Visual Knowledge

Commentary: Diller asks for search | CNET News.com:
"By Forrester Research - Special to CNET News.com -March 21, 2005, 11:36AM PST

by Charlene Li, Principal Analyst

The oft-maligned Ask Jeeves team ('Are they still around?' is what I often hear) should now be having the last laugh: InterActiveCorp is buying the search company for $1.85 billion.

First, congratulations to Ask Jeeves CEO Steve Berkowitz and his team. They have produced innovation after innovation, but because the company lacked the network and traffic, they usually got short shift. They have good personalized search, desktop search, their own algorithmic search engine, and of course, their recent purchase of Bloglines. Add in their ownership of properties like Excite, iWon and My Way, and they make a great acquisition target for InterActiveCorp.

Here are a couple of ways InterActiveCorp can take advantage of the Ask Jeeves acquisition:

• Search drives much of the traffic for key InterActiveCorp properties like Expedia, CitySearch and Match.com. Having direct connections to a search engine, even a smaller one, will give those companies insights into how consumers use search and how to best exploit other search engines. It could give InterActiveCorp companies more of a leg up, especially in the area of organic search optimization.

• Distribution via RSS of e-commerce promotions. Think about it--all of InterActiveCorp's properties are highly dependent on return traffic, not just acquisitions via search. Bloglines represents an untapped opportunity for InterActiveCorp properties (and other marketers) to reach their customers through personalized feeds (for instance, I want all the upcoming concerts for the Indigo Girls in the Bay Area, and if they're in Boston during an upcoming business trip that I booked on Expedia, also let me know). And even more importantly, because the feeds are delivered online, they can develop rich profiles of those users and target ads, services and products to them (with strong regard to privacy, of course).

• Ask Jeeves already has a partnership with CitySearch for local search. Look for CitySearch to beef up its offerings with more Web-crawled information a la Google, supplementing its already deep entertainment listings.

Two big challenges for the combined companies:

• Gaining user loyalty. As I've written in the past, search loyalty is still up for grabs. Ask Jeeves has only a 3 percent market share (based on which search engine North American online consumers use most often to search the Internet). If any of the above strategies are going to succeed, InterActiveCorp will have to invest heavily to promote a repositioned Ask Jeeves strongly against formidable competition.

• Diversifying revenue beyond the current Google revenue sharing (which represents about 70 percent of total revenue for Ask Jeeves). InterActiveCorp has got to be watching MSN's new paid search product launch closely and thinking about whether to renew with Google when that contract is up for renewal in 2007--or to strike out on its own."

Ask Jeeves' new features zoom in, out | CNET News.com:
"By Stefanie Olsen - Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Ask Jeeves has added new features to its search engine with the aim of setting its service apart from rivals, the company said Thursday.

One new feature builds on Ask Jeeves' long-standing clustering technology, which parses search results into concepts or ideas related to any given query. Called Zoom, the new feature lets people narrow or broaden the field of search results, as well as view results for related concepts. For example, for a search on the term 'cancer,' visitors can narrow it to types of the disease, or they could expand it to related illnesses.

'We understand how the Web is related through social networks, and that makes our results editorially different from Google's and Yahoo's, which have similar methods of delivering results,' said Jim Lanzone, senior vice president of search properties for Ask Jeeves. 'We think that's valuable.'

The other new feature centers on delivering better answers to direct questions--for example, 'Who shot John Lennon?'--by scouring the unstructured data on the Web for accurate information.
Phishers get personal

The technology advancements are part of Ask Jeeves' strategy to outshine rivals Yahoo and Google in the search market. The company has long operated in the shadows of the larger search providers, despite financial success of its own. Though Ask Jeeves has kept pace in the feature wars of rivals, it has yet to win the cult of personality of Google or the enormous audience of Yahoo. The company is trying to step out of the shadows by improving its core search technology this year.

In March, Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp announced plans to buy Ask Jeeves for nearly $2 billion; part of Ask Jeeves' plan is to tap InterActiveCorp's cash reserves to continue to expand the business internationally and bolster the product. Ask Jeeves recently bought Excite Italia, the operator of Excite Europe, from Internet service provider Tiscali."

Wired News: Next for BitTorrent: Search:
"SAN FRANCISCO -- Whiz kid inventor Bram Cohen and a small cadre of developers and entrepreneurs are in the final stage of launching an advertising-supported search engine dedicated to cataloging and indexing the thousands of movies, music tracks, software programs and other files for download over Cohen's popular BitTorrent protocol.

The free search tool will be the first large-scale commercial offering from BitTorrent, a five-person company headed by Cohen that so far has drawn most of its revenue from T-shirt sales and PayPal donations..."

Tech vendors align against Micosoft in EU case | InfoWorld | News | 2005-05-23 | By Scarlet Pruitt, IDG News Service:
"A group of five large technology vendors, including IBM (Profile, Products, Articles) and Oracle (Profile, Products, Articles), have officially been approved to raise their voices against Microsoft (Profile, Products, Articles) in an appeal of the European Commission's antitrust case.

The court hearing the appeal announced Friday that the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) was accepted as an intervenor in the case, according to a Microsoft representative.

IBM, Oracle, Nokia (Profile, Products, Articles), RealNetworks, and Red Hat (Profile, Products, Articles) have applied to participate under the umbrella group to support the Commission's efforts to keep Microsoft from using its dominance in the PC operating systems market to gain an unfair advantage in the related workgroup software and media player markets..."

WSJ claims Apple to use Intel chips | InfoWorld | News | 2005-05-23 | By Macworld.co.uk staff:
"A new report that claims Apple may choose to use Intel (Profile, Products, Articles) processors has appeared in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

'Apple has held talks to use Intel chips in its Macintosh line. Neither would confirm a change in the relationship, and it's unclear if Apple will shift away from IBM (Profile, Products, Articles),' the report claims.

The WSJ cites industry executives who claim knowledge of recent talks between Apple and Intel, and says Apple has agreed to use Intel's chips. The report does not clarify what such a move may mean to Apple's relationship with IBM.

Maintaining its customary silence, Apple dismissed the report as 'rumor and speculation.'"

What Happened to the Bandwidth Glut?:
"Published: May 17, 2005 - (After May 24, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

Streaming music and video and VoIP calling are some of the factors driving demand for bandwidth.

In the 1990s, expectations of fantastic growth drove huge broadband investment. Then came the backlash, and fears of a bandwidth glut. Now demand for bandwidth is on the rise again.

TeleGeography reports that international demand for bandwidth grew 42% in 2004. Last year marked the second consecutive year of growth, with carriers adding 62% more capacity in 2003.

'After a brutal five-year downturn, the international bandwidth market is showing renewed signs of life,' said TeleGeography. 'Demand for long-haul capacity grew briskly in 2004, and circuit prices, while not exactly stable, have been declining at a more moderate pace in many regions of the world.'

Data traffic hasn't grown as rapidly as some analysts forecast in the 1990s, TeleGeography said, but companies' appetite for bandwidth 'has been immense by any other standard.'

What about the once feared bandwidth glut? 'Even relatively modest growth in demand will soon deplete the current inventory of unsold circuits on many submarine cables and on some terrestrial network segments,' TeleGeography said.

The appetite for bandwidth is being fed by consumers hungry for broadband services. According to a report just released by Point Topic, consumer spending on broadband is being driven by demand for streaming music and video, VoIP calling and other broadband value-added services (BVAS).

The research firm said that at the start of 2004 the annual rate of BVAS consumer spending was running at an annual rate of $3.3 billion worldwide, but by the end of the year the figure had more than doubled to $6.9 billion.

Obviously, that's good news for telecoms — and e-commerce companies and a wide range of content providers. But Point Topic said the data was especially good news because the growth of revenues and users of BVAS outpaced even the rapid expansion of broadband adoption."

The Five Ps of Activist Marketing:
"Why are activists such great marketers? We 'real' marketers have billions of dollars. They have pennies. Yet activists always seem to get the sky-high return on investment (ROI) when trying to get a message across..."

Parsons: would consider AOL spinoff -- Fortune - May. 17, 2005:
"Fortune: TimeWarner CEO would consider a spinoff if the Web division's 'portal' concept disappoints.
May 17, 2005: 8:31 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons said he'd consider spinning off AOL as a separate stock if the division's latest strategy doesn't pan out, according to the latest issue of Fortune magazine.

At issue is AOL's latest focus on generating advertising revenue as the division loses subscribers to its dial-up service. The goal is to launch a free 'portal' Web site with search capabilities, music, e-mail and content that is currently available only to AOL subscribers, and then sell advertising against those features..."

Wired News: Firefox Users Monkey With the Web:
"In a modern twist on the hot rodders of old, Firefox users are pimping the web, one browser at a time.

They've added a delete button and permanent search folders to Gmail, made their browsers show only print pages of online news stories, reconfigured all the content on a popular music website and removed Reuters stories on the Michael Jackson story from online newsreader Bloglines..."

