Google’s new Search within Search tool might create a chaos in the world of affiliate marketing and affiliate network. According to the report by IDC search analyst Sue Feldman - "Hijacking Affiliate Revenue: Google's New Search Within Search Tool,"- Google’s new destination search tool can invite serious risks for publishers, while it attempts to make information more available to the end users.
According to a newspost by Thoman Claburn, in Information Week.com, by introducing this tool, where a user can search specific data through a search box that comes in the result pages of the Google SERPs, the search engine would risk alienating its affiliates and other web site owners by keeping for itself traffic and the revenue thereof.
How is this possible? Visitors seeking specific information or an ad might have visited a particular site where ad is flashed. This would have helped the affiliate generate revenue for display of that particular ad and helping a visitor go to the site via the publisher/ affiliate’s site.
But having another search box in Google SERPs itself, visitors can conduct follow up searches without leaving Google.com. This would a visitor, the particular ad being searched directly from Google and therefore the revenue generated from the ad would go directly to Google and not the Affiliate.
According to Google spokesperson, “By showing ads on the results page from the 'search within a site' feature, we aim to help our users find ads that are both useful and relevant to their searches. Our goal is to provide the best user experience, and ads that are related to searches from competing providers are useful to consumers. If a site owner wants to present sponsored listings for these searches, then that site owner can participate in the AdWords auction."
While Google maintains that it developed this feature to improve the user search experience, some industry watchers view this tool introduced by Google, as another money making mechanism, others are skeptical about its impact on the flourishing affiliate marketing.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 30, 2008
99 Million Euro for Quaero Project: Can Google Survive it?
Checking a data or fact? Planning a tourist vacation? Want information on a disease, a hotel or restaurant, a business event, pet care? What Internet users normally do? They Google the information. With around 85 percent of the search-engine market, including that of Germany, Google has become the market leader.
Now European Union is concerned about US hegemony in the worldwide search engine market. They aim to develop an Eurocentric alternative to the dominant Google.
European Union have launched a project under the name Quaero (Latin for ‘I seek’) to compete with the American behemoth. The project is headed by an Internet information company called exalead.com. The Quaero project is a coalition of 23 companies led by French technology giant Thomson.
Now, the European Union's competition watchdog has approved €99 million (£76 million) of French state aid for the consortium. This is also a fact that Google spent $7.5 million (6.3 million euros) on one lab with 10 students in its development stages. Can Quaero project become that tough? Also, the US search engine behemoth continues to spend $400 million annually on research and development. Can Quaero compete with the Google competency?
Anyway, the endeavour of EU is worth watching and the consortium plans to make the Quaero engine available for personal computers, mobile phones, televisions and other media platforms.
Now European Union is concerned about US hegemony in the worldwide search engine market. They aim to develop an Eurocentric alternative to the dominant Google.
European Union have launched a project under the name Quaero (Latin for ‘I seek’) to compete with the American behemoth. The project is headed by an Internet information company called exalead.com. The Quaero project is a coalition of 23 companies led by French technology giant Thomson.
Now, the European Union's competition watchdog has approved €99 million (£76 million) of French state aid for the consortium. This is also a fact that Google spent $7.5 million (6.3 million euros) on one lab with 10 students in its development stages. Can Quaero project become that tough? Also, the US search engine behemoth continues to spend $400 million annually on research and development. Can Quaero compete with the Google competency?
Anyway, the endeavour of EU is worth watching and the consortium plans to make the Quaero engine available for personal computers, mobile phones, televisions and other media platforms.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Google Loses To its European Cousin
The European Union’s trademark regulation agency did not accept the appeal made by Google to trademark protect its G-Mail mark in the European Union. This decision was made on the grounds that the G-Mail trademark was already provided to German businessman Daniel Giersch who has an electronic postal delivery business.
This similarity in name can lead to a lot of confusion and therefore Google, having entered later than the prevalent GMail, can not use the term. Though Google seemed to be disappointed with the judgment passed in the later part of February, this year, yet the decision seems to be quite prudent.
