Google and Yahoo! Search Agreement
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For any of you who have been living in a hut in the depths of Mongolia for the last week, you may have mised the big news that Google and Yahoo! came to an agreement a few days ago:
Today, we announced a non-exclusive advertising agreement that will provide Yahoo! with access to our AdSense for search and AdSense for content advertising programs on their U.S. and Canadian web properties.
The above statement comes from a blog post posted by Omid Kordestani, Google’s
- This is not a merger. Rather, we are merely providing access to our advertising technology to Yahoo! through our AdSense program.
- This does not remove a competitor from the playing field. Yahoo! will remain in the business of search and content advertising, which gives the company a continued incentive to keep improving and innovating. Even during this agreement, Yahoo! can use our technology as much or as little as it chooses.
- This does not prevent Yahoo! from making similar arrangements with others. This arrangement is not exclusive, meaning that Yahoo! could enter into similar arrangements with other companies.
- This does not increase Google’s share of search traffic. Yahoo! will continue to run its own search engine and advertising programs, and the agreement will not increase Google’s share of search traffic.
- This does not let Google raise prices for advertisers. Google does not set the prices manually for ads; rather, advertisers themselves determine prices through an ongoing competitive auction. We have found over years of research that an auction is by far the most efficient way to price search advertising and have no intention of changing that.
Regardless of what Google are officially saying, it is obvious that the Microsoft deal, was something that Yahoo! just didn’t want to pursue, even if it could have been better for them. Also, Google are trying to get across that this won’t strengthen their search share… Say what?! Of course it does. It can’t get much better in the UK, but remember this deal applies for the US and Canada.
So, marketeers in the UK, what should you do now? I wouldn’t do anything at this point. You need to be aware that this has happened and track the success of it. It will be interesting to see if the balance of power swings even more in the mighty G’s favour. If your business is in the US, I see a big question raising it’s head…
“why do I need to even consider Yahoo! ?”
That is not a good question for the Yahoo! board to hear.
Google rocking again
Google boss Eric Schmidt said “innovation in search, ads, and apps” helped to boost earnings growth.
There have been fears that the firm was being hit by the slowing US economy.
Google said sales were up 42% to $5.19bn for the quarter ended 31 March.
The almighty G have just reported their first quarter earnings and they have eased fear about an online advertising slump. The BBC have a good report on the key facts and is also being widely reported around the web.
It doesn’t surprise me that they are doing well / continuing to do well. What other advertising medium is so targeted, so relevant, so customisable and can be measured so effectively?
TRCM = Google’s key advantage.
Once my own sites are fully up and running (soon, soon), I for one will be running highly targeted Google ads. Does anyone else do this at the moment? If you are a freelancer or small business owner, I would love to know your thoughts.
PS A potential client is looking for a red hot person to look after their Google Ads - based in Lincolnshire (UK) though, they must be experienced, friendly, proactive and be used to be handling £000s of adspend. Drop me a line if you are interested or know someone!
Technorati Tags: google, hull marketing consultant, jonmoss
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Google understands
I’ve blogged before about companies who understand about work environments.
Google understands the fact that you get the best out of employees if you give them a great environment to work in. Lets face it…. you spend a whole load of time at work, so a good employer knows this and wants to make you more productive by making the office a great place to be.
Check out the video here from the BBC showing Google’s new offices in Zurich. Looks amazing eh?!
It’s such a shame that the vast majority of companies have no idea about making the workplace somewhere people want to be, that helps them do better work and be more productive. I can think of a fair few examples straight away, from awful locations, drab interiors and no effort made to engage the people working there in a fun and intelligent manner.
So, a quick show of hands….does anyone have any good examples of somewhere they have worked or work now which is actually doing a good job of making their work environment work for them?
Technorati Tags: google, jonmoss, jonnymoss, workenvironment, theappleofmyi
Microsoft buying Yahoo! ?!
Whoa! This is BIG news. Press release from Microsoft here.
Steve Ballmer says:
“We have great respect for Yahoo!, and together we can offer an
increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers
and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in
the online services market,”“We believe our combination will deliver superior value to our
respective shareholders and better choice and innovation to our
customers and industry partners.”
BBC Article here.
To be honest, this makes a lot of sense, and both companies need to do something. The figures speak for themselves in a BIG way….
Google is still romping away with a large slice of what is happening online, whether that be advertising (the big one), useful online apps (Gmail and Maps for example) and are constantly looking to do more and more. (They are still recruiting a lot of people, but starting to come under pressure from the likes of Facebook when trying to get the cream of the crop of graduates).
Ok, imagine if they DID join forces and Microsoft did buy them (and I’m not sure whether this will happen), they still need to get things turned round pretty quickly, and the big question for me, is how quickly? Everyone knows what a huge process a merger is, and all the logistics and politics which accompany it. Getting a strong, correct and engaging strategy together quickly, and starting to implement it would be critical, and I’m afraid, both companies track records do not give me much hope for this to happen.
Let’s watch this space closely, and see what Yahoo! have to say.
UPDATE - internal memo from Steve Ballmer here - he almost talks like it’s a done deal!
