Online marketing: Microsoft Live Search Cashback Program

Online marketing has become such a vast area, and profitable also, that every software and PC company wants to make profit out of it. Specially in the field of search marketing and Internet advertising. Hence till recently, Microsoft has tried almost everything to get more people to pick its search site over Google. And now it is offering a little cash.

This is the idea behind a new Microsoft search program. It will return money to online users who find and buy products through its Live Search engine. This is the magic of online marketing and search engine advertising profits. Now, Microsoft wants you to use its search and for that it is willing to pay also.

Now, how it will work. According to the plans of the Redmond based software giant, users who sign up for accounts can search for eligible products on the Live Search cashback site.
If a user clicks on a merchant's website and buys eligible products, a particular percentage of the purchase price, that may range from about 2 percent to more than 30 percent, will be deposited into the user's Live Search cashback accounts.

Refunds will accumulate in the account and be available via direct deposit to a bank or PayPal account or by check. There are certain conditions for which you can check the Microsoft website. Also, Microsoft will charge merchants for the Live Search cashback advertisements only when a user makes a purchase.

Now, let see the impact of this service on the Internet search king Google, which is getting the maximum benefits of the search marketing and online marketing boom.

Online marketing: Google Would Allow Third Party Ads

Internet advertising is the revenue-churning species in the online marketing garden. Really. Perhaps that is why websites are experimenting a lot with online advertising avenues. The latest buzz is that the online behemoth, Google, has allowed third party ads on its content network.

Google is doing this because online marketing and Internet advertising have a very promising future. So the search engine Goliath has decided to accept third party ads on its content network through certified vendors. In fact, Google content network is a large group of websites and other products, such as email programs and blogs, who have joined Google to display AdWords ads.

Since, Google has just started it, so the third party ads will be available in English only but later Google content network will accept third party ads in other languages also.

According to Google sources, “this was a long standing demand from their AdWords advertisers who use third parties to create and manage their online campaigns.”

Sources further added that “by accepting third-party ads, we can attract a greater variety of advertising on the Google content network, which we believe will result over time in increased revenue for publishers and more relevant advertising for end users.”

Hence, it can be said that for Google, there is no stopping as far as innovation is concerned. Its game with online marketing would continue just like this.

Online marketing: Face-Lift of Facebook

The web design affects a lot to the business of any website. US-based social networking site Facebook also realized this fact. That is why it has planned for a small face-lift to present even more beautiful face for the social networks, who are playing a major role in the online marketing arena. Due to the more and more information on Facebook like more photo albums, more applications, and more history, profiles became cluttered. Page navigation was also a little bit harder.

So Facebook has come up with a new design of its users’ profile pages which will now move away from a single flat page to a tabbed design. The move has made the profile page cleaner and more simple, giving users more control over their profile pages. The core tabs on the new designed profile page are Feed, Info and Photos.

Also There are four categories listed as Profile, Friends, Networks, and Inbox. Under each category, there are some subcategories. For example, you can browse through friends who have just updated their profiles or who are online right now in the 'Friends' category.

There is a Custom Applications tab. Another new feature being added to the top of the Feed tab is a Publisher Box. This particular feature would allow users to add content directly to their profile, instead of going to different pages.

So, the website has become more faster, more Spam-free and less cluttered. And it has become more user-friendly.

Google's Safe Browsing Diagnostic

Google has recently announced a new feature safe browsing diagnostics to help the owners of compromised sites. Google has been protecting its users from the implication of malicious sites ever since. This step too is just another move in the same direction. The online marketing giant has bit an infrastructure which will automatically determine if web pages carry risk to users. This is a highly accurate service, except in some cases when the attackers use sophisticated obfuscation techniques or insert malicious payloads into the system.

To overcome this difficulty, the company has introduced new Google's safe browsing diagnostic system, that will now provide detailed information about the automatic investigations and findings that the search engine conducts on malicious websites.

This diagnostic system is already showing a number of benefits to the owners of compromised websites. The diagnostic system is such that it will store data for only 90 days, but the 90 days period as actually sufficient to take note of the activities of the malicious websites. This system is also able to track other domains and websites where the malicious activity is spread or is connected with. This will help in tracking the root of the activity more effectively.

The new service indeed is an amazing step taken by Google to control the malicious activities in the website and will definitely ensure a safer browsing experience for Google users.

Online marketing: Waiting For The Hot Deal

The day of 19'th May, 2008, would be a memorable day for the online marketing, search engine advertising and social networking. There are two reasons for this.

First reason is that, on this date AOL is completing its takeover of social networking site Bebo, which means that Yahoo is going to loose a key deal to supply advertising to the social networking site.

And second reason is that Yahoo has confirmed its willingness to discuss a new and more limited deal with Microsoft over combining the two companies. The combination is likely to affect online marketing and advertising businesses.