After the decision passed by the lower board of the trademark regulatory agency, Google now operates its free web based email service in Switzerland and also in UK under the name of GoogleMail.
This similarity in name can lead to a lot of confusion and therefore Google, having entered later than the prevalent GMail, can not use the term. Though Google seemed to be disappointed with the judgment passed in the later part of February, this year, yet the decision seems to be quite prudent.
After the decision passed by the lower board of the trademark regulatory agency, Google now operates its free web based email service in Switzerland and also in UK under the name of GoogleMail.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Bebo is in the basket of AOL for Internet Advertising
Internet advertising is the latest medium of advertising which is generating revenue and advertisers are utilizing social networking sites very often for this purpose.
Social networking sites are valuable locations for online advertising because members post information about themselves and can then be targeted with useful products and services.
For this purpose, media giants are looking for social networking sites and latest news is that Time Warner's AOL internet division is buying the social networking site Bebo for 850 million Dollar or 417 million pounds in cash. Bebo is the third-biggest social networking site in the US, behind MySpace and Facebook. According to AOL officials, Bebo has more than 40 million members worldwide who view an average of 78 pages per day each.
Internet analysis experts are saying that, ‘it comes as no great surprise to see another traditional publisher buying in to the power of the social networking phenomenon. Microsoft did it with Facebook and News Corp did it with MySpace.
Furthermore, Bebo has an incredibly strong brand identity with the teenage and young adult market, so AOL can make best use of this powerful Internet advertising tool.
Social networking sites are valuable locations for online advertising because members post information about themselves and can then be targeted with useful products and services.
For this purpose, media giants are looking for social networking sites and latest news is that Time Warner's AOL internet division is buying the social networking site Bebo for 850 million Dollar or 417 million pounds in cash. Bebo is the third-biggest social networking site in the US, behind MySpace and Facebook. According to AOL officials, Bebo has more than 40 million members worldwide who view an average of 78 pages per day each.
Internet analysis experts are saying that, ‘it comes as no great surprise to see another traditional publisher buying in to the power of the social networking phenomenon. Microsoft did it with Facebook and News Corp did it with MySpace.
Furthermore, Bebo has an incredibly strong brand identity with the teenage and young adult market, so AOL can make best use of this powerful Internet advertising tool.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
New Ad Service from Google: A Blessing for Internet Advertising
Internet advertising is growing by leaps and bounds and the world leader of the World Wide Web has all planned to utilize this boom in a great way. Google Inc. is planning to announce a new service that Web publishers can use to manage their online ad sales and serve up ads each time a consumer pulls up a Web page.
The offering is an early sign of Google's plans to diversify its ad offerings following the completion of its 3.1 billion Dollar DoubleClick Inc. acquisition this week. The move comes as Google looks to expand its online ad offerings beyond the small text ads that run alongside Web search results and other content which represent the bulk of Google's revenue.
The new Ad Manager service will provide the ad serving free, where companies such as DoubleClick have initially charged Web publishers to serve up their ads. Google is hoping that Ad Manager users will agree to carry some ads Google sells in ad spots on their Web sites they haven't filled themselves. Google would get benefit on revenue from any ads it sells.
Moreover, Google won't require Ad Manager users to carry the ads from Google's AdSense system. They can also choose to fill the spots with ads from other online ad networks in cases where they generate more money for the publisher. The Ad Manager service will handle graphical display, video and text ad formats.
Furthermore, Google Ad Manager will serve Web publishers with small to medium size sales forces, while DoubleClick's services are suited for higher-end ad-sales operations.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Google give Microsoft a shock: Double Click Acquired for $3.1 Billion
It seems that online advertising is the most revenue generating business in the Internet marketing. Perhaps that is why Internet giants are grabbing online advertising tools like hot cake.
According to the BBC news Time Warner's AOL internet division is buying the social networking site Bebo for $850 million (£417million) in cash. And now news is that Google is going to acquire DoubleClick for $3.1 Billion.
The outcome of the combination of Google and DoubleClick would be worth watching as both are the biggest players in online advertising. Their advertising styles are different. Google's AdSense business is algorithm-driven and is based on clickable links, whereas DoubleClick places targeted banner ads on sites like MySpace, The Wall Street Journal and America Online.