Security firms fight Firefox fire with fire | InfoWorld | News | 2005-05-12 | By Bob Francis:
"FraudEliminator, Anonymizer aid newly popular browser

By Bob Francis - May 12, 2005

Just in time for one of the first serious security flaws to be found in Mozilla's Firefox, two companies, Anonymizer and FraudEliminator, have released new security products for the popular open source Web browser.

Anonymizer's Total Privacy Suite is designed to safeguard Firefox users from spyware, keylonger software, and other online snooping programs. The suite integrates three Anonymizer programs -- surfing, anti-spyware, and digital shredding -- into a single product.

'Although Firefox is a secure browser, users are still extremely vulnerable to ID theft on the Internet without Total Privacy Suite in place,' said Lee Itzhaki, director of product management for Anonymizer.

FraudEliminator's latest version of its FraudEliminator Pro software offers protection against pharming, phishing, and DNS exploits.

Firefox has been gaining market share on Microsoft's (Profile, Products, Articles) Internet Explorer browser and last week announced it had hit the 50 million download mark. Many Firefox advocates have said one key reason it has become so popular is because IE has proven to be a security sieve.

But early this week, Secunia, an IT security services company that monitors computer security issues, found several security flaws it deemed critical in Firefox. According to Secunia, two vulnerabilities found in the increasingly popular browser can be exploited to conduct cross-site scripting attacks and compromise a user's PC. Cross-site scripting (also known as XSS) occurs when a Web application gathers malicious data from a user. Many security experts have speculated that, as Firefox gains in popularity, it too will be hit by hackers much like IE.

The Mozilla Foundation (Profile, Products, Articles) says that it is working a solution to these potential vulnerabilities and will offer a security update to fix the problems. Meanwhile, Secunia says users can protect against the vulnerabilities by disabling JavaScript.

The new Anonymizer Total Privacy Suite is available now for $59.95. FraudEliminator Pro is available for $19.99. Both products are available from their respective company Web sites."

Knowledge Workers Looking Offline: "Published: May 12, 2005
(After May 19, 2005, this article will only be available to eStat Database subscribers.)

Are knowledge workers turning away from the Web? A report from Outsell finds that professionals are using the Web less to search for information.

In a survey of 2,000 knowledge workers in finance/HR/legal, information technology, sales/marketing, science/engineering and manufacturing/purchasing, Outsell found that professionals are less likely to use the Web to hunt for information than they were in 2001. More of them are turning to corporate intranets, colleagues, libraries and other sources.

According to the survey, only 67% of professionals now go to the open Web for information, vs. 79% in 2001.

In addition, knowledge workers are less likely to run down information themselves — only 51% in 2005 vs. 68% in 2001. Many now rely on regularly scheduled updates, other members of their team or their library. In a somewhat contradictory finding, the study found that knowledge workers now spend 11 hours per week searching for information, vs. 8 in 2001.

The time spent analyzing vs. gathering information has flipped, too. Today's professionals spend most of their time (53%) seeking out information. Four years ago, knowledge workers were able to spend the majority of their time (56%) analyzing and applying what they had found."

The Business of Blogging: "Published: May 12, 2005

When it comes to business, are blogs the wave of the future? Should your company invest time and resources in blogs or concentrate on the thousand-and-one other Internet initiatives that are on your plate?

eMarketer's new report, The Business of Blogging, focuses on the use of blogs in business, either as a corporate marketing or communications tool, as an advertising medium for marketers, or a publishing format for media companies.

An informal eMarketer survey finds that just 4% of major US corporations have blogs available to the public — and even fewer produce active sites with the link and feedback features that most readers associate with true blogs. Blogging by small businesses is probably even less common.

'Blogging is an explosively popular social phenomenon that is spilling into the business world,' says Ezra Palmer, eMarketer's editorial director, the author of the report. 'But thus far the financial and economic impact of blogging has been minimal.'

The sheer number of blogs is staggering, but many Americans still don't know what a blog is.

Nevertheless, the 2004 election cycle spurred big gains in blog readership, says Mr. Palmer. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that the percentage of Internet users who had read blogs jumped from 17% in February 2004 to 27% in November. (New figures released in May 2005, however, showed readership growth had stalled.)

The Pew data suggests that roughly 16% of the entire US adult population, or about 32 million adults, have read blogs. Pew found a significant number of regular readers: about 7% of the online population, or roughly 8.4 million people, said they had looked at a blog in the last 24 hours. Similarly, a Forrester Research poll found that 5% of online consumers said that they regularly read blogs.

Harris Interactive found a higher readership. It asked 2,630 online adults, 'About how often do you read political blogs?' Some 44% of respondents had read a political blog at least once.

Not surprisingly, older readers are less likely to have read blogs. Gallup, in a poll conducted with CNN and USA Today, found that nine of 10 adults over 65 had never read one. Forrester also found blog usage skewed young—respondents between 18 and 24 were more than twice as likely to be regular blog readers than the population as a whole.

A survey of blog readers by ad service company Blogads came up with an older age range. This may reflect that the survey started with a request for responses from some of the largest, most heavily trafficked blogs, a number of which were staple reading for politically active readers.

'Blog readership may have gotten an unsustainable boost from the unusually contentious 2004 election,' says Mr. Palmer. 'The latest Pew data and other anecdotal evidence suggest that blog readership has crested, at least temporarily. Blog readership growth probably will slow this year. It will take a significant amount of growth just to make up for the loss of short term political readers who logged off post election day.'"

Technology News Article | Reuters.com:
"Gates sees mobile phones overtaking iPods - paper
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Microsoft founder Bill Gates sees mobile phones overtaking MP3s as the top choice of portable music player, and views the raging popularity of Apple's iPod player as unsustainable, he told a German newspaper.

'As good as Apple may be, I don't believe the success of the iPod is sustainable in the long run,' he said in an interview published in Thursday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

'You can make parallels with computers: Apple was very strong in this field before, with its Macintosh and its graphics user interface -- like the iPod today -- and then lost its position,' Gates said."

Mistrial Is Declared in FindWhat.com Case - Forbes.com: "Online search firm FindWhat.com Inc. said Thursday that a judge declared a mistrial after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in its patent dispute with Yahoo Inc.'s Overture Services unit.

The company noted that a hearing on whether the patent is unenforceable because of 'inequitable conduct committed by Overture,' as well as on other motions, is scheduled for June 24.

'We continue to believe that FindWhat.com has never infringed any valid and enforceable claim of the '361 patent,' Craig Pisaris-Henderson, FindWhat.com's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Overture, which Internet giant Yahoo acquired in late 2003, became a high-profile Web firm after developing a system that displays paid advertising links after certain words are entered in a search-engine query.

Shortly before its initial public offering last August, rival Google Inc. handed over 2.7 million shares - then worth about $300 million - to settle allegations that Google illegally copied Overture's technology.

FindWhat.com shares surged in early trading, climbing 35 cents, or 8.3 percent, to $4.20, while Yahoo shares rose 12 cents to $35. Both trade on the Nasdaq. FindWhat.com's stock recently hit a 52-week low of about $4. "

Google Buys Into Ad-Supported Mobile Networking:
"Google has acquired mobile social networking firm dodgeball.com in a move that could help the search player deliver location-based advertising on cell phones. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed.

New York City-based dodgeball.com uses SMS (define) and MMS (define) technology to allow consumers to connect with friends and friends-of-friends at nightspots in 22 U.S. cities. Because users text dodgeball to indicate their locations, the company can use that information to target ad messages to users within a specific geographic area who have opted-in. The company says it can also target by date and time, weather conditions, or by city.

In a June 2004 campaign, vodka marketer Absolut sent opt-in subscribers messages that said, 'What a gorgeous day! Reply with @venuename telling us where u are. Dodgeball & Absolut will send the closest outdoor patio.' When users responded, the company followed-up with information about the closest place where they could enjoy outdoor drinks.

Google declined to comment on the acquisition or on its future plans for the service.

In a message on the dodgeball Web site, founders Dennis Crowley and Alex Rainert characterized the sale as an opportunity for them to build more features.

'We have lots of ideas that we've wanted to work on for a long time, and we're excited that we will now have the time and resources to actually follow-through with them. There's some cool stuff in the works,' the message reads. Crowley and Rainert have a history of work in the interactive world. Crowley previously managed mobile applications at Vindigo, and has worked at MTV Networks and ABC. He also served a stint at JupiterResearch. Rainert most recently worked at ECCO design on user interface projects, and he has also worked at agencies Razorfish and R/GA."

If Search Engines Could Read Your Mind:
"By Chris Sherman, Associate Editor - May 11, 2005

What if a search engine knew exactly what you were thinking, and unerringly provided perfect search results? The idea is not as farfetched as it sounds.

