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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Advertisers should be looking to target consumers through their mobiles, Microsoft said this week.
Speaking at the company’s advance08 forum for online advertising leadership, Microsoft’s corporate vice-president of mobile services, Brian Arbogast, commented that advertisers should take advantage of new opportunities available for mobile advertising.
"In today’s connected world, the mobile device is emerging as a prime opportunity for advertisers to reach their audience," he said.
Mr Arbogast’s comments came as the company announced two new initiatives for advertising on mobiles.
Marketers are to be invited to create keyword campaigns through Microsoft adCenter that target customers through Live Search Mobile.
And mobile banner ads are also to be made available on Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail in the UK, the US, France and Spain.
The company also announced this week the launch of a new cashback scheme, through which Live Search shoppers in the US will have a percentage of their purchases refunded.
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Attorneys for shareholders in Yahoo! are calling for the release of information regarding Microsoft’s $47.5 billion (£24.2 billion) bid for the search pioneer.
The shareholders are alleging that Yahoo! is protecting documents in order to protect itself from a proxy takeover led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, which would see the company pursue a deal with Microsoft once more.
But Yahoo! attorneys maintain that the information is confidential and should not be released.
It emerged earlier this week that Microsoft is discussing the possibility of a search advertising deal with Yahoo! that would stop short of a total takeover.
But Yahoo! shareholders claim the company betrayed its commitment to investors when it refused the software giant’s initial acquisition offer.
Meanwhile, Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, said at the firm’s UK conference earlier this week that it would be willing to extend the pilot advertising project with Yahoo! that took place earlier this year, which Mr Brin called a success.
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Property advertisers may soon be able to pay for links on Google Maps, a new report suggests.
The feature has integrated a facility which allows users to search for homes for sale in particular areas or around specific postcodes.
Results can be ordered according to bedroom and bathroom numbers as well as price and location, the Times notes.
And the service could see the popularity of paid search on Google’s main site replicated by property advertisers on the mapping service, the newspaper indicates.
The company – which welcomed visitors such as Gordon Brown to its annual conference this week at the Grove hotel complex in Hertfordshire – could reportedly find the property market a lucrative bedfellow.
"Property is just one of the areas in which Google is seeking to make geography or location an increasingly important part of the results provided by its ubiquitous search tool," comments the publication.
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At the Google conference in Hertfordshire this week, co-founder Sergey Brin was positive about a potential deal with Yahoo!.
In a move which the Guardian claimed could indicate Google’s possible emergence as a "white knight" to save Yahoo! from a Microsoft takeover, Mr Brin referenced the companies shared outlook and history.
A project which trialled advertising technology from Google on Yahoo!’s US site took place earlier this year.
"Primarily we learned it was good to work with them again … they have a very similar story to us and things went very well with that test so we would be very excited to work with them again," commented Mr Brin.
According to the publication, online advertisers may be hoping that Yahoo! deals with Microsoft rather than Google, to dilute the latter’s dominance over the market.
This week, Microsoft revealed it is pursuing the possibility of making a deal with Yahoo! that would stop short of a total takeover.
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Yahoo! and BT have suspended a security feature temporarily after it prevented some BT customers from being able to send emails, it has been reported.
According to the Guardian, the measure required messages to display a Yahoo! or BT address in the from field in order for it to pass through the server.
However, this meant that senders using their own domains found their messages blocked, being issued with the information that error 553 had occurred and asked to validate their domain by clicking on a link.
Phil Gyford, a freelance web consultant and blogger, commented to the publication: that BT’s attempts at honing security measures were essentially a good thing.
"Trouble is, they implemented it without telling anyone, then made it fiendishly complex to fix. The issue is even more confused by the apparently pointless partnership with Yahoo!," he added.
In related news, the Associated Press has reported that two spammers were given a $230 million (£118 million) judgement after failing to turn up to a court hearing over more than 730,000 spam messages sent on social site MySpace.
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The proxy takeover being mounted by Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor with a history of involvement in similar incidents, has awoken Yahoo!’s defences.
Investor unrest has been developing in the Yahoo! camp after the company would not accept a purchase offer of $47.5 billion (£24.4 billion) from Microsoft.
Mr Icahn owns 59 million shares in Yahoo! and Espen Eckbo, founding director of the Centre for Corporate Governance at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, claims that his proposal of ten dissident board members may have a better than average chance of succeeding because shareholder dissatisfaction is so high.
However, Yahoo!’s chairman Roy Bostock commented that Mr Icahn has a poor understanding of the circumstances surrounding Microsoft’s offer.
"We do not believe it is in the best interests of Yahoo stockholders to allow you and your hand-picked nominees to take control," he said in a letter to Mr Icahn.
The investor has written to Yahoo! stating that the company has lost the support of its shareholders by acting "irrationally" regarding Microsoft.
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