The move is also a big setback for Microsoft and other potential suitors like Yahoo and AOL. The DoubleClick acquisition may result in one of the significant deals because it was the pioneer in online advertising.
Using DoubleClick's services Google would extend the reach of its AdSense network, which now includes DoubleClick's DART for Publishers product.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Internet Explorer 8: Review
For the web developers, Microsoft MIX08 event was very significant. In this event, the Microsoft has released a web-browser which is very online marketing friendly. The name of this browser is Internet Explorer 8 or (IE 8).
On the first instance the IE 8 doesn’t seem much different from version 7. Most of the base features are the same and it looks like an Internet Explorer. However, this is packed with some new features. Let’s look at what these features are.
IE8 has some new and improved features which can be beneficial for the end-user. Some of these features are…
1. Activities: Previously, if you needed to get the address and map a route to a holiday spot, you would go to their website, copy the address and paste it into a map website such as Live Maps.
Now, with Activities, you simply highlight your selection and the activities button appears. This button gives you the option to map an address (a preview of activities is available without launching a whole new tab or page).
2. WebSlices: in IE8 some of the websites are enabled for WebSlices, like eBay and Facebook. You can simply click on the WebSlice button and add it to your favorites bar and from any webpage your updated content will appear with bold type.
3. Favorites bar: The Favorites bar replaces the links bar from IE 7 which provided one-click access to favorite sites.
4. Automatic Crash Recovery: this feature is designed to recover your web pages in case of a crash or hang in your web browser. ACR might help in minimizing disruptions and it can improve your productivity.
5. Improved Phishing Filter: IE 8 have a safety filter that does more than block sites that are used for phishing. It blocks sites that are known to contain malicious software that may harm your computer.
There are speculations that these improvements may make Internet browsing easier and more productive. With IE8, Microsoft may change the Web browsing experience.
On the first instance the IE 8 doesn’t seem much different from version 7. Most of the base features are the same and it looks like an Internet Explorer. However, this is packed with some new features. Let’s look at what these features are.
IE8 has some new and improved features which can be beneficial for the end-user. Some of these features are…
1. Activities: Previously, if you needed to get the address and map a route to a holiday spot, you would go to their website, copy the address and paste it into a map website such as Live Maps.
Now, with Activities, you simply highlight your selection and the activities button appears. This button gives you the option to map an address (a preview of activities is available without launching a whole new tab or page).
2. WebSlices: in IE8 some of the websites are enabled for WebSlices, like eBay and Facebook. You can simply click on the WebSlice button and add it to your favorites bar and from any webpage your updated content will appear with bold type.
3. Favorites bar: The Favorites bar replaces the links bar from IE 7 which provided one-click access to favorite sites.
4. Automatic Crash Recovery: this feature is designed to recover your web pages in case of a crash or hang in your web browser. ACR might help in minimizing disruptions and it can improve your productivity.
5. Improved Phishing Filter: IE 8 have a safety filter that does more than block sites that are used for phishing. It blocks sites that are known to contain malicious software that may harm your computer.
There are speculations that these improvements may make Internet browsing easier and more productive. With IE8, Microsoft may change the Web browsing experience.
Friday, March 14, 2008
Microsoft MIX08: Announcement of Internet Marketing-Friendly Products
The date, the place and the event are of much importance for the web developers and web technocrats. It was a period from March 5-7, 2008, the place was The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, Las Vegas and the occasion was the unveiling of the Microsoft’s latest web-oriented products and technologies. Now, let me tell you the name of the event which is Microsoft MIX08 or we can call it simply mix08.
This event was of much significance, firstly for the Microsoft, then for various web developers and lastly for the technologies that would emerge after this event of the Microsoft.
Mix08 was not a product launch as such. What Microsoft has chosen to show at this event are not finished products, but the first wave of new products that will become generally available over the next six months.