Both of these happenings may bring great changes in the worldwide environment of online marketing, Internet advertising and social advertising.

Earlier Microsoft had proposed an online advertising deal with Yahoo, two weeks after the failure of talks about a takeover of the Silicon Valley firm for 47.5 Billion USD or £24.4 Billion.

The buzz is that Yahoo has said that it will evaluate each of their alternatives, including any Microsoft proposal, consistent with its fiduciary duties. The firm would focus on maximising stockholder value. At the same time Yahoo and its board of directors would consider a number of value maximising strategic alternatives.

Meanwhile, buzz is also that talks between Yahoo and Google are intensifying. Two are trying to push an online marketing and online advertising deal through ahead of any renewed approach from Microsoft.

Yahoo and Google might explore an open platform on which the two firms could jointly bid to serve ads alongside search results. The project could be announced within two weeks.

Online marketing: Microsoft-Yahoo Talk for Fresh Deal

It is true that Microsoft-yahoo partnership would bring significant changes in the online marketing world. But the deal is becoming speculative day by day. Recently, news was that Microsoft has officially withdrawn its bid for Yahoo. It withdrew its 33 USD-a-share buyout bid on May 3, after the two sides failed to agree on a price.

Now latest buzz is that Microsoft Corp. has announced that it had consulted Yahoo Inc. with a possibility of a fresh deal that does not involve an acquisition of the Internet company.

Microsoft would do it to improve its online marketing business. The alternative deal would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.

Microsoft not at all want to acquire all of Yahoo at this time, but the transaction would improve and expand its online marketing services and advertising businesses.

Also, Microsoft reserves the right to reconsider this alternative depending on future developments and discussions with Yahoo or with shareholders of Yahoo or with other third parties. Speculations are that Microsoft has in mind a partnership or joint venture for search-related advertising, which is very profitable among various online marketing ventures.

Social Networking Sites: Friends Behind the Screen

Both Myspace and Facebook, the leading social networking sites have made a change in their website. Their website design now includes features which are being termed as 'Data Availability Initiative.' in Myspace and 'Facebook connect' in facebook. This feature will allow the users to share their Online photos, videos and texts from various websites.

Users will now be able to transfer data from one site and import it into another. You can exchange stuffs from websites like Yahoo, eBay, Twitter and several others too. Not only this, Google too has introduced a similar feature which it is calling as 'Friend Connect' This will help website owners to add various social features to their website with just simple code. Friend connect shall be acting as a shortcut to your connections that you have built somewhere else on the web.

This unison of various connections across the web, is a very convenient feature, which will help users to get connected to their various connections from any one place on the web. The new face of social networking will give Online users a unique face, an individual identity in the virtual world.

The day is not far away when every individual will have two identities one the real one where he is surviving and the other the virtual one, where he is literally living.

Get Live - MSN launches Messenger TV

MSN launched new service "Get Live". With the help of this surfers can exchange messages while watching online video.

Messenger TV, the new service of MSN combines the feature of windows live instant-messanging(IM) program with video software so that user can watch and share video clips.

The site will also display 4 minutes long clips of shows like Peep Show, Property Ladder, Father Ted and Shameless and also provide access to MTV content including clips from South Park and Pimp My Ride, as well as music videos from Kylie to Britney Spears.

Currently Messenger TV will be available in Europe and 95 million users of Windows Live Messenger. Video clips will have ads and a banner that runs at the bottom of the Messenger TV window.

Peter Bale, executive producer at MSN UK, called the new service "a powerful sharing experience".

This new move has been taken by the big giant MSN to expand its business into internet advertising. As msn did not disclose details of the deals with EMI.

Enjoy and have a fun with http://get.live.com

Air Ads On Your Selected TV channels With Google Adword

Internet marketing has come to an age wherein users are facilitated to promote their brands in TV. Expanding to TV channels by online marketing campaigns for brand promotion is a futuristic step and hints limitless prospects of this side of marketing. Understanding profitable prospects of spreading brand awareness amongst TV viewers, Google AdWords have launched a new concept to reach out to new base of customers. Regardless of Internet and other media channels, television still has restored its position with a surge of networks and soaps, shows, programs. Advent of satellites has made most of the TV networks global and given a worldwide viewers. So, like internet, TV channels have also potential to grip huge mass of viewers across the world.

Google AdWords is hugely prospective approach in Internet marketing is once again proved through this initiative to launch ad on TV. Realizing creation of a TV ad more intricate than internet ad, Google is catering to its users with the Google Ad Creation Marketplace to create ads and air the network and programs that are viewed by targeted segment of audience. This ad creation marketplace is a directory of professionals proficient in media to help AdWords users to make catchy TV ads for them. Primarily Google has been charging $2,000 per week to run an ad for at least 4 back-to-back week.

