, check out the semantic web page on Wikipedia or other web resources so you can quickly get up to speed. 

As stated on the Wikipedia page: "The semantic web is a vision of information that is understandable by computers, so that they can perform more of the tedious work involved in finding, sharing and combining information on the web." 

In other words, search and a lot of other online functions are going to be much more powerful and effective in the future and Yahoo's rolling out these new features today is an example of this trend and provides a glimpse of where we are headed. 

European Union Clears Google to Buy DoubleClick

The European Union today OK'd Google's acquisition of DoubleClick, the largest ad-serving company in the US, despite the objection of some privacy and consumer advocates. 

Here is an AP story on today's developments and a good article from Clickz on how Google looks to dominate the display (banner) advertising market.

Maybe someday soon Google will dominate display advertising like they do in search.  We'll see.  Today's news is helping the stock, which has been falling lately, and as I post this Google stock (GOOG) is up $23.

Microsoft Makes $44.6 Billion Offer for Yahoo!

Well it took a while but after two-years of negotiations and at least one previously rejected offer, Microsoft today announced a $44.6 billion bid to takeover Yahoo at $31 per share, a hefty 62% premium over yesterday's close for Yahoo of $19.18.

A combined Microsoft-Yahoo would supposedly be able to compete with Google for leadership of the Internet marketing industry.  Microsoft's engineering and Yahoo's brand and traffic make for a juicy combination, but merging the two cultures and Internet businesses will not be easy.  You should have no trouble finding tons of articles on the Web on this today, here's a short one that sums up the numbers at ClickZ and an article discussing the challenges from the New York Times.

The Czar's Quick Take: This was inevitable as they have been talking for quite a while and also shows how far they are lagging behind Google in search and monetizing web traffic.  For example, Yahoo's Panama search platform (for their pay-per-click Yahoo Sponsored Search program) was over a year late and over budget.   Microsoft was very late getting into the search game and their web advertising solutions have not been very innovative.   

It looks a lot like mixing oil and water to me, as the firms have different cultures and there aren't nearly as many synergies and cost saving as say when two banks or airlines merge.  We'll see.   

If you have a take, please post a comment! 

         

The Shifting Internet Marketing Industry Landscape

Back in the late 90's when I got into the field of Internet marketing there was a popular expression in the industry that played off one of the new bumper stickers of the day: WWYD - What Would Yahoo Do?

Ten years ago your site had officially "arrived" when it was listed in Yahoo's directory of the web and Yahoo held a dominate position in the Internet marketing industry as they had so many eyeballs visiting their various properties, like My Yahoo or Yahoo Mail.  Yahoo was the leading "web portal" - as Wikipedia defines as "a website site that functions as a point of access to information on the World Wide Web."  Back then portals were seen as the main jumping off point for how people would access the web and Yahoo and rivals like Excite and Lycos fought for the eyeballs and loyalties of users.

As I post this, the two most popular tech articles at the New York Times are a report that Yahoo is expected to layoff several hundred employees and an article talking about how the expanding and evolving MySpace (the website with the most pages viewed in the world by the way) has grown and is changing under the ownership of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.  Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are getting tons of visitors and business press while courting Madison Ave. advertisers and their huge ad budgets.  Yahoo is profitable and by no means dead, just laying off folks in less profitable business segments, but clearly they no longer dominate the industry as they once did.

Last week in my previous post I asked the question: Does MySpace Make Internet Marketers Look Bad?  In my opinion, sometimes profiles or ads on MySpace do reflect negatively on the industry, just as annoying TV commercials or poorly targeted direct "junk" mail do in those industries. 

Spam, hideous banners and irrelevant pop-up ads (remember the x10 camera?) were the predecessors of today's fake MySpace profiles, but we as web users and marketing industry pros have adapted.  Online marketing vehicles that are effective in producing results for clients will flourish over time, even if not every foray is a success.  If companies can make money advertising on or being a part of the MySpace community, the site will survive and look good (most of the time). 

There are well-founded criticisms of MySpace and other social marketing sites, so we Internet marketers need to address these issues with solutions, such as effective ad campaigns and profile sites for clients, and promote and educate the public about the many examples of firms doing things right.   

To me, success always looks good.  It's good for business too.