Technorati Tags: acquisition, buy, google, merger, microsoft, web, Yahoo!
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Are Google Recession Proof?
Here is an interesting article from Wired about Google and whether or not they are “recession proof”. The actual article is referring to the US market, but as we all know, it looks like we could be heading the same way.
What really caught my eye was the information that in the previous recessions, direct mail grew, and Google’s main business model, is very like direct mail. Targeted relevant advertising. Direct mail works when it is relevant and it is targeted, and guess what? If you are looking for cheap flights to New York on Google, a load of adverts appear advertising just that. Not rocket science, but by ‘eck lad, it sure does work.
Google ads do work, and many people spend a great deal of money on them. Large or small, many businesses see that they almost HAVE to have a Google Adword presence, just to be in the game. It is certainly something I will be doing very shortly once my main websites are ready.
Do any of you run Google Adwords campaigns? I would be intrested to hear your thoughts in them, and especially, if they work for you.
Technorati Tags: google, jonmoss, jonnymoss, recession
Google Analytics - you need to use it
If there is one free service from Google that really stands out, it must be Google Analytics. The ease of use, level of detail and what that information can be used for is pretty damn impressive. You get SO much data! How many people go to your site, how long they stay, what they click on, where they’re from… the list goes on! You can also set conversion goals to track anything from specific clicks to downloads.
So how do you use Google Analytics?
- Sign up for a Google account, if you have Gmail already, you’re ready to go
- Go to the Google Analytics site
- Log in
- Add a new site - out in the url of the site you want to track
- Google Analytics generates a code which you then add to your site (within the site’s code)
- Once you’ve done this, it can take around 24 hours for Google to start tracking the data from your site
- You’re done! Information-tastic! All you need to know at your fingertips - you can even get pdf reports delivered to your email inbox whenever you want covering all manner of specific trends
If you are using a Wordpress installation on your site, (this blog is using Wordpress), there are a few plugins which you can use to make this process easier, so there is no mucking about with code (perfect for me!).
I am currently using the Ultimate Google Analytics Plugin which you can find here. I’m just in the process of creating a new blog for a new site and have done all the necessary set up and used the plugin. I now need to see if Google starts tracking it correctly tomorrow.
Do you use any other plugin?
I would be very grateful if any of you could point me in the direction of any plugins for Google Analytics that you use on your Wordpress blogs. (Any plugin recommendations are also welcome!).
Technorati Tags: analytics, jonmoss, jonnymoss, googleanalytics, theappleofmyi
Google phone is really all about software, not hardware
So, finally an official announcement about the Google Phone.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 5 — Google took its long-awaited plunge into the wireless world today, announcing that it is leading a broad industry alliance to transform mobile phones into powerful mobile computers that could accelerate the convergence of computing and communications.
Mobile phones based on Google’s software are not expected to be available until the second half of next year. They will be manufactured by a variety of handset companies, including HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung and be available in the United States through T-Mobile and Sprint.
The phones will also be available through the world’s largest mobile operator, China Telecom, with 332 million subscribers in China, and the leading carriers in Japan, NTT DoCoMo and KDDI, as well as T-Mobile in Germany, Telecom Italia in Italy and Telefónica in Spain.
But for now at least, Google will not put its brand on a phone. The software running on the phones may not even display the Google logo. Instead, Google is giving the software away to others who will build the phones. The company invested heavily in the project to ensure that all of its services are available on mobile phones. Its ultimate goal is to cash in on the effort by selling advertisements to mobile phone users, just as it does on Internet-connected computers.
“We are not building a GPhone; we are enabling 1,000 people to build a GPhone,” said Andy Rubin, Google’s director of mobile platforms, who led the effort to develop the software.
Fascinating news, and the thing that really stand out for me, that syncs so well with this announcement, is last week’s anouncement about their OpenSocial API. There is a HUGE potential for developers to utilise the OpenSocial APIs with the Google phone software. I can see some very exciting possibilities, with the potential of going well beyond what we currently have available. Will Apple be worried? I don’t think so at this point in time… but with Google being so close to Apple, it may cause a few noses to be put out of shape. I wonder if Steve knew about this … you would think so with Eric Scmidt being on the board of Apple directors.
I would love to see Google and Apple working more closely together on mobiles. I hope this does not cause too much of a rift.
UPDATE - great write up on the possibilities of what a Google software phone COULD do from Wired.
Technorati Tags: apple, google, googlephone, iphone, stevejobs
Gmail has some real fans (me included)
The Gmail team put out a challenge last month for user to to film themselves with a cut out Gmail envelope, the only criteria being it went from the left to the right side of the screen. The result is below - superb!
The future?
Some great videos today, and all hosted on YouTube (they are getting VERY powerful). Look at this one - really is worth watching if you, like me, are a prosumer…
Google Desktop for Mac
Just installed this and looks promising…
There is a good write up on the official Google blog here. Basically it works like Spotlight on your Mac and indexes files so that you can search easily. It will also keep track of deleted files and search your browsing history + Gmail. Pretty good eh? 
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BBC News- You may like to read this...
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