Idée's image search engine TinEye would be launched today

Local tech startup Idée Inc. will publicly launch a search engine named TinEye that will function the same with images as what Google Inc. does with text.

"This is the early days of multimedia searching," said chief executive Leila Boujnane. "It feels like we're at the same place Google was at years ago."

With a small number of dedicated staff and their several years of R&D work, Idée has managed to develop a set of algorithms that takes an image, compares it to about a half-billion indexed pictures, and generates relevant images and their url within milliseconds.

"Anyone who actually sells content wants to know where it is," said Idée co-founder and chief technology officer Paul Bloore. "No one else can do this, especially on the scale that we're doing."

TinEye will be helpful for publishers, online retailers, brand marketers and copyright compliance officers who want to track how products are being distributed on the Web.

The release of TinEye is Idée's another step at becoming a king in the image recognition industry. Its existing service is to tracks down publishers who use their copyrighted pictures and bills them as per value.

"It has lots of business applications and I don't even think they've scratched the surface," said Rick Segal, a partner with private equity firm JLA Ventures. "It's the kind of stuff that gets greedy little suits like me excited."

"For this kind of technology, there's a lot deep pockets already," said George Goodall, a senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group.

"I think [Idée] has a one-year window of opportunity to build the technology. If they fail to execute on that strategy in the next eight months, they could get swallowed up."

Alexa Updates its Web Ranking System

Alexa a well known search engine has updated its web ranking system. In the new updates, it combines data from various sources to present users a better way of website popularity among the entire internet users.

Earlier, the Alexa Rankings was based only on an analysis of internet usage of only those people who used the Alexa Toolbar.

However, the Alexa toolbar users' interests and surfing habits could differ from those of the rest of the internet user, so the company decided to improve its ranking algorithms.

As per the company, the new rankings result will be better, which reflect the interests and surfing habits of the entire range of internet user.

Google New Application for Developers - Google App Engine

Google has launched a new application for software called Google App Engine. Here developers can run their web applications with the help of google's infrasture. It is as similar to that blogger made it easy to creat a blog. Google app engine is designed ti naje ut east ti create and run web application.


With the help of Google App Engine, developers can write web applications based on the same building blocks that Google uses, like GFS and Bigtable. Google App Engine packages those building blocks and provides access to scalable infrastructure, hope it will make it easier for developers to scale their applications automatically as they grow. Wih the help Google App Engine, software professional can spend less time dealing with system administration and maintenance, and more time building and improving their applications.

Google App Engine is free to use during the preview release, but the amount of computing resources any app can use is limited. Later, developers will be able to purchase additional computing resources as needed, but Google App Engine is free to get started.

To know more about google app engine click here

This preview of Google App Engine is available for the first 10,000 developers who sign up. so developer sign up download the SDK

You Tube Now Brings Video Analytics Tool for its Users

You Tube is now releasing a video analytics tool which they are calling the ‘You Tube Insight’. ‘You Tube Insight’ is free to all the users of You Tube. This means that if you have an account in You Tube, you can view detailed statistics about the videos that you upload to the site.

What all information will ‘You Tube Insight’ provide an up-loader with? An up-loader can see the frequency or number of times the videos are watched, different geographic locations from where viewers come to the videos, the time of the day or the time period when the videos are usually played and how popular are they, especially when compared to other videos in the same market.

With You Tube Insight, you can also get down to further details like the lifecycle of a video, long soon is the video getting famous, what all places are reporting maximum views and what happens once the popularity of a video reaches its peak position.

The You Tube Insight can be very useful for you from business point of view. You can judge from the statistics – what kinds of people are taking more interest in your videos. You can evaluate the performance of your videos with those of your competitors and know exactly where you are. You can use the metrics to increase your videos’ view counts and improve popularity on the site.

You Tube promises its viewers more features and additional information and asks them to find currently available metrics by clicking under the "About this Video" button under "My account > Videos, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos."

Yahoo! Supports Open Social Foundation

With the support that Yahoo! has provided, Google’s OpenSocial Foundation has gained a momentum and the backing of the most visited Website in USA. OpenSocial was introduced in October in an effort to cut time and cost of developer by letting them create a single application that works on multiple sites. The OpenSocial software is aimed to enable developers put their programs on more social networking sites.

The OpenSocial concept comes from the fact that the social media sites have gained immense popularity and are doing rather well with people across the globe. The OpenSocial foundation is formed by the 3 industry giants – Yahoo!, Google and News Corp.’s MySpace. This is a non profit organization that is formed to promote the OpenSocial technology.

The OpenSocial software can also be the silver lining for Yahoo! at a time when sales growth at Yahoo! has sloped down from 22% in 2006 to 8%. It is through the popularity of the social networking sites, Yahoo! can hope to gain a better foothold in the industry back again, especially because advertisers have found potential target audience in such sites.

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.

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.

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.