When people complain about 'poor quality' or 'irrelevant' search results, they almost never blame their own poorly formed request—yet bad queries are a huge part of the problem. It's actually quite remarkable that search engines can take a sparse two or three word query and make sense of it. Lacking context, search engines are forced to virtually guess at your true intent.

If only we searchers would spell out our needs in greater detail, search engines wouldn't need to rely so heavily on unreliable heuristics and other techniques that are imperfect indicators of meaning. Our laxity is one reason why most search engines offer search refinement tools, suggesting additional query terms, clustering results into conceptually related topics or otherwise trying to extract more clues about what a searcher is really looking for.

These refinement tools are relatively primitive, but for good reason—most of us are too lazy to take advantage of them. When we do, our results often improve. But more often than not we're in too big of a hurry to get results. We'd much rather waste time scanning results and clicking back and forth among less-than-useful pages than craft a really good query or use search refinement tools..."

Google News plans threaten indy sites:
"Search giant Google is planning to revamp its news aggregator to rank stories using a controversial rating system that could penalise small, independent news sites.

New Scientist last week reported that Google has applied for a patent for a new version of Google News. The current news tool lists search results by date and relevance, but the new system would be built around a database of news sources with 'credibility' scores calculated on story length, volume of web traffic and number of reporters and international bureaus. Scores will then be used to rank the search results from individual news organisations.

Brian Dominick, editor of alternative news site the New Standard, described the new system as 'horrendous' and said that factors of scale are almost meaningless to an individual news story.

'I can understand the desire to unclutter Google News search results, but suppressing duplicate copies of AP stories doesn't address the fact that most mainstream media run essentially the same piece on everything that comes down the line, anyway,' said Mr Dominick.

'Independents that produce original content add value, and they need and deserve the relatively even playing field Google News has provided thus far.'..."

Top News Article | Reuters.com:
"Google steps up fight for the China market
By Doug Young

SHANGHAI, May 11 (Reuters) - Web services leader Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) has won a licence to operate in China and has bought a Web address as it battles Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) in the world's second-largest Internet market.

The U.S. Web services giant, which makes its money from searches, advertising and other services, is hiring staff with the aim of opening an office in the country this year, according to several sources within or close to the company.

A person familiar with the matter told Reuters the company was planning to open an office by the end of this year, most likely in Shanghai, and was building up a country team to target corporate customers for advertising sales.

A Google spokeswoman had no comment on those matters.

China claims the world's second-largest number of Internet users after the United States and had 94 million Web surfers at the end of last year. The figure is expected to grow to 134 million by the end of 2005, according to official data.

But major players must cope with rampant censorship in China. Most firms voluntarily block searches on sensitive topics from the Falun Gong spiritual movement to the June 4, 1989, crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square..."

Google puts brakes on Accelerator | CNET News.com:
"By Matt Loney

Google has stopped allowing downloads of its Web Accelerator software, just days after it began offering the product.

Google cited capacity as the reason for putting the brake on downloads of Accelerator, which is designed to speed the delivery of Web pages. A message on the site said the company has reached its 'maximum capacity of users and (we) are actively working to increase the number of users we can support.'

A Google representative denied on Wednesday that the removal of the tool was connected to the security fears. 'It is a limited beta,' he said, 'and we reached the capacity of users.'..."

Internet News Article | Reuters.com:
"America Online to unveil free e-mail service
By Kenneth Li

NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online will begin offering a free e-mail service on Wednesday tied to its popular instant messaging service, ahead of a big relaunch of its free AOL.com Web site later this year.

AOL's free Web-based e-mail service is nearly a decade behind Microsoft's Hotmail service and several years behind a Yahoo E-mail offering.

But the online division of Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is betting that the combination of e-mail with its ubiquitous instant messaging software (AIM) will create a more powerful service combining all electronic and phone messages..."

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"BURST!: Internet Continues Snagging Eyeballs From TV
by Gavin O'Malley, Wednesday, May 11, 2005 6:00 AM EST
CONSUMERS' INTERNET USE CONTINUES TO grow at the expense of 'traditional' media like TV, radio, magazines, and newspapers, according to a recent BURST! survey of more than 2,600 Web users. When asked about changes in their media consumption over the past year, 61 percent of respondents said they spend more time on the Internet today than a year ago, with 32 percent of respondents saying they spend 'much more time' online, and 29 percent claiming to spend 'somewhat more time' online. At the same time, 36 percent said they are spending less time today than a year ago watching television, 34 percent spend less time reading magazines, 30 percent devote fewer hours to reading the newspaper, and 27 percent aren't listening to the radio as much.

Of note, even among teens and 18- to-24-year-olds, three out of five--62.6 percent and 60.9 percent, respectively--said they were spending more time today on the Internet than a year ago. These are groups that most think already spend a significant portion of their overall 'media time' online. Eighteen- to-24-year-olds are more likely than other segments to say they are spending less time today than a year ago listening to radio--33.7 percent--or watching television--40.5 percent. Other demographic segments who said they spend less time watching television include males ages 25-34 (39.6 percent) and males ages 35-44 (41.2 percent).

Women ages 25-34 and 35-44 are the demographic segments most likely to say they spend less time today than a year ago reading newspapers: 34.6 percent and 39.5 percent, respectively."

The latest from Claria a.k.a. Gator
MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Claria Unveils Plan To Personalize Content Based On Surfing Behavior
by Wendy Davis, Wednesday, May 11, 2005 6:00 AM EST

AD-SERVING COMPANY CLARIA PLANS TODAY to announce a new service that will allow publishers to customize pages for individual consumers based on the other Web sites they have visited. The program, dubbed 'PersonalWeb,' is based on principles similar to Claria's recently launched behavioral targeting feature, BehaviorLink, which looks at Web-surfing history to classify the 40 million consumers who have downloaded Claria's adware software into marketing buckets.

Publishers that adopt the personalization program can theoretically serve every participating visitor a different home page. 'If you have a huge Yankees fan, you might want to give that person Yankee headlines,' said Scott Eagle, Claria's chief marketing officer...

The program requires customers who have already downloaded Claria's ad-serving software [a.k.a. adware/spyware] to specifically opt in for personalization..."

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Fathom: Mortgage Keywords Spike 20 Percent In April
by Wendy Davis, Wednesday, May 11, 2005 6:00 AM EST

PROPELLED BY AN INCREASE IN price for finance-related search terms, keyword prices from March to April rose 11 percent to an average of $1.95, according to the most recent Fathom Online Keyword Price Index, released today.

The surge marks the second consecutive month of gains in keyword prices; average cost per click across a variety of industries rose from $1.60 to $1.75 from February to March. But the increases were not uniform--as only a few categories rose in price, while the rest fell or remained static.

Terms related to mortgages gained the most, with the average price per click increasing by 20 percent in April to $6.49 from $5.39 in March. Prices of mortgage terms have more than doubled since September, when they cost $3.17.

Financial terms related to investing also spiked to $2.03 in April, from $1.86 in March and $1.76 in September. Keyword costs in the telecom/broadband category rose to $2.09 from $1.85 month-over-month, while terms related to wireless rose to $1.01 in April, from 95 cents in March. Wireless-related terms remain cheaper than last fall, when they hovered around $1.09.

At the same time, keywords in the automotive category, travel, retail, and consumer services either fell or remained at their March rates. Car-related terms dropped to $1.40 in April from $1.42 in March and $1.54 in September, and travel terms dropped in April to 92 cents from 93 cents the month before.

Search terms connected to retail goods rose month-to-month to 52 cents from 51 cents, while those related to consumer services rose to $1.13 from $1.08.

Fathom Online Keyword Price Index


09/04 10/04 11/04 12/04 01/05 02/05 03/05 04/05
Automotive 1.54 1.39 1.35 1.41 1.34 1.28 1.42 1.40
Retail .32 .48 .60 .58 .52 .46 .51 .52
Consumer Services .54 .96 1.27 1.36 1.29 1.04 1.08 1.13
Travel/Hospitality .64 .85 .90 .97 .88 .81 .93 .92
Finance/Investing 1.76 1.60 1.70 1.76 1.73 1.65 1.86 2.03
Finance/Mortgage 3.17 4.31 4.74 4.79 4.93 5.10 5.39 6.49
Telecommunications/Broadband 1.89 1.78 1.59 1.63 1.67 1.72 1.85 2.09
Telecommunications/Wireless 1.09 1.06 1.09 1.09 .79 .77 .95 1.01
Overall Average 1.37 1.55 1.66 1.70 1.64 1.60 1.75 1.95

Source: Fathom Online. Indices are based on a weighted average of bid prices of the top five ranked positions across U.S. Tier I, II, and III Search vendors of keywords within a search engine marketing campaign. The industry keyword list is composed from the 500 most queried keywords within an industry. The keyword list does not include brand keywords. The index's goal is to represent a typical search engine marketing industry campaign and track the cost per click over time without being subjected to abnormal search activity due to random events regarding well-known industry brands."

