Home > News and Views > Newsletter > June 2007

Yahoo! replace Chief Executive, eBay pull Google Ads, Google Pay per Action Advertising out of Beta, ASK 3D launches.

Yahoo! replace Chief Executive

Yahoo! have replaced Chief Executive Terry Semel with its co-founder Jerry Yang, in response to investor pressure. Additionally Susan Decker, the company's former chief financial officer, has been appointed president.

eBay pull Google adverts for a short time

eBay, who spend an estimated £1.6m a year advertising with Google in the US, pulled all Google advertising after a Google checkout function was scheduled for the same evening as eBay's annual merchant's conference.

The boycott was short lived, but hitwise data from the 'experiment' shows that, although eBay lost Google traffic, overall traffic levels stayed strong. eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy said:

"I will tell you it will be in a much more limited way than it was before...What we found is that we were not as dependant on AdWords as some people thought."

Google Pay-Per-Action Beta Goes Global

Google launched Pay Per Action ads to a very limited user base on March 20. Now, Google is launching this beta product globally. Google Pay Per Action is a new pricing model available to advertisers to specify a dollar amount they would like to offer publishers for successful conversions. Advertisers will only pay upon a completed conversion and not based on a click or impression of the ad.

Yahoo! in talks to acquire MySpace

News Corporation has discussed swapping MySpace, its internet social networking unit, with Yahoo! in return for a 30 per cent stake in the enlarged group. News Corp, the parent company of The Times, is interested in a deal even if it means losing some control of MySpace because it would give the media group exposure to a far larger internet-based business. Yahoo! would possibly benefit from Ad placements (as well as increasing their user base) as the MySpace - Google Ad deal is not yet finalised.

Yahoo! Go 2.0 comes out of Beta

Yahoo are trying to capture the mobile search market by offering a convenient way for mobile phone users to access full function web apps through their mobile devices.

The new version of Yahoo! Go 2.0 will be available for more than 200 different mobile phones in the US by the end of July, expanding to more than 400 by the end of the year. It will also be pre-loaded on new device from Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG and HTC that begin rolling out later this year.

Microsoft capitulate in response to Google anti-trust complaint.

Microsoft have made changes to Vista for Google to avoid further anti-trust actions, but Google claims it does not go far enough. However, US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has said that, as the software giant has satisfactorily settled a dispute with antitrust regulators by agreeing to alter Windows Vista, no further action is needed.

Google initially filed the confidential antitrust complaint accusing Microsoft of designing its Vista operating system to discourage use of Google's desktop search program.

Google threatens to close GMail in Germany over proposed privacy law

Google is threatening to shut down the German version of its GMail service if the German Budestang passes its new Internet surveillance law.

Peter Fleischer, Google's German privacy representative says the new law would be a severe blow against privacy and would go against Google's practice of also offering anonymous e-mail accounts.

If the law is passed then, from 2008, "any connection data concerning the internet, phone calls (with position data when cell phones are used), SMS etc. of any German citizen will be saved for 6 months and anonymizing services like Tor will be made illegal."

Google buy Zenter, online slide presentations

Those who use GMail may have already noticed the changes to the way PowerPoint style attachments are displayed. More importantly, this will add Zenter's technology and team to the Google Docs & Spreadsheets suite, in the form of web based slideshow software

ASK.com asks a Ninja for Ad help

Ask has paired with goofball video blog Ask a Ninja on an ad deal in which the show's host and namesake reads the sponsor copy himself - and then offers bonus clips to fans who query Ask with special ninja-themed search terms.

If you arrive at one of the sponsored Asks a Ninja pages from a Google search, by clicking the link or entering it in the address bar, you will not see the video. You will see you are not a search ninja. If you arrive via Ask.com search results you will see congrats on being a search ninja plus the video.

'Ask3D' launches

Ask have had a major relaunch of their search service, which they have called Ask3D.

Nielsen to start tracking mobile usage

Nielsen have announced that they will begin to measure the internet behaviour of mobile users as well. Jacob Nielsen's usability and usage studies are generally regarded as the most comprehensive available and this added data not only gives analysts an increased overview of internet user behaviour, but also serves to highlight the rapid recent growth of mobile browsing.

Yahoo! issue weather report on another search update

Yahoo! have announced that they updated both their index and their tanking algorithm, starting on June 5^th. Some shuffling around in the Yahoo! SERPs should be expected.

Apple's Safari browser to come to Windows

Apple have announced that their Safari web browser is coming to Windows. Although a number of security bugs are being discussed already, this did not hamper the over one million reported downloads within the first few days.

Google privacy 'worst on the Web'

UK-based independent privacy watchdog Privacy International have released a study which claims that Google's privacy is the worst on the internet, assigning it its lowest possible grade.

In related news, Google have stated that they are changing their data retention to 18 months instead of 18-24 months and are considering reducing their cookie expiration time.