Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Google Tops Fast 500: "WebProNews | Staff Writer - 2004-10-20
Google was named the fastest growing technology company in North America, topping the 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the fastest growing technology companies in North America based on percentage revenue growth over five years (fiscal year revenues 1999-2003) by Deloitte & Touche.
Google had a revenue growth rate over five years of 437,115 percent, moving from revenues of $220,000 in 1999 to $961,874,000 in 2003. Based in Mountain View, Calif., Google is a search engine firm that has become a household name. This is its first appearance on the Fast 500 ranking.
'Google tops a list of companies that are proving the resilience of the technology sector,' said Mark Evans, managing partner of Deloitte's Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group. 'With growth percentages ranging from 329 to 437,115 percent, the Fast 500 winners have demonstrated an ability to perform in difficult conditions.'"
Google was named the fastest growing technology company in North America, topping the 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the fastest growing technology companies in North America based on percentage revenue growth over five years (fiscal year revenues 1999-2003) by Deloitte & Touche.
Google had a revenue growth rate over five years of 437,115 percent, moving from revenues of $220,000 in 1999 to $961,874,000 in 2003. Based in Mountain View, Calif., Google is a search engine firm that has become a household name. This is its first appearance on the Fast 500 ranking.
'Google tops a list of companies that are proving the resilience of the technology sector,' said Mark Evans, managing partner of Deloitte's Technology, Media & Telecommunications Group. 'With growth percentages ranging from 329 to 437,115 percent, the Fast 500 winners have demonstrated an ability to perform in difficult conditions.'"
Smartmoney.com: Breaking News: Analyst Views Diverge on Google's First Quarterly Report:
" Published: October 20, 2004 1:28 AM
Internet-Search pioneer Google (GOOG) reports its first quarterly results as a public company Thursday, but there's little agreement on what those results will be, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported.
Analysts' estimates for Google's third-quarter earnings, excluding several expenses, range from 22 cents to 61 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. For 2005, the range of earnings estimates is equally dramatic: from $2.01 to $3.88 a share.
"That is a tremendous" variance, says Youssef Squali, Internet analyst at Jefferies in New York, who has a "hold" rating on the shares and whose firm makes a market in Google. "You see analysts with clearly divergent views."
The reason for the broad spread? Google refused to offer financial projections during the preparations for its initial public offering of stock in August, breaking with Wall Street practice and annoying some institutional investors. Executives aren't expected to be any more forthcoming Thursday. Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page said in the prospectus that they would run Google unconventionally, particularly when it comes to financial forecasts. "Although we may discuss long-term trends in our business, we do not plan to give earnings guidance in the traditional sense," they wrote in their folksy statement, citing investor Warren Buffett as inspiration.
As a practical matter, Google's stance leaves analysts and investors scratching their heads about what to expect from the company.
The variance in investor expectations may help explain the unusual volatility in Google shares, which have climbed about 75% since the IPO. The average spread between Google's daily high and low prices over the past month is 3.5%, compared with 2.9% for rival Yahoo and 1.4% for the 100 largest companies trading on the Nasdaq market, according to calculations by research firm Birinyi Associates.
Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Kevin J. Delaney contributed to this report.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-20-04 0128ET"
" Published: October 20, 2004 1:28 AM
Internet-Search pioneer Google (GOOG) reports its first quarterly results as a public company Thursday, but there's little agreement on what those results will be, Wednesday's Wall Street Journal reported.
Analysts' estimates for Google's third-quarter earnings, excluding several expenses, range from 22 cents to 61 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call. For 2005, the range of earnings estimates is equally dramatic: from $2.01 to $3.88 a share.
"That is a tremendous" variance, says Youssef Squali, Internet analyst at Jefferies in New York, who has a "hold" rating on the shares and whose firm makes a market in Google. "You see analysts with clearly divergent views."
The reason for the broad spread? Google refused to offer financial projections during the preparations for its initial public offering of stock in August, breaking with Wall Street practice and annoying some institutional investors. Executives aren't expected to be any more forthcoming Thursday. Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page said in the prospectus that they would run Google unconventionally, particularly when it comes to financial forecasts. "Although we may discuss long-term trends in our business, we do not plan to give earnings guidance in the traditional sense," they wrote in their folksy statement, citing investor Warren Buffett as inspiration.