Spyware Goes Legit?:
"...Yahoo's ad division, the L.A. Times reported, has a relationship with Claria Corp., which changed its old name from Gator Corp. in an attempt to shake off the bad reputation it was getting for knocking up people's computers with its software. This continues, however, and the financial results are looking good for both companies. The newspaper reported that they split the take, which Claria said accounted for 31 percent of its $90 million that it made in 2003.

This is a creepy development if there ever were one, mainly because most of the experts say that companies like Claria, WhenU.com and others aren't going away. Even as more companies say they'll quit signing on ad firms that rely on spyware, new arrangements are popping up, if you will. As a result, look for more intrusions by J.P. Morgan Chase, Disney, Citibank, Home Depot, Dell, British Airways and The Gap, the L.A. Times article said..."

destinationCRM.com: May 9, 2005: "KANA Software unveiled KANA Agent Desktop Search, a solution that integrates KANA Agent IQ, the company's contact center knowledge base, with desktop search applications like Google desktop search. According to Brian Kelly, executive vice president of corporate strategy at KANA, agents store information that helps them solve problems on their desktop. But with the integration between KANA Agent IQ and desktop search solutions, it 'is making it faster and easier for them to find that information, and is making it so that it's very easy for them to post this information....If it's something that they are using quite often--but it is information that is not in the central knowledge base--then they literally click a check box right next to their personal information, and it will then be submitted as a topic to be added to the knowledge base.'"

Display Ads Influence Search:
"May 09, 2005 - By Brian Morrissey

Display ad campaigns greatly increase clicks on search listings, according to a new study.

Yahoo and online financial services provider Harrisdirect tested the effects of a display ad campaign run across the Yahoo network on search behavior. The study found users shown Harrisdirect display ads conducted 61 percent more searches relating to financial services. Those shown display ads also clicked on 249 percent more paid search listings and 139 percent more Harrisdirect search listings, both paid and unpaid.

'What excited me about this was the ability to see the interaction between banner or display ads and search,' said David Frenchman, vice president of online advertising at Harrisdirect.

The Yahoo study had a pool of 2 million users, of which half saw Harrisdirect display ads over a three-week period. Yahoo then tracked the search behavior for the users in the sample.

'This is really the step in what will be a longer journey in understanding the interactivity between these two forms of interactive advertising,' said Richard Kosinski, finance category development officer at Yahoo. The study did not examine if the group exposed to display ads were more likely to convert after clicking on search results, for example.

Search engines have made the first steps of melding search and display advertising. MSN's new online ad platform, MSN adCenter, plans to allow marketers to manage search and display advertising from a single platform.

Google has moved in this direction by letting advertisers bid on display and search ads in a single auction. Yahoo executives have said they hope to make search and display advertising easier to buy together."

John Battelle's Searchblog: FindWhat Hit With Class Action:
"For a company in the midst of a lawsuit with Yahoo over PPC models and sucking wind after its auditor quit under a cloud, this news - a class action claiming the company overpromoted itself and its stock - is just more bad news."

Google Working On Web Accelerator Fix:
"C|Net reports that Google has confirmed that one of the problems with Google Web Accelerator ...

... in which cached copies of other users' web pages are served up, does indeed exist, and that it is working on a solution..."

Left Right or Center Can a Search Engine Be Biased?:
"Jason L. Miller | Staff Writer | 2005-05-10

Is there a conspiracy deep in the belly of the Internet beast? Are corporate entities secretly driving the information available to you-subtly stroking toward a global political opinion matching their own agenda? Maybe they are. Maybe they're not..."

Several Sites Expressing Concern About Google Web Accelerator:
"Recently I mentioned a new offering from Google called Google Web Accelerator. (Hereafter referred to as GWA.) The idea behind it is that it can speed up your surfing by 'pre-fetching' pages before you click on 'em. And when you do click on 'em -- hey presto, the page is already loaded.

But many sites are expressing concern about the GWA, both because of privacy issues and because the software is causing some severe problems on certain sites.

A really good overview article to start with is from Pandia. It's at http://www.pandia.com/post/026-3.html . It discusses how Accelerator works and the variety of problems that it might cause, from prefetching pages that Webmasters don't want prefetched, to accidentally prefetching ads, which would put a burden on advertisers who are paying-per-click, to messing up shopping carts and discussion forum logins.

CNET has an article at http://news.com.com/2102-1032_3-5698447.html?tag=st.util.print which includes quotes from a Google spokesperson and privacy advocate Richard Smith. The question as to what Google will be doing with the clickstreams generated by the accelerator came up, in addition to how that stream will be tied in with regular Google cookies. Google's Marissa Mayer said, 'To date, we're not doing anything with this data in terms of market research. We have no plans, but should that change we would aggressively notify our users and give them some escape hatch.'..."

NMA.co.uk:
"Blinkx teams with film company to offer on-demand movies
By Yinka Adegoke

Blinkx, the desktop based search engine, has teamed up with an independent film company to create a fully searchable and accessible on-demand film service via its blinkx.tv site..."

X1 or Yahoo! Desktop Search ? - Search Engine Journal:
"If you are wondering why X1 is charging for features that Yahoo! is offering for free, think again. X1, the big brother of all desktop search tools offers some unique features including special versions for Government and Enterprise users who have valid security concerns..."

Sites Banning Web Accelerator - InsideGoogle - part of the Blog News Channel

Wonder if this will catch on?

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Hitwise: Wikipedia Traffic Surges
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 6:00 AM EST
WIKIPEDIA, THE OPEN-SOURCE ENCYCLOPEDIA WEB site that allows its users to create and edit its entries freely, is now the second most-visited reference Web site--up from number 13 at the beginning of last year, and number three in January, according to data released Monday by research firm Hitwise. Dictionary.com remains the most popular reference site on the Internet. Wikipedia also has been getting more hits from search engines lately. By March, the site was the 33rd most popular site in terms of receiving visits from search engines--up from the 146th most popular in June 2004. --S.G."

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"AOL Upgrades IM Service
by Shankar Gupta, Tuesday, May 10, 2005 6:00 AM EST
AMERICA ONLINE RECENTLY UPGRADED ITS Instant Messenger by adding new features, including a revised browser window and the ability for members to create blogs. The upgraded Instant Messenger, a new version of AIM 5.9 that launched in beta last week, offers features that include an integrated RSS reader, tabbed browsers, thumbnail previews of Web sites, and a spyware blocker.

AOL also is giving Instant Messenger users--including non-AOL subscribers--the ability to create blogs on AOL Journals. Users can update their blogs using AIM by sending a message to the screen name 'AOL Journals' from any computer or wireless-enabled device. In addition, AOL this month started beta testing an entirely new AIM program, dubbed 'Triton'--which, among other features, includes an auto-logging function that records conversations until the user signs off, and integrates the user's buddy list and AOL address book."

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Local TV Web Sites Form National Network
by Wendy Davis, Tuesday, May 10, 2005 6:00 AM EST
IN AN EFFORT TO COMPETE with the largest general news sites, 147 online news sites--including 10 owned by ABC--have banded together with WorldNow, which provides technology for media companies' Web sites, to create an online advertising network.

WorldNow and ABC will sell inventory for the new initiative, dubbed 'Local Media Network,' which will include sites owned by other major television networks, said John Watkins, president of national television sales of the ABC-owned stations. He added that the ABC sites in the network will be in different local markets than those owned by the other television networks.

Watkins said the hope is that aggregating audiences in one network will allow the sales team to offer advertisers the same reach that they get on the largest online news sites. 'This gets us up in the ballpark of CNN and MSNBC and Yahoo! News,' Watkins said. Together, the network is expected to reach 20 million unique visitors monthly.

Allison Bodenmann, executive vice president of national sales for WorldNow, added that available ad units include streaming video, rich media, banners, and skyscrapers. Advertisers on board so far include MasterCard, Delta Airlines, Verizon, and Vonage, said Bodenmann. Of that group, Vonage presently intends to run streaming video ads.

Advertisers will be able to run different creative units in different markets with the same national media buy, Bodenmann said. For instance, she said, a manufacturer could do a branding campaign in one city and promote a store opening in another.

She added that the deal should help local networks take advantage of the growth of high-speed Internet access. "The advent of broadband," she said, "has given the news stations a real opportunity to monetize the on-air programming.""

JUPITERRESEARCH REVEALS GROWING PREFERENCE FOR ONLINE NEWS AT THE EXPENSE OF TV AND NEWSPAPERS:
"(New York, NY - April 26, 2005) - JupiterResearch, a division of Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM), today reported that the number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown over 35% in the last four years, at the expense of television and newspapers. Currently, over 26% of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, compared to 19% in 2001.

