Posted by Malcolm Slade on May 29th, 2008
Social Media
Marketing professionals are increasingly spending their budgets on interactive platforms such as viral marketing and social media, new research shows.
According to a recent survey carried out by the Online Marketing and Media Show (OMMS), marketers are no longer focusing their attention on traditional banner advertising but are spending more money on search, email and pay-per-click.
The study also revealed that over a third of all respondents plan to spend up to 25 per cent of their marketing budgets on online marketing and media this year – a 15 per cent increase from the predicted spend in 2007.
Some 75 per cent of marketers generate more accountable return on investment from their online marketing and media activity than with more traditional marketing tools, the findings also showed.
“As the industry starts seeing improved measurement tools in place for social media, marketers will begin experimenting and investing more online,” commented Sally Maltby, event director for OMMS.
MySpace received 73.8 per cent of the market share of US visits to social networks this month, according to figures from Hitwise.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 28th, 2008
Social Media
Internet giant Yahoo! has filed a lawsuit against a group of email spammers for trying to con web users into believing they had won a lottery prize.
The phishing lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New under the Federal Trademark Act, the Federal CAN-SPAM Act and related state laws.
According to Yahoo!, email spammers "without permission or authorisation … wilfully masqueraded as Yahoo! and sent emails claiming that the recipient had won a lottery, prize or other award from Yahoo!".
The internet company noted that this kind of scam attempted to encourage unsuspecting customers into giving out personal information that could lead to them having money or their identity stolen.
Joe Siino, senior vice president of Yahoo! global IP and business strategy, said: "The unauthorised use of Yahoo!’s trademarks is misleading, fraudulent and has actually confused, misled and deceived the public."
He added that the company would enforce its intellectual property rights and would not put up with lottery hoax emails.
Meanwhile, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers has issued enforcement notices to ten companies identified as being those used to register most domain names involved in spam emails; if a company does not comply with the notice, it could have its accreditation withdrawn.
Posted by Gavin Smith on May 28th, 2008
Social Media
Web developers will be welcomed by Google to the company’s biggest conference of its kind this year.
Almost 3,000 web developers will gather for a keynote speech and about 100 technical sessions about web application development.
The company said its developer products were aimed at making it easier to build the web and the keynote speech will focus on three areas in particular – making clouds of computer power available, making browsers more capable and powerful and making sure connectivity enables this.
Vic Gundotra, vice president of engineering for developer product at Google, said there is a "passionate community working together to move [the internet] forward".
"What makes the real difference is the aggregate effect of us all working together, with open standards and open source," he added.
Google recently launched Friend Connect, a Web 2.0 application that acts as a bridge between social website applications like Facebook using a simple piece of code.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 27th, 2008
Paid Search
E-commerce growth experienced a six per cent hike between March and April, new figures indicate.
According to a report from comScore, e-commerce growth stood at 15 per cent last month, compared to nine per cent the previous month.
“While the e-commerce growth rates in 2008 are softer than what we saw last year, it’s encouraging that April’s growth rate represented an increase from what was obviously a soft March for online consumer spending,” commented comScore’s chairman, Gian Fulgoni.
He expressed hope that April would represent the beginning of a resurgence in activity in the US economy as the year progressed and the government’s tax rebate scheme began to stimulate consumer spending.
E-commerce growth figures for December were reported to be 18 per cent by comScore, with the comparative figures for January and February standing at 12 and 14 per cent respectively.
In related news, the digital world analyst revealed last week that Google had made it to the top of the comScore Media Metrix study for the first time.
Posted by Malcolm Slade on May 27th, 2008
Paid Search
Software giant Microsoft took a step back from its rivalry with Google last week as it announced the abandonment of plans to digitise millions of books.
The company revealed in a blog post that its would no longer be pursuing a book scan project that would have been a direct rival to Google’s Book Search scheme.
Satya Nadella, search and advertising senior vice-president with Microsoft, commented: "We believe the next generation of search is about the development of an underlying, sustainable business model for the search engine, consumer and content partner."
Microsoft last week revealed that a new cashback project would offer consumers a proportion of money back on any purchase that began with Live Search.
According to the Associated Press, the decision to withdraw digital book scanning could indicate that Microsoft wants to choose its battles with Google more carefully.
The future of the company that was being paid to scan books and academic articles for Microsoft, nonprofit organisation Internet Archive, is now uncertain, noted the New York Times.