As a practical matter, Google's stance leaves analysts and investors scratching their heads about what to expect from the company.
The variance in investor expectations may help explain the unusual volatility in Google shares, which have climbed about 75% since the IPO. The average spread between Google's daily high and low prices over the past month is 3.5%, compared with 2.9% for rival Yahoo and 1.4% for the 100 largest companies trading on the Nasdaq market, according to calculations by research firm Birinyi Associates.
Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Kevin J. Delaney contributed to this report.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-20-04 0128ET"
Thursday, October 14, 2004
InfoWorld: Yahoo meets earnings forecast; exceeds on revenue:
"Increased advertising adds to income
By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News ServiceOctober 12, 2004
Yahoo Inc. significantly increased its revenue and earnings in its third quarter, the result of what the company called an accelerated pace of development for new products and services, which in turn boosted Yahoo's advertising business.
Compared with last year's third quarter, Yahoo's revenue grew 154 percent to $907 million. Meanwhile, net income rose to $253.3 million, or $0.17 per share, from $65.3 million, or $0.05 per share.
Excluding a one-time gain related to an investment sale and a resulting tax benefit, Yahoo's net income came in at $124 million, or $0.09 per share, meeting the consensus expectation from analysts polled by Thomson First Call.
Excluding traffic acquisition costs, which are revenue shared with and paid to affiliates of Yahoo's Overture unit, revenue came in at $655 million, exceeding analyst consensus expectations by $11 million.
Overture, which Yahoo bought in October 2003, sells online ads that run in a network of Web sites. Based on context, Overture matches the ads with Web pages in the network, meaning that ads for baseball gloves should appear in Web pages about baseball. The ads are also matched to search engine queries, so that a user who queries a search engine for "baseball gloves" should see contextually relevant ads."
"Increased advertising adds to income
By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News ServiceOctober 12, 2004
Yahoo Inc. significantly increased its revenue and earnings in its third quarter, the result of what the company called an accelerated pace of development for new products and services, which in turn boosted Yahoo's advertising business.
Compared with last year's third quarter, Yahoo's revenue grew 154 percent to $907 million. Meanwhile, net income rose to $253.3 million, or $0.17 per share, from $65.3 million, or $0.05 per share.
Excluding a one-time gain related to an investment sale and a resulting tax benefit, Yahoo's net income came in at $124 million, or $0.09 per share, meeting the consensus expectation from analysts polled by Thomson First Call.
Excluding traffic acquisition costs, which are revenue shared with and paid to affiliates of Yahoo's Overture unit, revenue came in at $655 million, exceeding analyst consensus expectations by $11 million.
Overture, which Yahoo bought in October 2003, sells online ads that run in a network of Web sites. Based on context, Overture matches the ads with Web pages in the network, meaning that ads for baseball gloves should appear in Web pages about baseball. The ads are also matched to search engine queries, so that a user who queries a search engine for "baseball gloves" should see contextually relevant ads."
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Transparent Search a Snap:
"By Susan Kuchinskas
SAN FRANCISCO -- A new company launched by dotcom survivor idealab aims to take a chunk out of the search market by letting users slice and dice their search results.
Snap, which launched in beta on Tuesday, is an attempt to combine natural search with revenue-producing activities including comparison shopping and paid listings. The service was created by Perfect Market Technologies, a company developed by high-tech incubator idealab of Santa Monica, Calif.
The types of search results generated by Snap are context-sensitive; what information is delivered depends on the search term. For example, if the search term is in a category where structured data is available, such as 'camera,' results include a table with brands and models of cameras along with product attributes, thanks to Smarter.com, another idealab company. The user can refine the search by any of the attributes, from brand to model to resolution.
The company also touts 'transparency,' offering advertisers Overture-style pay-for-placement listings while showing searchers exactly how much they paid. It's a method premiered by idealab's most successful company, GoTo.com, which became Overture Services. Overture was sold to Yahoo (Quote, Chart) for $1.6 billion in 2003..."
"By Susan Kuchinskas
SAN FRANCISCO -- A new company launched by dotcom survivor idealab aims to take a chunk out of the search market by letting users slice and dice their search results.