JupiterResearch consumer surveys show that the percentage of online adults using the Internet for daily news had been flat - hovering around 50% - for the last few years. Preference for online local news is growing, but hasn't exceeded 10% among online adults. Young adults, ages 18 to 24, are helping drive the preference trend, especially in national news. Thirty-three percent of online young adults say they prefer the Internet as their primary source of news, while 40% prefer TV and 10% newspapers.

'In the face of relatively flat usage, this increasing preference for the Internet is intriguing,' said David Card, VP and Senior Analyst for JupiterResearch. 'While traditional media companies like The New York Times and CNN are doing very well online, our analysis shows that brands like AOL and Yahoo! are increasingly important for online audiences,' added Card.

JupiterResearch's analysis is based on surveys of over 10,750 online adults over the course of four years, and appears in the new report, 'Online Local Content: Prioritizing Content, Blogs, and Community'. The complete findings of this report are immediately available to JupiterResearch clients online. For additional information on the report or JupiterResearch's Entertainment & Media research service visit www.jupiterresearch.com or contact Kieran Kelly, Vice President of Global Sales and Client Service, at 1-800-481-1212 or researchsales@jupitermedia.com."

MSN Experimenting With Search Results Clustering:
"Yup, search result clustering is still hot, or at least warm. Now MSN is getting in on the act with a new clustering tool from their sandbox. You can check out SRC (Search Result Clustering) at http://wsm.directtaps.net/default.aspx .
Run a search -- I searched for chips. The clustering divided out the search results into a huge number of categories -- poker chips, casino chips, mod chips, potato chips, buffalo chips (buffalo chips?) -- and then into a couple of odd clusters I wouldn't have expected: virgin oil and low prices.
In addition to MSN you have a couple of other search options to try this clustering technology with -- MSNBC and the beta of MSN's search. I searched for 'White House' on MSNBC and got an interesting mix of clusters, including President Bush (who was just ahead of Chris Matthews as a cluster), justice department, answering questions, and Bush Administration.
Some of the clusters had blue + signs next to them, indicating sub-clusters, but when I tried to get these to open in Firefox it didn't work. "

Ask Jeeves stock falls on Spitzer spyware rumors - 2005-05-06:
"Search engine company Ask Jeeves saw its stock fall more than 3.5 percent on Friday morning after news that the company might be investigated by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Spitzer and his office are looking into the use of web software programs called adware and spyware. Earlier in the week, Spitzer's office said it would sue Intermix Media Inc., a software company, for using the web programs. His office also said it planned to investigate other companies for the same practice.

The spyware secretly installs itself on users' computers and studies their behavior in order to direct targeted advertisements to them.

Some news reports have suggested that Ask Jeeves might find itself one of the companies Spitzer is investigating.

Ask Jeeves' stock, which opened at $29.05 Friday, fell as low as $27.63 before climbing slowly back to close at $28.13, still down 2.83 percent.

In March, Ask Jeeves said it had agreed to be bought for $1.85 billion in stock by IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI). InterActiveCorp agreed to exchange each share of Ask Jeeves' stock for 1.2668 of its own. InterActiveCorp's shares closed down, too, on Friday, by 1.33 percent at $22.99. But the spread between the price the company offered for Ask Jeeves shares and their actual price has continued to widen.

An Ask Jeeves spokesman did not immediately return calls asking for comment."

CastleCops - Windows Security Checklist - Part 24: Kids Safer Search Engines:
"by Larry Stevenson, aka Prince_Serendip, CastleCops Staff Writer - May 8, 2005

Finding relevant information on the Internet is a task most people would prefer to have done for them. They make easy prey for the purveyors of adwares and spywares, who offer to find what they want, provided that they accept a few programs, taskbars and popups in exchange for the service. If you are like most people, you hate ads because we all get far too many of them. They consume our time and attention, distracting us from the purposes we have determined are important. Many search engines and even ISPs do not even bother to ask nor inform you of the spywares they install. If you use their products then you have spywares installed on your machines whether you want them or not.

For the past few weeks I have intensively researched the Internet services related to children and teens. I have discovered that some of the sites and search engines purporting to be 'helping keep kids safe' are themselves providing spywares. Just by visiting some sites for example will give you spyware tracking cookies without your knowledge. If you subscribe to their services, especially those that require software downloads and installations, you are open to their tracking programs and other forms of spywares and adwares.

The sites and search engines listed below are the cream of the crop.

Some of the Best Search Engines and Directories for Kids and Teens... "

Ask Jeeves eyes growth under IAC umbrella: "By Lisa Baertlein - Reuters - Sunday, May 8, 2005; 2:11 PM

OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - The Ask Jeeves butler wants to kick some serious butt.

Emboldened by its pending purchase by Barry Diller's deep-pocketed Web conglomerate Interactive Corp, Web search provider Ask Jeeves Inc. plans to take square aim at industry giants Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. when the deal closes.

'This is a deal focused on growth,' said Steve Berkowitz, chief executive of Ask Jeeves , which is best known for its cartoon butler mascot.

'We're going to have access to more capital, more opportunities. We get to play on that larger playing field,' Berkowitz said in a recent interview. IAC has about $4 billion in cash while Ask Jeeves has about $100 million, he said, illustrating the greater resources the company would have access to.

IAC is paying nearly $2 billion for Ask Jeeves and the transaction is slated to close this summer..."

// posted by Dan @ 12:30 PM (0) comments

Groxis going to per-click ad revenue model:
The New York Times > Technology > Your Internet Search Results, in the Round:
"By JOHN MARKOFF - Published: May 9, 2005

Grokker shows Web search results on a circular map rather than in a list.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 8 - For decades, computer researchers have experimented with the idea of displaying textual information in visual maps, but the concept has been slow to find practical applications.

Now, one of the pioneering companies in the field is hoping that by making its software available as part of a standard Web browser it will be able to wean surfers away from the simple ranked lists of search results offered by Google and Yahoo.

Groxis, a San Francisco-based company founded in 2001, has converted its desktop Grokker software program, which displays a Web search as a series of categories set in a circular map, to run as a Java plug-in for browsers. On Monday, the company will begin allowing computer users to view Yahoo search results with its visualization technology at www.groxis.com.

'We're not intent on replacing Google or Yahoo,' said R. J. Pittman, the chief executive of Groxis. 'This is if you want to go deeper.'

Until now the company has sold a $49 program for use with Windows-based and Macintosh computers. Beginning this week, the company will rely instead on revenue from advertisements placed by the Yahoo ad placement service...."

Cracking the Google Code… Under the GoogleScope:
"Google's US Patent confirms information retrieval is based on historical data.

Publication Date: 5/8/2005 9:51:18 PM

Author Name: Lawrence Deon

An Introduction: …if you thought you cracked the Google Code and had Google all figured out … guess again.

Google’s sweeping changes confirm the search giant has launched a full out assault against artificial link inflation & declared war against search engine spam in a continuing effort to provide the best search service in the world… and if you thought you cracked the Google Code and had Google all figured out … guess again.

Google has raised the bar against search engine spam and artificial link inflation to unrivaled heights with the filing of a United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005.

The filing unquestionable provides SEO’s with valuable insight into Google’s tightly guarded search intelligence and confirms that Google’s information retrieval is based on historical data..."

WorldNetDaily: Google still runs anti-DeLay ads:
"Posted: May 9, 2005

WASHINGTON – Google, the Internet's No. 1 search engine, is still running attack ads against besieged House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, despite assurances by the company's spokesman they were all pulled last week..."

5/24/2004:
"INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING REVENUES GROW NEARLY 33% AS 2004 TOTALS $9.6 BILLION

Fourth Quarter of 2004 Marks the Highest Ever Quarter of Revenue Reported

New York, NY (April 28, 2005) The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today released the Internet Advertising Revenue Report including final numbers for Q3, Q4 and full-year 2004. The report states that Search, Classifieds, Display and Rich Media continue to grow at a healthy rate. Overall industry revenues rose nearly 33 percent over 2003 totaling over $9.6 billion and exceeded the previous revenue record in 2000 by nearly 20 percent. Q4 2004 revenues totaled a record $2.69 billion, marking the highest quarter ever reported..."

Based on this report, the Center for Media Research compiled the following summary:

"Monday, May 9, 2005
Full Year Interactive Ad Revenues Up 33% 2004, Expect Another 34% in 2005

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers released the Internet Advertising Revenue Report showing the final numbers for the full year 2004. The report states that overall industry revenues rose nearly 33 percent over 2003 totaling over $9.6 billion and exceeded the previous revenue record in 2000 by nearly 20 percent. E-Marketer forecasts an increase in 2005 as well.

Greg Stuart, president and CEO of the IAB, said "Interactive Advertising has clearly become a mainstream medium and one that can no longer be ignored as a critical piece of any marketing mix."