The event shows that the Internet is going to become the core functional area of Microsoft and it will continue to develop web-based software. According to chief technology officer of Microsoft, Ray Ozzie, "We are placing the internet at the centre of our strategy." This shows that world would see more major Internet developments in the coming times and it would be beneficial for the Internet marketing as a whole.
Furthermore, internet aware devices are becoming more commonplace with us these days. We are carrying mobile gadgets which are totally Internet-based. So, the consistent research of the Microsoft is very useful for us, I think!
Also, in the event MS has announced some of its latest technologies among which the key release was beta version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). This is the latest web browser from the Microsoft. Through this web browser, Microsoft has made it easy for websites that provide services to be used from any other website.
For example, if you highlight a street address in IE8, the right click menu will allow you to bring up the location on through the Live Maps service. Online buying and selling is a common process these days. Now, just find an interesting item you're looking to buy? Right click and be taken directly to the search results for that product. These innovations are going to make a difference in the online marketing.
Moreover, Microsoft's Silverlight technology is yet another tool which was demonstrated at the event. This is a set of tools that plugs into your web browser and allows websites to display rich media content and applications. Here, with a heavy focus on media, especially video, Silverlight can deliver very complicated and detailed web pages.
There are speculations that Nokia would make Silverlight available for the majority of their handsets and internet tablets.
Thus, Microsoft is keeping on striving for the excellence. Perhaps the company is also influenced by the advent of the Internet marketing that is why it is emphasizing on the online marketing friendly Internet browser. This is definitely a good news for all those people who are involved in affiliate marketing, search engine marketing or any kind of Internet marketing.
This event was of much significance, firstly for the Microsoft, then for various web developers and lastly for the technologies that would emerge after this event of the Microsoft.
Mix08 was not a product launch as such. What Microsoft has chosen to show at this event are not finished products, but the first wave of new products that will become generally available over the next six months.
The event shows that the Internet is going to become the core functional area of Microsoft and it will continue to develop web-based software. According to chief technology officer of Microsoft, Ray Ozzie, "We are placing the internet at the centre of our strategy." This shows that world would see more major Internet developments in the coming times and it would be beneficial for the Internet marketing as a whole.
Furthermore, internet aware devices are becoming more commonplace with us these days. We are carrying mobile gadgets which are totally Internet-based. So, the consistent research of the Microsoft is very useful for us, I think!
Also, in the event MS has announced some of its latest technologies among which the key release was beta version of Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). This is the latest web browser from the Microsoft. Through this web browser, Microsoft has made it easy for websites that provide services to be used from any other website.
For example, if you highlight a street address in IE8, the right click menu will allow you to bring up the location on through the Live Maps service. Online buying and selling is a common process these days. Now, just find an interesting item you're looking to buy? Right click and be taken directly to the search results for that product. These innovations are going to make a difference in the online marketing.
Moreover, Microsoft's Silverlight technology is yet another tool which was demonstrated at the event. This is a set of tools that plugs into your web browser and allows websites to display rich media content and applications. Here, with a heavy focus on media, especially video, Silverlight can deliver very complicated and detailed web pages.
There are speculations that Nokia would make Silverlight available for the majority of their handsets and internet tablets.
Thus, Microsoft is keeping on striving for the excellence. Perhaps the company is also influenced by the advent of the Internet marketing that is why it is emphasizing on the online marketing friendly Internet browser. This is definitely a good news for all those people who are involved in affiliate marketing, search engine marketing or any kind of Internet marketing.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Google Services: For whatever you Search under the Sun
One name which is like a religion for the Internet is Google, without any doubt. If you are a regular Google user you must have seen many features of it. Google services include all its products under three broad categories.
- Desktop Products
- Mobile products
- Online products
If we would count all these products the list would go very long. There are more than 100 Google products under these three categories. These all products are either a gold release, in beta development or a part of the Google lab initiative.
Now, gold release is the final version of a particular product, beta development is the first version released outside the organization for the purpose of evaluation and Google lab initiative is some new Google project that is not ready for prime time and which serves as a testing ground for new services being developed.
