Home > News and Views > Newsletter > December 2006

Google to work with Sky, Dmoz back from the brink, Yahoo market share plummets, disclosure on paid blog posts

Pay per post News

At a recent search engine conference, representatives from Google, Yahoo!, MSN and Ask appeared to say that PayPerPost was acceptable.

Following recent FTC guidelines, PayPerPost have announced that they now require disclosure on blogs.

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday said that companies engaging in word-of-mouth marketing, in which people are compensated to promote products to their peers, must disclose those relationships.

In a staff opinion issued yesterday, the consumer protection agency weighed in for the first time on the practice. Though no accurate figures exist on how much money advertisers spend on such marketing, it is quickly becoming a preferred method for reaching consumers who are skeptical of other forms of advertising.

Baidu.com to enter Japanese market

The Chinese search engine Baidu is set to launch in Japan in 2007:

• Baidu is the first choice of 62 percent of Chinese users, which is an increase of 15 points over last year, according to a study by the China Internet Network Information Center
• Google's Kai-Fu Lee is very popular in China, and is leading the recruitment efforts for Chinese students to work on Google.
• Baidu founder Robin Li, US educated and a one time designer for Infoseek, is also very popular, and seen as a national hero.

AskCity local search launched

Ask.com has launched its new local search & mapping offering, AskCity. Considered in part to be a replacement for CitySearch, but much more now that it is also the local arm of Ask.com.

It integrates four powerful search engines into one: Business and Services, Events, Movies, and Maps and Directions. Use one, or use several at a time to plan out a night out/trip etc.

MSN Books search

Microsoft is gearing up to launch a new online book search service enabling internet users to find content from books, periodicals and other print resources.

This is the beta version: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books#q=

VeriSign Authorised to Raise Dot Com Prices

The contract negotiated between VeriSign and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, allows Mountain View, California-based VeriSign to raise prices by as much as 7 percent for four out of the next six years.

Google to work with Sky

British Sky Broadcasting (Sky), the UK's leading entertainment company, and Google have announced plans to work together in bringing ground-breaking web-based services to Sky's community of broadband internet customers.

The wide-ranging set of multi-year agreements sees two of the world's leading innovators in technology and entertainment join forces to create a compelling and customised experience for Sky Broadband customers.

Yahoo Confab Micro-Conferences

The Yahoo Technology Development Group began hosting a series of micro-conferences that are open to the public, the first one was on December 13th, on Prediction Markets: Tapping the Wisdom of Crowds.

"We started confab.yahoo because we want to push the web and its applications up to the next level. After slightly more than a decade, we as an industry have only scratched the surface of the web?s potential. The opportunities are virtually infinite, and we aim to bring together the people that can inspire the next generation web. Right here on the Yahoo! campus, for us, for you, for everyone. So come on over and join us, and be a part of it all!"

Yahoo market share plummets

Trailing the web search market, Compete has a monthly update showing Google regaining ground from October, up 3.5 points, to a high of 66%. While Yahoo!'s growth spurt has ended badly - they lost share, 3.6 points, to fall under 21%. Meanwhile, Ask maintained recently elevated levels, closing at 4.8%.

Could we see a new #2 engine in 18 months' time? Ask.com could well take that crown.

Google begins testing radio ads

Google Inc. has announced that it has completed the development of its widely anticipated radio advertising system and begun a limited test allowing customers to buy ads via its online ad-buying system.

In a statement on the Web search leader's site, the company said it had begun testing a system it acquired by purchasing dMarc Broadcasting in early 2006 for $102 million and which it subsequently built into its existing AdWords online ad system.

Google Audio Ads is working with more than 700 radio stations covering more than 200 metropolitan U.S. markets, Google spokesman Mike Mayzel said.

Google (US) patent search

Google have released a patent search tool which searches US patents. Currently it covers 7 million patents, and they plan to expand this over time.

AOL acquires news Search Company

AOL has announced the purchase of Relegence, a New York-based search engine specializing in financial news and information, for an undisclosed price.

Relegence, a subscription-based service, aims to deliver relevant information to users' desktops as soon as it's published, regardless of the medium used. The notification and delivery technology draws from such sources as local and international newswires, television and cable networks, regulatory filings, Internet bulletin boards and Web sites and is designed to be integrated with internal streaming content.

Yahoo! weather report

Yahoo! issued another weather report on December 12th, giving notice of a results update over the next 24 hours.

"We are in the process of rolling out some changes to our search results. As usual, you may be seeing some changes in ranking as well as some shuffling of the pages that are included in the index throughout this process."

You may notice on your web logs a change in traffic levels on Yahoo! from this date.

Yahoo! and IBM partner on enterprise search

Yahoo! have partnered with IBM to create OmniFind Yahoo! Edition, which is a free enterprise search program.

OmniFind Yahoo! Edition will enable employees, partners or customers to find answers that they know are sitting on their file-systems, their intranet, or their public website. And because an answer to a question may be on the Web, they have integrated Yahoo! Search directly into the search results. So, if you are searching the enterprise, the Web, or looking for a local business you can do that in one unified experience.

Ask X Ask's 'secret' test layout

Ask.com has reached an agreement to provide search and sponsored listings for Lycos.

Ask have been trying out a new 'secret' interface to their search engine, called Ask X, which features a three pane layout:

http://about.ask.com/en/docs/about/askx.shtml

Google says no images next to AdSense ads

Google has issued a policy clarification for AdSense. They now state that one cannot include images beside AdSense images.

"We ask that publishers not line up images and ads in a way that suggests a relationship between the images and the ads. If your visitors believe that the images and the ads are directly associated, or that the advertiser is offering the exact item found in the neighboring image, they may click the ad expecting to find something that isn't actually being offered. That's not a good experience for users or advertisers.

Publishers should also be careful to avoid similar implementations that people could find misleading. For instance, if your site contains a directory of Flash games, you should not format the ads to mimic the game descriptions."

Examples may be seen on the adsense blog:

http://adsense.blogspot.com/2006/12/ad-and-image-placement-policy.html

.asia domain agreed

Plans for an .asia domain have been agreed. While pre-registration is not yet open until the rules have been decided upon, you can express your interest in having at one of these domains at http://www.asiadns.com/

DMOZ restored from the brink of death

Following the recent server failure at DMOZ that caused the entire site to be temporarily replaced with an old version, the editor's login is now working again and changes are being reflected on the live site. Submissions from non-editors are not up and running again as yet, however.

Windows Live Expo updated, now available in the UK and China

Msn have announced that Windows Live Expo has been updated, and is now available in the UK as well as China. Windows Live Expo calls itself:

"a dynamic social listing service where you can buy and sell merchandise, discover local events, find a new career, and meet local people - all for free! "

It allows users to buy and sell items and search maps.

Google drops SOAP web API

Google has dropped their SOAP-based web API, which previously (with an API key) let you obtain Google paid search results in XML. Only the more restrictive AJAX API is available now.

Anyone using the old SOAP API for any in-house reporting should be aware of this.