* Consumer advertisers account for 49 percent of the 2004 annual revenues, up significantly from the 37 percent reported for the same period in 2003.
* The largest sub-categories under the consumer umbrella include retail, automotive, leisure, entertainment and packaged goods.
* As a percent of 2004 total revenues, Computing and Financial Services account for 18 percent and 17 percent respectively, with Telecommunications and Pharmaceutical & Healthcare rounding out the total at 4 percent and 6 percent respectively.

Pete Petrusky, Director, Advisory Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers, says "The revenue results reported for 2004 confirm a very healthy environment for online advertising, for both direct marketers seeking immediate performance results, as well as brand advertisers looking to create or enhance an image, product or service."

...In 2004, consumer advertisers continued to lead the way in online advertising spending accounting for 49% of total revenues..."

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Google Launches Blogs On The Go
Monday, May 9, 2005 7:00 AM EST
GOOGLE FRIDAY ANNOUNCED A NEW feature that enables people to use their cell phones to blog. Now, mobile users who want to blog on the go via Google can access the service by sending a message--text, photos, or both--to go@blogger.com, and Google then posts the entry."

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Study: Display Ads Send Consumers Searching
by Gavin O'Malley, Monday, May 9, 2005 7:00 AM EST
ONLINE DISPLAY ADVERTISING APPEARS TO have a significant impact on consumer search behavior, according to a study Yahoo! plans to release today. For the report, Yahoo! conducted a three-week study of the search behavior of about 2 million consumers, half of whom were served Harrisdirect's display ads (standard rectangles and skyscrapers), and half of whom were not. Dynamic Logic collected the responses to display advertising, while the Yahoo! internal research team examined the search behavior.

The consumers who were served display ads conducted 61 percent more searches on keywords related to Harrisdirect--that is, those keywords purchased by Harrisdirect for search marketing purposes. Also, the group that was served the display ads clicked through on Harrisdirect-related terms at a rate 249 percent higher than consumers who were not exposed to the ads, and clicked on links leading to the Harrisdirect site at a rate 139 percent higher than those not served display ads.

Richard Kosinski, category development officer for financial services sales at Yahoo!, said the company plans to further study the relationship between search and display advertising. 'Because the marketers we work with have so much riding on the investments they make, this study was the first of many we plan to conduct across different verticals to examine exactly what impact display and search advertising have on each other,' said Kosinski.

A Yahoo! spokesman also said the company wasn't yet ready to draw any general conclusions about the relationship between consumer search behavior and display ads."

DMNews.com | News | Article:
"Amazon Debuts Wedding Registry
Amazon Services Inc. challenged WeddingChannel.com and TheKnot.com with Friday's formal introduction of its own online wedding registry.

Couples registering at www.amazon.com/wedding can choose from various items on the Seattle retailer's site. Checklists and planning tools will help registrants track activities ranging from engagement announcements to thank-you notes.

Another feature of Amazon Wedding, as the service is called, is the Local Vendor Search option. This tool lets couples find photographers, caterers and florists in their neighborhood using Amazon's A9.com Yellow Pages. A9 is Amazon's own search engine.

The site was in beta for a few months, attracting couples to register for more than 70,000 products at Amazon."

Google's new tool gives users the fear - silicon.com: "

Google's new tool gives users the fear
May 06 2005 - by Dan Ilett
Web Accelerator too easy with the cache?

A software tool launched by Google that speeds up the process of downloading websites has caused some users to worry about their privacy.

Google Web Accelerator, which was released in beta, is set up to automatically work with Firefox and Internet Explorer once it's been downloaded. The service stores copies of sites frequently accessed by individual PCs and automatically retrieves new data from those pages, so that a web browser needs to process only updates to those sites when asked to load them. It can also automatically 'pre-fetch' frequently used websites before the user downloads them.

However, users are concerned that the service can cache more data from their computers than they would prefer.

On a Google Labs discussion group, one user said that the security implications of Google caching details of internet sessions were unacceptable.

'I went to the Futuremark forums and noticed that I'm logged in as someone I don't know. Great, I've used Google's Web Accelerator for a couple of hours, visited lots of sites where I'm logged in. Now I wonder how many people used my cache. I understand it's a beta, sure, but something like that is totally unacceptable.'

Google was not immediately available for comment, but said in a website statement that the service can receive information such as the user's IP address, computer and connection information, and 'personally identifiable information', such as an email address.

'Whenever your computer sends cookies with browsing or pre-fetching page requests for unencrypted sites, we temporarily cache these cookies in order to improve performance,' the company wrote on its website.

Information entered in SSL connections, such as internet banking, will not be cached, the company wrote.

The service is only available to broadband subscribers."

Technology - Why Google Scares Bill Gates - FORTUNE:
"By Fred Vogelstein
GATES VS. GOOGLE
Search and Destroy
Bill Gates is on a mission to build a Google killer. What got him so riled? The darling of search is moving into software—and that's Microsoft's turf.

Microsoft was already months into A massive project aimed at taking down Google when the truth began to dawn on Bill Gates. It was December 2003. He was poking around on the Google company website and came across a help-wanted page with descriptions of all the open jobs at Google. Why, he wondered, were the qualifications for so many of them identical to Microsoft job specs? Google was a web search business, yet here on the screen were postings for engineers with backgrounds that had nothing to do with search and everything to do with Microsoft's core business—people trained in things like operating-system design, compiler optimization, and distributed-systems architecture. Gates wondered whether Microsoft might be facing much more than a war in search. An e-mail he sent to a handful of execs that day said, in effect, "We have to watch these guys. It looks like they are building something to compete with us."..."

developer.net.au - Australian Software Developers - New Search Appliance Outperforms Others by 10 Times, claims Thunderstone:
"Serves 1,000 Typical Searches per Minute. Configurations Handle Either 500,000 or 1,000,000 Documents.

The Thunderstone Search Appliance is intended for organisations looking for simple software administration, but without giving up the security and performance of a locally hosted solution. It is a complete web- or intranet-search solution ready to use as soon as it plugged into a network. The Appliance is based on Thunderstone's renowned Texis software, which powers the search functionality of major web sites such as eBay and QVC..."

What Clicks with Web Searchers:
"By Anne Kennedy, Guest Writer - May 5, 2005

How do searchers find what they want online? Not the way you might think, according to a number of new studies that examined searcher behavior in a variety of situations.

Some of the surprising, almost counter-intuitive findings from this research: Most people begin shopping searches using generic searches long before they get down to brands. Most click on one of the top three listings, if one interests them. Most—more than half—click on the first paid search result. People also take their time shopping, as long as several weeks in many cases. And no big surprise: searchers continue to prefer Google, though Yahoo, MSN and AskJeeves are gaining share.

While conventional search wisdom says advertising on topics produces lower ROI than advertising on brand names, a recent DoubleClick study has shown that 'buyers clearly favor generic terms early in the buying cycle,' according to Cam Balzer of Performics, DoubleClick's search marketing division. Further, searchers do a lot of research before buying, affording nearly five touch points on average. A majority of 70 to 80 percent of buyers searched on generic terms, with searches on brand names peaking immediately before purchase..."

Internet Daily: Microsoft seeks 20 bloggers - :
"By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch - Last Update: 10:39 AM ET May 5, 2005

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - The world's largest software company is following the tire tracks of Vespa U.S.A.

Team 99, as it will be known, will get a look at pre-release copies of the new OS, after pledging not to reveal details which could be useful to competitors or hackers. Software developers and "super users" are likely to be asked to join the group, according to Robert Scoble, Microsoft's most visible Web logger. He's organizing the group and is soliciting participants at channel9.msdn.com. Nominees should be "trusted by the community ... visible ... (and able to) give good feedback on your behalf to Microsoft," he said."

IDC downgrades 2005 global IT spending growth forecasts | InfoWorld | News | 2005-05-04 | By Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service:
"Worsening economic conditions in Western Europe, Japan lead to lowering of spending forecast

International Data Corp. lowered its growth forecast for global information technology spending this year, due mainly to weakness in Europe and Japan, the market researcher said Wednesday.

IT spending in Europe is now expected to grow by only 4.4 percent this year, compared to a previous estimate of 5.8 percent, said Juan Orozco, research manager for worldwide IT markets at IDC, in a telephone interview. Worsening economic conditions in Western Europe caused some large firms to hold back on major IT purchases in the first quarter, IDC noted.

Spending growth in Japan will likely reach just 1.2 percent this year, IDC said, down from 3.2 percent previously, due mainly to weakness in spending on hardware like personal computers and servers. U.S. IT spending growth was revised down slightly to 5.5 percent this year from 6 percent, according to IDC..."

Time Warner Q1 profit goes flat, despite modest growth | InfoWorld | News | 2005-05-04 | By Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service: "AOL division drags down the group's revenue with a drop in domestic subscribers

Despite a modest increase in overall revenue, Time Warner on Wednesday said its first-quarter profits were flat compared to the same period last year.

