LBi Netrank: September 2007

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2008

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Search Engine Updates

Google to host newswire agency content on Google News.

Google has reached an agreement with Agence France-Presse, UK Press Association, Canadian Press and Associated Press to host their copy on Google pages in an attempt to eradicate duplicate articles featuring in results. Google was sued by Agence France Presse in March, 2005 for an alleged copyright infringement which has provided further impetus for this move.

Google will only feature content from the original source, replacing the other sites that re-run newswire content. This move should improve the quality of news results.

Google announcement on duplicate content handling

Google has published an article on its Webmaster Blog outlining how it deals with duplicate content and canonical URLs. "Canonicalisation is the process of picking the best URL when there are several choices."(Google, 2006)

In essence, the Google algorithm has advanced a great deal in its handling of duplicate pages and is now able, in many cases, to select a "best" URL and cluster all the link juice and page rank into that one URL. However, the same post also outlines the steps that a webmaster should take in order to reduce the potential for problems.

This should send a clear signal to anyone responsible for a site which has serious duplicate content issues that need to be addressed in order for their pages to rank highly.

MSN Live search update

MSN has updated the Live Search algorithm and says that this update focuses primarily on relevance, speed, high interest content (e.g. entertainment, shopping and video), providing a streamlined look and feel to SERPs.

The index is now four times larger. MSN states that it has vastly improved its understanding of query intent and query refinement. With the changes to the ranking algorithm including taking user behaviour and click stream analysis into account, many sites are likely to experience fluctuations in their MSN Live search positions.

Yahoo! update

The first update since the launch of its Dynamic URL Rewriting in Site Explorer has been announced and includes millions of URLs that have been rewritten based on submissions.

Crawling of canonical URLs should now be smarter. Relevance and coverage should also be improved.

Google Alerts now includes video alerts

Google Alerts has now added video to its already impressive stable of News, Web, Blog and Groups alerts, allowing you to specify any topics or search queries and receive periodical alerts directly in an email. (http://www.google.com/alerts)

Acquisitions and Partnerships

Yahoo! becomes exclusive ad provider for Bebo

With Google working with MySpace, and Microsoft with Facebook, it was only a matter of time before Yahoo! struck a deal with another popular social networking site. "Under the agreement, Yahoo will integrate the community-driven knowledge service Yahoo! Answers into the Bebo site and provide a new Bebo toolbar that allows users to monitor their social network when they are not on the site." (Yahoo! News)

Bebo search has been 'powered by Yahoo!' since June and there were rumours of Yahoo! offering up to $1 billion for the site earlier in the year. San Francisco-based Bebo has a reported 38 million users, with UK and Ireland being the most popular sites.

Microsoft to buy 5% of Facebook?

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Microsoft is looking to buy a stake in the popular social networking site, Facebook.

The reported $300 million - $500 million asking price for a 5% share puts the value of Facebook, which has over 40 million users and which Google has recently been reported to have expressed a strong interest in investing in, at around $10 billion.

New Product Launches

Google Shared Stuff

Google has launched a bookmark-sharing tool called Google Shared Stuff, which allows users to share or email web pages to their friends. The shared stuff page is publicly visible and webmasters can include a Google sharing button in their pages.

Google Gpay to allow payments by SMS?

Google has filed a patent which outlines a mobile payment system, independent of mobile networks and their billing systems. While PayPal Mobile, launched in March, and other existing systems such as TextPayMe have not engaged a large level of interest, Gpay could be integrated into the upcoming Google Phone, which is likely to prove popular.

Google launches 'Presently'

Google has taken its web-based office suite one step further with the introduction of 'Presently', a slide show presentation built on the back of code from Tonic Systems and Zenter, both of which were acquired by Google this year. This PowerPoint clone is being launched following the announcement that CapGemini will be offering Google Apps to its clients, a major step for Google in the application stakes.

Google AdSense for Mobile Launched

With a massive surge in mobile usage, particularly in Japan, where reports suggest that mobile internet users are now nearly equal to PC-based users (Comscore, 2007), Google has moved into contextually targeted ads for mobile website content.

This may be a big driver in the development of mobile site quality as more and more companies move to improve their sites' mobile search performance.

Google Gadget Ads

Google has launched Google Gadget Ads, an interactive ad format for its content network. Unlike Google AdWords' existing array of text, video and graphical ads, Google Gadget Ads are designed to be interactive, can be built using HTML or Flash, and support CPC and CPI.

News and Research

The cost of click fraud is mounting up for search engines.

Google says it loses $1 billion every year due to click fraud and other invalid click throughs.

However Google's Business Product Manager for Trust and Safety asserted that invalid click throughs have remained in the range of less than 10% of all clicks for every quarter since AdWords was launched in 2002.

Google asks EU antitrust officials to approve purchase of DoubleClick

Julia Holtz, Google's competition counsel, told Reuters:

"We are asking the European Commission to look at the proposed acquisition. We believe this deal is positive for both users and advertisers, and fosters competition,"

AT&T, Yahoo!, Microsoft and others are looking for an in-depth review of the purchase.
Toby Coppel, MD, Yahoo! Europe said:

"The deal raises important questions about the future of Internet advertising. These questions warrant an in-depth debate and review by a broad range of Internet publishers, advertisers, service providers, and governments in Europe and elsewhere"

New York Times ends old paid subscription model

The New York Times is to make all content available for free, supporting this with paid advertising. This will open up content to search engines and boost traffic to the site. The Wall Street Journal is also reported to be considering a similar move.

Search market share swings in Yahoo!'s favour.

While Google is still way ahead, with nearly 65% of the US market (and a much greater share in the UK), Yahoo! has regrouped and is back up to a share of nearly 23%. Yahoo!'s growth is largely at the expense of MSN, who peaked recently with the Live Search Club promo, but who have been unable to sustain their market position, which is down to 8%, its lowest point over the last year.

Importance of integrating search with other marketing activity.

Recent findings from Revolution's Digital Marketing Manual, encourage brand owners to consider the importance of search when developing above-the-line advertising.

"A survey by Carat Expert found that more than eight out of 10 consumers use a search engine after having partially remembered a web site address mentioned in an ad." (Revolution, 2007)

Savvy companies like Cooperative Financial Services are now optimising their sites and building keyword campaigns around advertising straplines (e.g. "Smile - the Internet bank" and "Co-op Bank - Good with Money").