Snap, which launched in beta on Tuesday, is an attempt to combine natural search with revenue-producing activities including comparison shopping and paid listings. The service was created by Perfect Market Technologies, a company developed by high-tech incubator idealab of Santa Monica, Calif.
The types of search results generated by Snap are context-sensitive; what information is delivered depends on the search term. For example, if the search term is in a category where structured data is available, such as 'camera,' results include a table with brands and models of cameras along with product attributes, thanks to Smarter.com, another idealab company. The user can refine the search by any of the attributes, from brand to model to resolution.
The company also touts 'transparency,' offering advertisers Overture-style pay-for-placement listings while showing searchers exactly how much they paid. It's a method premiered by idealab's most successful company, GoTo.com, which became Overture Services. Overture was sold to Yahoo (Quote, Chart) for $1.6 billion in 2003..."
About IceRocket:
"IceRocket, a privately owned and operated Search Engine ...
... is a global leader in commercial search services on the Internet, providing new and more powerful ways for customers to find exactly what they are looking for. IceRocket is pioneering commercial search by putting the interests and wants of consumers before advertisers. IceRocket uses innovative metasearch technology to search the Internet's top search engines, including WiseNut, Yahoo, MSN, Teoma, Altavista, Alltheweb, Lycos, and many more. IceRocket offers a full suite of Internet search products and search-related services. "
"IceRocket, a privately owned and operated Search Engine ...
... is a global leader in commercial search services on the Internet, providing new and more powerful ways for customers to find exactly what they are looking for. IceRocket is pioneering commercial search by putting the interests and wants of consumers before advertisers. IceRocket uses innovative metasearch technology to search the Internet's top search engines, including WiseNut, Yahoo, MSN, Teoma, Altavista, Alltheweb, Lycos, and many more. IceRocket offers a full suite of Internet search products and search-related services. "
DMNews.com | News | Article:
"Yahoo Tests Personal Search
By: Brian Morrissey - Senior Editor - bmorrissey@dmnews.com
Yahoo became the latest search engine to try its hand at personalized search, unveiling tools Tuesday that let searchers save and edit search results.
My Yahoo Search, still in test mode, lets searchers save results with notes that then can be searched. It also lets users block certain results in an effort to reduce so-called search spam of irrelevant results that appear in search indexes. And it includes the ability to categorize saved searches and share them via e-mail or syndication technology.
The personalized search tools take a similar tack as Ask Jeeves, which this month added a My Jeeves feature that lets users save and search Internet sites. Google has tested a personalized search feature, and Amazon has introduced a personalized search engine, A9.com.
My Yahoo Search requires users to log in using their Yahoo identification and password. Each search result includes the ability to save, save with a note, share or block. "
"Yahoo Tests Personal Search
By: Brian Morrissey - Senior Editor - bmorrissey@dmnews.com
Yahoo became the latest search engine to try its hand at personalized search, unveiling tools Tuesday that let searchers save and edit search results.
My Yahoo Search, still in test mode, lets searchers save results with notes that then can be searched. It also lets users block certain results in an effort to reduce so-called search spam of irrelevant results that appear in search indexes. And it includes the ability to categorize saved searches and share them via e-mail or syndication technology.
The personalized search tools take a similar tack as Ask Jeeves, which this month added a My Jeeves feature that lets users save and search Internet sites. Google has tested a personalized search feature, and Amazon has introduced a personalized search engine, A9.com.
My Yahoo Search requires users to log in using their Yahoo identification and password. Each search result includes the ability to save, save with a note, share or block. "
Contextual Ads: Vital to a Search Marketing Campaign?:
"By Catherine Seda, Guest Writer - October 7, 2004
Are you bidding on keywords through Overture's Precision Match, Google's AdWords or another pay-for-placement program? If so, you're eligible to participate in contextual advertising.
In contextual advertising, search engines will display your search ads on the web pages of content sites that have signed up as publishing partners, and are deemed relevant for your ads. That extra visibility sounds great, right? Not so fast. The speakers on the contextual advertising panel point out problems, as well as perks, to this fairly new form of online advertising..."