Time Warner's first-quarter revenue was $10.5 billion, up 3 percent from the same period last year when the company reported revenue of $10.2 billion.

However, that modest increase in revenue didn't translate into higher profits for the company. Time Warner reported its net income for the period was $963 million, a gain of less than 1 percent over the year-ago period.

Time Warner's AOL Internet division had a tough quarter, with a drop in the number of domestic subscribers dragging the group's revenue down by 3 percent to $2.1 billion..."

OptusNet News:
"Yahoo developing an audio search engine

Web giant Yahoo is developing a search engine for finding downloadable songs and music data from across the Internet.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company plans to introduce the music search engine within the next couple of months, according to a source familiar with the service. The speciality engine will let people search on an artist's name, for example, and retrieve all the available songs from other music services, as well as album reviews and band information from Yahoo Music..."

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Study: Teens With Mobiles More Likely To Go Online Daily
Friday, May 6, 2005 7:01 AM EST
TEENS WITH CELL PHONES ARE significantly more likely than their non-cell-carrying peers to use the Internet every day, read newspapers and magazines, and listen to the radio, according to a study of 400 teenagers conducted by WPP Group's MindShare Online Research. The study also found that cell phone use by teens jumped 43 percent in 2004 compared to 2003. Older teens are also much more likely to carry cell phones than younger ones, with seven out of 10 kids ages 16 or 17 owning mobile phones, compared to half of the 14- and 15-year-olds and one out of four 13-year-olds. Teenagers who carry cell phones tend to use them heavily; 83 percent use their phones every day, and 64 percent use them several times a day or more.

--David Kaplan "

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"FindWhat Disappoints, Auditor Resigns
Friday, May 6, 2005 7:01 AM EST
SPONSORED LISTINGS PROVIDER FINDWHAT THURSDAY announced disappointing first-quarter profits of $3.2 million, or 10 cents per diluted share--down from $3.8 million, or 16 cents per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2004. The company also slashed its annual revenue forecast to between $175 million and $200 million, from $250 million to $270 million. Earlier this week, the company stated that outside auditor Ernst & Young would resign after FindWhat filed its first-quarter report. --Wendy Davis "

MediaPost Publications Home of MediaDailyNews, MEDIA and OMMA Magazines:
"Fastclick Profits Down
by Wendy Davis, Friday, May 6, 2005 7:01 AM EST

IN ITS FIRST QUARTER AS a public company, online ad network Fastclick Thursday reported adjusted first-quarter net income of $1.5 million, or 11 cents per share--down from adjusted net income of $1.8 million, 17 cents per share in the first quarter of 2004. Quarterly revenues were $19.6 million--an 80 percent increase from the previous year's $10.9 million.

Fastclick stated that it expects second-quarter revenues to range from $20 million to $21 million, and annual revenues to reach $88 million to $92 million. The company also reported that it now has more than 9,000 Web sites in its network, and that it delivered more than 8.8 billion impressions in March.

Fastclick went public in April, but the initial offering didn't do as well as anticipated; on the first day of trading, the stock closed at its offering price of $12 per share. Yesterday, the share price hovered around $9.

Earlier this week, Fastclick began offering contextually relevant text ads, similar to Google's AdSense. "

IBM plans to slash up to 13,000 jobs | InfoWorld | News | 2005-05-04 | By Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service:
"Restructuring will hit European operations hardest, officals say

By Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service
May 04, 2005

MARCO ISLAND, FLORIDA - IBM (Profile, Products, Articles), one of the world's largest technology companies, said Wednesday it plans to reduce its work force by up to 13,000 employees, mainly in Europe, as part of a global restructuring aimed at shifting resources to higher-growth markets.
SPONSOR

The company will take a $1.3 billion to $1.7 billion pre-tax charge related to the restructuring in the second quarter, IBM said in a statement.

The company has already initiated discussions for voluntary and involuntary work force reductions, IBM said."

Bloggers and the law | InfoWorld | Column | 2005-05-03 | By Ephraim Schwartz:
"If ignorance is no excuse, then read on before allowing employees free reign over corporate blogs

Reality Check, By Ephraim Schwartz
May 03, 2005

In a recent column, I called on companies to follow the lead of Sun Microsystems (Profile, Products, Articles) and liberalize their corporate blogging policies. This week I spoke with no fewer than two law firms and three attorneys to get the skinny on where your life as an employee stops and your life as a private citizen starts, according to the law.

As you might guess, there are few hard-and-fast rules. However, Richard Neff, an attorney in the intellectual property and technology practice for Greenberg Glusker, opined that there are a few areas where a company could be liable for what its employees blog.

Suppose, for example, an employee says very negative things about a competitor or publishes an unfair product comparison. If these opinions are stated as facts and they are not true, it could lead to a “trade disparagement” suit. Similarly, if an employee says bad and untrue things about an individual, both the employee and the company might be liable.

Use of somebody else’s material in a company blog could also make the company liable for copyright infringement. Publishing a paragraph from a book is probably OK, says Kevin DeBre, also of Greenberg Glusker’s intellectual property and technology practice. If a blogger publishes the entire first chapter, however, then the blogger and his company could be liable.

Neff painted another interesting scenario: What if an employee says his company doesn’t expect to do that well in the next quarter, despite public statements to the contrary? Under Sarbanes-Oxley, the company could have a big problem. Or, in high tech especially, what if a blogger complains that the company’s CEO has been up in Redmond an awful lot lately? Did somebody say acquisition?

DeBre says that a company that takes it upon itself to monitor employee blogs is responsible for assuring that everything is vetted properly. Whenever there’s a slipup, the company may be liable.

Of course, these are all subject to the court’s interpretation. Lance Koonce, an attorney in the media, intellectual property, and technology practice for Davis Wright Tremaine, says that under the Communications Decency Act, Section 230, the courts grant immunity to message board operators for statements made on the message boards. A recent case that establishes that is Batzel v. Smith.

Koonce also spoke to me about bloggers and state “shield laws,” which give journalists the right to protect their confidential sources from disclosure. The question is, Do bloggers have the same right to protection as professional journalists?

Apple recently brought suit against several blogging sites for revealing trade secrets prior to release and sought to discover their sources by subpoena. The bloggers sought to block the subpoena, with The Associated Press and other news organizations submitting amicus curiae or “friend of the court” briefs on behalf of the bloggers. The judge skirted the issue, Koonce says, by ruling that the bloggers broke the law; in that case, even professional journalists wouldn’t be protected.

Finally, a Federal Communications Commission commissioner recently wondered aloud whether a blogger who provides a link to a political candidate’s site is providing support for that candidate equal to a monetary contribution.

Koonce also reminds us that general liability insurance does not cover blogging. Sorry if I spoil anybody’s blogging fun, but in this litigious society, it’s not bad to keep these examples in mind."

Ad Execs Are Upping Online Ad Budgets:
"Published: May 05, 2005

Online ads are winning more ad spending dollars, according to a new report from Forrester Research.

On the heels of last week's IAB 2004 online advertising numbers, which showed that US online advertising grew 32.5% in 2004, followed by eMarketer's prediction that online advertising will rise by nearly 34% in 2005 to about $13 billion, Forrester upped the ante, estimating that total US online advertising and marketing spending this year will reach $14.7 billion.

Forrester analyst Charlene Li noted that, even though online ad spending is growing at a rapid clip, marketers may still be underplaying the online channel. 'There is a large disparity between the amount of time consumers are spending online and the money marketers are spending trying to reach them online,' she said. 'When at-work Internet use is taken into consideration, online consumers spend more than one-third of their time online — roughly the same amount of time they spend watching TV. Yet marketers spend only 4% of ad budgets online versus 25% on TV.'

Forrester surveyed 99 leading marketers, who said that online advertising channels such as search engine marketing, online display ads and e-mail marketing will continue to become more effective relative to traditional channels. And they are putting their money where their mouths are.

Nearly 85% of the advertisers told Forrester that they plan to increase their online ad budgets this year, with the increases averaging 25%. Almost half of them plan to decrease spending in traditional advertising channels like magazines, direct mail and newspapers to fund the increases in online ad spending.

Additional findings from the report include:

* Search engine marketing will grow by 33% in 2005, reaching $11.6 billion by 2010.
* Display advertising, which includes traditional banners and sponsorships, will grow at an average rate of 11% over the next five years to $8 billion by 2010.
* New advertising channels drew advertiser interest: 64% of respondents are interested in advertising on blogs, 57% through RSS and 52% on mobile devices, including phones and PDAs.

Marketers are quickly losing confidence in the effectiveness of traditional advertising channels and feel that online channels will become more effective over the next three years.

* 78% of respondents said they think search engine marketing will be more effective, 53% of respondents said TV advertising would become less effective.
* The only non-digital advertising channel to reach the same level of confidence as online channels with marketers is product placement — only 8% of respondents believe that product placement will become less effective over the next three years."