Here are some of the major products in each category…
Desktop products: Earth, Hello, Pack, Gmail/Google Notifier, Picasa, Talk, Video Player, web Accelerator, Blogger Web Comments, Browser Sync, Send to phone, Toolbar and other products.
Mobile Products: iGoogle, Mobile search, Calendar, Gmail, Google notebook, Reader, Picasa Web Albums, Google mobilizer, Gmail mobile, Maps mobile, YouTube and other products.
Online products or web products: Under this category there may be some sub-categories.
Advertising products: AdSense, AdWord, AdWord website optimizer, Audio Ads, Click- to- Call, TV ads etc.
Communication & Publishing: 3D Warehouse, Blogger, Docs, Calendar, FeedBurner, Dodgeball, Gmail, Notebook, Orkut, Page Creator, YouTube etc.
Development: Google Web Toolkit, Code, Android, OpenSocial etc.
Mapping: Maps, Mars, Moon, Ride Finder and transit.
Search: Accessible search, Alerts, Base, Book search, Directory, Finance, Groups, Patent search, Product search, Scholar, Video, Web Search etc
Statistics: Analytics, Gapminder, trends etc.
Hardware products: Google search appliance and Google mini.
Other products: GOOG-411 or Google Voice Local Search.
So, I hope that you would have got an idea about various Google products. One thing I want to say that as far as innovation is concerned, Google has achieved a dynamic success.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Online advertising scene would change forever in China
Do you know which region in this world have the most internet surfers? Is it Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Middle East or Australia/Oceania?
The answer is
Let see Internet scene in the
Good news for them is that a business software company Omniture Inc., which is a leader in the online business optimization and Chinese search engine Baidu.com Inc., are together going to provide a technology that will monitor the effectiveness of Chinese marketing campaigns.
The confluence of these two giants will help the companies to determine the influence of the online marketing over the Chinese Internet users. Most probably this will change the face of the online advertising in
Friday, March 7, 2008
War for Capturing Internet Based Office Tools Market
Sometimes I get amazed that who is going to win in the war among software giants to get the biggest piece from the huge Internet marketing cake. I have been listening about brand India emerging in the field of software. I also have been listening about the monopoly of some of the giants in this field. I have been listening about the new developments in the software and applications domain.
One thing I am realizing that all software giants like Microsoft, Google, Dell, Yahoo! and other software hunks like these, are undergoing a war with each other. The war is on for supremacy.
Here you would ask me some concrete data to prove the above statement. So let’s start...
To provide competition to Google Apps, that allows users to create and store documents online, Microsoft has recently launched Office Live WorkSpace. This application allows people to create and store Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations online.
Again, for giving competition to Microsoft’s Outlook, Google has launched Google Sites, which allows people to create websites on which they can present documents as well as videos and other material.
Now, other companies are also not lagging behind. Dell has invested $155 million for buying MessageOne which is a provider of online e-mail archiving and management services. Furthermore, Yahoo! has spent $350 million for buying Zimbra, a web-based competitor to Microsoft Exchange.
The list can go on and on and here you can see how. Google has spent 625 million dollar to buy the e-mail filtering and security firm, Postini. Cisco bought WebEx, a supplier of online conferencing software, for 3.2 billion dollar.
Really, the war is on. Now, you would have been well convinced that really the war has begun. As a user of the software applications, I can say only one thing that let them fight with each other; ultimately the winner is me, i.e., the customer and the billions of active Internet users worldwide.
One thing I am realizing that all software giants like Microsoft, Google, Dell, Yahoo! and other software hunks like these, are undergoing a war with each other. The war is on for supremacy.
Here you would ask me some concrete data to prove the above statement. So let’s start...
To provide competition to Google Apps, that allows users to create and store documents online, Microsoft has recently launched Office Live WorkSpace. This application allows people to create and store Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations online.
Again, for giving competition to Microsoft’s Outlook, Google has launched Google Sites, which allows people to create websites on which they can present documents as well as videos and other material.
Now, other companies are also not lagging behind. Dell has invested $155 million for buying MessageOne which is a provider of online e-mail archiving and management services. Furthermore, Yahoo! has spent $350 million for buying Zimbra, a web-based competitor to Microsoft Exchange.