"By Catherine Seda, Guest Writer - October 7, 2004
Are you bidding on keywords through Overture's Precision Match, Google's AdWords or another pay-for-placement program? If so, you're eligible to participate in contextual advertising.
In contextual advertising, search engines will display your search ads on the web pages of content sites that have signed up as publishing partners, and are deemed relevant for your ads. That extra visibility sounds great, right? Not so fast. The speakers on the contextual advertising panel point out problems, as well as perks, to this fairly new form of online advertising..."
MediaDailyNews 10-07-04:
"FindWhat.com, Verizon Expand CPC Deal
FindWhat.com Thursday said it expanded its online marketing services relationship with online Yellow Pages giant Verizon Information Services. Under the new terms, Verizon's SuperPages.com local and national pay-per-click ads will be distributed throughout the FindWhat.com network and are available as added advertising content for other FindWhat.com private label partner programs. The multiyear agreement is an extension of Verizon Information Services' initial relationship with FindWhat.com, Inc., announced in December 2003, with FindWhat.com Private Label providing the technology and business operations expertise to support pay-per-click advertising services. "
"FindWhat.com, Verizon Expand CPC Deal
FindWhat.com Thursday said it expanded its online marketing services relationship with online Yellow Pages giant Verizon Information Services. Under the new terms, Verizon's SuperPages.com local and national pay-per-click ads will be distributed throughout the FindWhat.com network and are available as added advertising content for other FindWhat.com private label partner programs. The multiyear agreement is an extension of Verizon Information Services' initial relationship with FindWhat.com, Inc., announced in December 2003, with FindWhat.com Private Label providing the technology and business operations expertise to support pay-per-click advertising services. "
ResearchBuzz, October 04, 2004:
"YNAPS -- Yahoo Non-API Proximity Search
Yahoo doesn't offer an API, which might explain the dearth of Yahoo Hacks. However it does offer an unlimited query structure, which means that you can use Perl to noodle up bloody huge queries and open the search results directly at Yahoo.
Since the Google API Proximity Search ( Wonderfully done at Staggernation) is somewhat limited by Google's query search limit and API, I wanted to see what I could do with Yahoo. (See arbitrarily huge query experiments from August.)..."
"YNAPS -- Yahoo Non-API Proximity Search
Yahoo doesn't offer an API, which might explain the dearth of Yahoo Hacks. However it does offer an unlimited query structure, which means that you can use Perl to noodle up bloody huge queries and open the search results directly at Yahoo.
Since the Google API Proximity Search ( Wonderfully done at Staggernation) is somewhat limited by Google's query search limit and API, I wanted to see what I could do with Yahoo. (See arbitrarily huge query experiments from August.)..."
Clush - The Clustered Search (Members Area):
"About Clush
Welcome to Clush, the first deep clustered search directory available to the public. Clush produces clustered search results from millions of WebPages giving the user dynamically categorized data that cannot be duplicated by static or human edited directories. The results of a clustered search capture the most valuable data and delivers intuitively categorized results, building dynamic categories along the way. This new innovative approach can be used for business and consumer applications. The details of the Clush search may surprise you, exposing valuable hidden relationships not previously known..."
"About Clush
Welcome to Clush, the first deep clustered search directory available to the public. Clush produces clustered search results from millions of WebPages giving the user dynamically categorized data that cannot be duplicated by static or human edited directories. The results of a clustered search capture the most valuable data and delivers intuitively categorized results, building dynamic categories along the way. This new innovative approach can be used for business and consumer applications. The details of the Clush search may surprise you, exposing valuable hidden relationships not previously known..."
Google Print:
"About Google Print (Beta)
What is Google Print?
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Since a lot of the world's information isn't yet online, we're helping to get it there. Google Print puts the content of books where you can find it most easily; right in Google search results.
To use Google Print, just do searches on Google as you normally would. Whenever a book contains content that matches your search terms, we'll show links to that book in your search results. Click on the book title and you'll go to a 'content page,' where you can see the page containing your search terms and other information about the book. You can also search for other topics within the book. Click on the 'Buy this Book' link and you'll go straight to a bookstore selling the book online.
If you're a book publisher and you'd like to have your books included in Google search results, look into the Google Print program for publishers..."
"About Google Print (Beta)
What is Google Print?