New Yahoo News Leaves Beta:
"That was fast! The 'new' Yahoo News that went live in beta about two weeks ago, here's my overview, left beta early this morning. Yahoo News also provides a tour of the new services and features here."

Gmail Web Clips: More On Google's Feed Aggregator, Plus Feeds From Google News:
"Checking my Gmail account today, I discovered that I'm apparently now one of the few with access to the new Gmail 'web clips' feed reading feature I mentioned earlier. Here's how it works and some more details.

You'll see feed headlines shown at the top of the Gmail page, above all the messages in your Inbox, when viewing an email or anything within Gmail. Here's a screenshot:..."

UW-Madison Benchmark Study of Desktop Search Tools Evaluates 12 Leading Vendors:
"MADISON, Wis.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 4, 2005--For businesses looking to maximize employee productivity, a new generation of desktop search tools is emerging that will effortlessly help locate documents the same way search engines help find information on the Internet.

Desktop search technology was created a few years ago, but received a well-deserved boost in visibility when Google and Yahoo! entered the market last fall. The UW E-Business Consortium recently conducted a benchmark study of 12 of these emerging desktop search tools to help companies evaluate which product best fits their needs.

Results of Desktop Search Tool Benchmark Study

Using a systematic and objective testing protocol, the tools were evaluated along six attributes: usability, versatility, accuracy, efficiency, security, and enterprise readiness. The leader and best overall desktop search tool in each of these areas is Copernic 1.5 Beta with Coveo. It's intuitive and easy to use.

The second highest scoring tool is Yahoo! Desktop Search 1.1 Beta. Versatility of this desktop search tool is excellent and it supports more than 200 document types.

Our study found the third best tool to be Wizetech Archivarius 3000 3.14. It ranks very high in usability and efficiency, and provided the fastest search time among all the 12 desktop search tools analyzed.

Overall, our analysis reveals that while the desktop search tools show great promise for significant productivity gains, the technology is still immature due to a lack of security and overall manageability. However, instant messaging technology suffered similar initial setbacks but has grown to become a valuable business application. Similar results are anticipated for the desktop search market.

'Desktop search tools will help boost not only corporate productivity, but also creativity and innovation - Such technologies will become essential to compete in the emerging knowledge-based economy,' noted Dr. Raj Veeramani, UW-Madison Professor of Engineering & Business, and Director of the UW E-Business Institute and the UW E-Business Consortium.

The 'Benchmark Study of Desktop Search Tools' is available to the public free-of-cost through the UW E-Business Institute Web site www.uwebi.org. The study was conducted solely by the UW E-Business Consortium and was not funded or supported by desktop search companies or institutions.

The UW E-Business Consortium (the industry membership base of the UW E-Business Institute) is Wisconsin's premier organization that helps companies gain a competitive advantage through e-business. Our members - business executives and senior managers from the Midwest's leading companies - tap into world-class university resources and the collective experiences of this B2B and B2C group to address and share strategic e-business and information technology challenges, best practices and lessons learned."

Google lets users view their search history:
"Google is offering a new service that will allow its users to view all of their past searches. By activating Google's 'My Search History' feature, users can log in and view a list of all of their past searches. Though this may be useful for some people, it could prove embarrassing for users who want to keep their search habits quiet.

Privacy experts are also not happy about Google storing a list of a user's searches. This could lead to information leaks, as well as leave search lists vulnerable if a user does not properly log out on a public computer."

Google partners with Yell.com to offer British users business directory listings:
"Rather than creating its own database of business numbers in Britain, Google has entered into a partnership with Yell.com to provide its users with local directory information. Yell, which owns the Yellow Pages, receives payment for Google's access while Google saves the time and manpower required for creating its own directory system.

By providing visitors to Google.co.uk an opportunity to search local directory listings, Google can provide a form of local service to people who use the search engine. This will allow the search engine giant to ramp up its advertising for targeted, local markets, while giving users an opportunity to find area businesses that will fill their needs."

Bloomberg.com: Bloomberg Columnists: "Creative Motivation -- Google, Money, Hermes: Graef Crystal

May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. is showing one reason why it's such a wildly successful Internet company: It's using money the way it should be used -- to motivate people in a meaningful way.

Last month, two teams of Google employees were handed $12 million of free company shares, with more so-called Founders' Awards planned for other work groups. By giving the stock, the Mountain View, California-based Google is seeking to reward, motivate and retain employees.

``The Founders' Award is designed to give extraordinary rewards for extraordinary team accomplishments,'' Google co- founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page said in their first letter to shareholders. ``A general rule of thumb is that the team accomplished something that created enormous value for Google...'"

Top News Article | Reuters.com:
"Time Warner sells Google stake-filing
NEW YORK, May 4 (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has sold its remaining stake in Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and plans to record a $925 million gain in the second quarter, according to a filing on Wednesday.

The New York-based owner of HBO, the Warner Brothers movie studio and America Online sold 5.1 million shares of Google at an average selling price of $185 a share, netting $940 million in cash on Tuesday.

Since last year, Time Warner has gained about $1.1 billion from its Google stake.

Last year, it sold 2.4 million shares, generating about $195 million. It recorded a $188 million gain in the third quarter of 2004. "

Google's 'Golden Triangle':
"By Sean Michael Kerner

TORONTO -- Search Engine Strategies Toronto got under way today with the usual slew of panels on how to improve and optimize search engine results.

New to the event this year was a standing-room-only panel that included Gord Hotchkiss, president and CEO of search research firm Enquiro, and Debbie Jaffe, product marketing manager at Google. The panelists looked at ways to influence and understand search behavior.

According to panel moderator Chris Sherman, who is associate editor of SearchEngineWatch.com, all optimization was essentially done 'by the seat of your pants' in the 'early' days of search marketing.

Hotchkiss began his presentation by showing the results from his firm's eye-tracking study, which measured where searchers' eyes go on a search page when query results are returned.

Just like the famed Bermuda Triangle that traps wayward travelers, there is a 'golden triangle' on Google that 'traps' users' eyeballs. The golden triangle is a triangle-shaped viewing pattern that reaches out from the top left of the search results page..."

Microsoft Search Engine for Microsoft Server Content:
"Today there is a search engine that focuses on Microsoft technology! We cover Microsoft Server applications, .NET and programming, Operating Systems, Microsoft desktop and Office applications, and gaming. Now you have an easy to navigate site designed for the senior Microsoft administrators, developers, decision makers and end-users..."

Google Refuses Conservative Ad, Similar to Liberal Ad -- 05/04/2005:
"...'We were using Google, typed in 'Tom DeLay,' and saw all the Google AdWords on the right-hand side that came up there and they were all anti-DeLay ads,' Greene said.

Greene decided to buy an advertisement supporting DeLay and to try to spend enough money to get his ad to come up on the top of the list.

'So we did that, and then we decided that - as part of this campaign to expose the hypocrisy of the Democrats who are attacking DeLay - we decided to do a specific ad against Nancy Pelosi, the House Minority Leader,' Greene explained.

He noticed an anti-DeLay ad for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that stated, 'The Truth About Tom DeLay - Learn about DeLay's many scandals and help us clean up the House! dccc.org.' Greene attempted to purchase a similar ad that stated, 'Truth About Nancy Pelosi - Learn about Pelosi's many scandals and help us clean up the House! RightMarch.com'

'That's all we did,' Greene told Cybercast News Service. 'We took the liberal ad and changed the words to make it a conservative ad.'

But Google refused the ad..."

Tiscali close to selling Excite Italia for 10 mln eur to Ask Jeeves - report - Forbes.com: "05.05.2005, 04:07 AM

MILAN (AFX) - Tiscali SpA is close to selling the internet company Excite Italia for about 10 mln eur to the US search engine Ask Jeeves, the daily Finanza & Mercati reported citing financial sources."

The Globe and Mail: Thomson unfazed by Google:
"By RICHARD BLOOM - Thursday, May 5, 2005 Updated at 5:10 AM EDT

Toronto — If asked to name a search engine, most Internet surfers would likely answer Google, Yahoo or perhaps MSN. Ask a doctor or lawyer and they might have a different response, the head of Thomson Corp. says.

'Thomson is the Google for the high-end professional user,' chief executive officer Richard Harrington told the company's annual general meeting yesterday, referring to its broad range of data products targeted at the medical, legal and financial industries.

Toronto-based Thomson, which is run mainly from offices in Stamford, Conn., was at one point a major operator of newspapers around the world. It now generates most of its revenue by selling electronic databases and services.

During a brief question-and-answer session with reporters after the meeting, Mr. Harrington described consumer-oriented search engines such as Google as 'a mile wide and an inch deep' while Thomson's services are 'an inch wide, a mile deep.' He also likened Google's services to 'drinking from a fire hose,' because its searches bring back so much information..."