Posted by David Wilding on May 27th, 2008
Natural search
Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube is a threat to online freedom, according to Google, which bought the video streaming site two years ago.
David Eun, vice-president of content partnerships with Google, expressed the firm’s intention to take the fight "all the way to the Supreme Court", reports the BBC.
Lawyers for Google claim that the lawsuit, which accuses YouTube of allowing the unauthorised distribution of film and TV clips, "threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information".
Viacom filed a rewritten version of its lawsuit, which was originally launched last year, in April.
According to the media company, it has evidence of more than 150,000 cases in which YouTube enabled the broadcast of video content without the permission of the copyright owner.
Meanwhile, comScore reported last week that viewing of TV shows on the web in the US rose by four per cent last month, with Yahoo! leading the sector.
Posted by David Wilding on May 23rd, 2008
Paid Search
A meeting of Yahoo! shareholders planned for July 3rd has been postponed, it has emerged.
The company has not specified a date for the rescheduled annual meeting, but it is thought the firm wants more time to prepare a defence against Carl Icahn, the activist investor preparing a proxy challenge to Yahoo!’s board.
Microsoft earlier this year put forward a $47.5 billion (£24.2 billion) bid for the search pioneer, but the deal fell through when price negotiations failed to reach a conclusion.
Shareholders have claimed that Yahoo! betrayed its duty to investors in refusing the software giant’s offer and Mr Icahn, who has a history of involvement in corporate battles, has nominated a slate of alternative directors to replace Yahoo!’s current board.
Claudia Allen, a Chicago lawyer who specialises in corporate governance issues, told the Associated Press: "It could be that they are exploring some other potential transactions, with the most likely one being some sort of deal with Microsoft that satisfies Mr. Icahn."
Meanwhile, Microsoft revealed this week it was in talks with Yahoo! about an alternative deal that would stop short of a total takeover.
Posted by Daniel Peden on May 23rd, 2008
Paid Search
Consumers are to be offered cashback on purchases made through Microsoft’s search service, it was announced this week.
A proportion of any transaction made via the software giant’s Live Search is to be refunded, in a reward scheme that seeks to encourage customers to use the service.
"We believe search can offer much more value to consumers and advertisers than it does today and we see Live Search cashback as an important opportunity to deliver additional value," asserted Bill Gates at the advance 08 conference.
Initially set for a US-only launch, Live Search cashback – which incorporates more than ten million products from over 700 merchants – may spread to the UK and other countries if it proves a success.
Barnes & Noble, eBay and Sears are among the key partners in the initiative, who presented it at the conference with Mr Gates.
The advance 08 conference also saw Microsoft announced new mobile advertising initiatives, encompassing keyword campaigns and display advertising.
Posted by David Wilding on May 23rd, 2008
Natural search
Google’s Search Quality team is to reveal information about the search giant’s page rankings procedures in a series of blog posts.
Writing on the Official Google Blog, vice-president of engineering at Search Quality Udi Manber notes that the historic secrecy surrounding the company’s methods of organising results could benefit from being relaxed.
"Being completely secretive isn’t ideal, and this blog post is part of a renewed effort to open up a bit more than we have in the past," Mr Manber states.
A number of posts on the blog are to reveal details about PageRank and the other systems and processes governing the procedure, offering advice, tips and information.
However, the Google representative explained that the need to protect secrets from competitors and those who would "game the system" means that a degree of secrecy must be obeyed by employees of the firm.
Google was named the top internet property in April for the first ever time in digital world analyst comScore’s Media Metrix.
Posted by Mike Gomez on May 22nd, 2008
Natural search
Google topped the list of online properties last month, new figures indicate.
The latest Media Metrix from comScore show that the company made it to the top of the list for the first time in April, followed by Yahoo! and Microsoft.
Other revelations in the Media Metrix included a four per cent growth in video streaming activity during the month, attributed to the continuing effects of the end of the writers’ strike.
“The return of the network television programmes after the writers strike sent fans to a variety of sites to get information on their favourite shows, catch up on episodes they may have missed, get refreshed on plotlines and to stream new episodes,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice-president of comScore Media Metrix.
Some 93.2 users watched TV on the internet last month, with Yahoo! leading the sector, the report revealed.
The search company’s video streaming services drew 15.6 million users over the course of the month.
A new feature on Google Maps allows users to search for homes in specific neighbourhoods, the Times reported this week.
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