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Since a lot of the world's information isn't yet online, we're helping to get it there. Google Print puts the content of books where you can find it most easily; right in Google search results.
To use Google Print, just do searches on Google as you normally would. Whenever a book contains content that matches your search terms, we'll show links to that book in your search results. Click on the book title and you'll go to a 'content page,' where you can see the page containing your search terms and other information about the book. You can also search for other topics within the book. Click on the 'Buy this Book' link and you'll go straight to a bookstore selling the book online.
If you're a book publisher and you'd like to have your books included in Google search results, look into the Google Print program for publishers..."
User-Guided Search Refining in Google -- ResearchBuzz, October 06, 2004:
"Despite the fact that the Google API hasn't been updated in over two years, people keep doing Cool Things with it. The latest Cool Thing I've seen is the very nice MyGoogleSearch ( http://www.mygooglesearch.com/ ). The idea behind this hack is that you can take the returned search results and use them to further clarify your search results.
Here's how it works: run a search (note that the top query box is for an API key; leave it alone unless you've got a key to enter; you'll mess up your search otherwise.) You'll get ten results via the Google API. Results will have a checkbox next to them. Check the results that are *not* relevant (seems counterintuitive; how about having the boxes prechecked and instructing the user to uncheck the ones that aren't relevant?) and click the 'Refine by Example' button at the bottom of the page.
The page will refresh showing a new ten results with notes at the top defining what search terms were added. I tried searching for chips, and then eliminated all results that weren't technology-oriented. The page refreshed informing me that the keywords search and news had been added. I eliminated all non-tech results again, and got a new page informing me that the keywords Google and Help had been added. Strangely the second page of results were more targeted than the third.
Good idea, could use some tweaking for more words. -- maybe weight the words in the title more than the words in the body? Arbitrarily remove the top and bottom tenth of words in a cache in the hope of getting rid of nav? Hmmm. "
"Despite the fact that the Google API hasn't been updated in over two years, people keep doing Cool Things with it. The latest Cool Thing I've seen is the very nice MyGoogleSearch ( http://www.mygooglesearch.com/ ). The idea behind this hack is that you can take the returned search results and use them to further clarify your search results.
Here's how it works: run a search (note that the top query box is for an API key; leave it alone unless you've got a key to enter; you'll mess up your search otherwise.) You'll get ten results via the Google API. Results will have a checkbox next to them. Check the results that are *not* relevant (seems counterintuitive; how about having the boxes prechecked and instructing the user to uncheck the ones that aren't relevant?) and click the 'Refine by Example' button at the bottom of the page.
The page will refresh showing a new ten results with notes at the top defining what search terms were added. I tried searching for chips, and then eliminated all results that weren't technology-oriented. The page refreshed informing me that the keywords search and news had been added. I eliminated all non-tech results again, and got a new page informing me that the keywords Google and Help had been added. Strangely the second page of results were more targeted than the third.
Good idea, could use some tweaking for more words. -- maybe weight the words in the title more than the words in the body? Arbitrarily remove the top and bottom tenth of words in a cache in the hope of getting rid of nav? Hmmm. "
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
InfoWorld: Blogger father resigns from Google :
"By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News ServiceOctober 05, 2004
Evan Williams says service is in good hands
Search company Google (Profile, Products, Articles) Inc. has lost the services of Evan Williams, father of the Blogger Web logging service.
Williams resigned from Google effective Friday, he wrote in a posting to his personal blog Monday (http://www.evhead.com/.) Williams joined Google in February 2003 when the search giant bought Pyra Labs, the company that created Blogger in 1999. Williams was a Pyra Labs co-founder as well as its chief executive.
Google didn't immediately respond to calls seeking comment..."
"By Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News ServiceOctober 05, 2004
Evan Williams says service is in good hands
Search company Google (Profile, Products, Articles) Inc. has lost the services of Evan Williams, father of the Blogger Web logging service.
Williams resigned from Google effective Friday, he wrote in a posting to his personal blog Monday (http://www.evhead.com/.) Williams joined Google in February 2003 when the search giant bought Pyra Labs, the company that created Blogger in 1999. Williams was a Pyra Labs co-founder as well as its chief executive.
Google didn't immediately respond to calls seeking comment..."