The list can go on and on and here you can see how. Google has spent 625 million dollar to buy the e-mail filtering and security firm, Postini. Cisco bought WebEx, a supplier of online conferencing software, for 3.2 billion dollar.
Really, the war is on. Now, you would have been well convinced that really the war has begun. As a user of the software applications, I can say only one thing that let them fight with each other; ultimately the winner is me, i.e., the customer and the billions of active Internet users worldwide.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Internet Marketing: Cream customers are waiting for you
Your Company is doing a great job, its products are useful and your marketing strategy is very market driven but still you are don’t have a strong online presence. Or, may be you are afraid of the term Internet marketing.
The above situation is very common. Most people, organizations, publishers and advertisers ignore a very large base of customers just because of lack of knowledge. They are habituated of selling their products in the physical market. And often they ask, are their enough customers? This is a very common question, but I am sorry to say, this is a really irrelevant question now.
They ask this question in a world where there are speculations that there will be 1.5 billion people with Internet access in 2011, with the biggest growth in the online population occurring in Brazil, Russia, India and China, according to the Worldwide Online Population Forecast, 2006 to 2011 (Report by JupiterResearch).
And I must tell you a large part of this number will do online buying and selling and perhaps that is why online ad spend is enhancing day by day. Companies are also utilizing various online marketing services which educate about tools of the Internet marketing like e-mail marketing, display ads, paid keyword search, video ads, podcasts etc.
Moreover, this is the impact of the Internet marketing only that people are using the Internet for many other purposes other than communication. They are using it for searching for job, life partner, home, latest gizmos and lots more. So what are you waiting for, go online and see a large number of customers waiting for you.
The above situation is very common. Most people, organizations, publishers and advertisers ignore a very large base of customers just because of lack of knowledge. They are habituated of selling their products in the physical market. And often they ask, are their enough customers? This is a very common question, but I am sorry to say, this is a really irrelevant question now.
They ask this question in a world where there are speculations that there will be 1.5 billion people with Internet access in 2011, with the biggest growth in the online population occurring in Brazil, Russia, India and China, according to the Worldwide Online Population Forecast, 2006 to 2011 (Report by JupiterResearch).
And I must tell you a large part of this number will do online buying and selling and perhaps that is why online ad spend is enhancing day by day. Companies are also utilizing various online marketing services which educate about tools of the Internet marketing like e-mail marketing, display ads, paid keyword search, video ads, podcasts etc.
Moreover, this is the impact of the Internet marketing only that people are using the Internet for many other purposes other than communication. They are using it for searching for job, life partner, home, latest gizmos and lots more. So what are you waiting for, go online and see a large number of customers waiting for you.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Open Social Web – exploring new dimensions
What is open social web? Has it been formally recognized by any agency or is it just a technical jargon that slipped out of some techie’s fingers? If you are an active participant in the technology driven era you must know what it is and more than that where it is heading.
Open Social Web is the term that tries to explain the technology incorporated and space occupied by various social media software applications like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, Youtube and many more. Such platforms make available to the people some free services and resources to communicate and share data. Community websites and portals are popular examples of Open Social media.
What is new in Open Social Web is the release of new applications to aid the open resources. These applications are primarily made available to aid the users for exploring new features. Such releases have come up as incentives to further retain the users and make services popular.
From simple mails and chat messengers the Open Social Web now has integrated different technologies to enhance the interactivity and sharing of resources with others. The VoIP services, photo and video sharing, community networks, etc., have added new dimensions to the open sources. If we take Skype as an example, the company started with basic services and has been releasing new features and add-on components of its already launched products. Research and design as such is being consistently pursued. Not only does it add value to the existing product or service, but the added feature or component can itself start a new service.
One of the main concerns faced by many Open Social web resources is the privacy of the users. Some such resources let certain content pertaining to the user be displayed to all. The issue of using the technology for unethical practices has further raised alarms. All this is keeping the experts on their toes to come up with timely solutions and hence advance the media to face yet new challenges.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
