Just when we’re getting used to the idea that money is about to flow like it did at the end of the 90′s, dark clouds and volatility is visible on the horizon. Optimism springing from Google’s fourth quarter financial report should be tempered with memories of the industry wide alcohol poisoning suffered in the days after the last time we partied like 1999. Read more…
It has been just over ten years since the public release of the first modern search engine, AltaVista. Infoseek, Lycos, HotBot, Northern Lights, and dozens of others quickly followed AV. In previous years search marketing was much simpler. Since then we’ve seen the rise and fall of several search firms. Almost as many ideas on how the business of search should be conducted have come and gone in the same period of time. While search has grown far more sophisticated in its first decade, the free (or Organic) listings have been a constant common factor for every search engine. Read more…
Organic search engine placement is important as demonstrated by a recent white paper issued by Oneupweb’s Lisa Wehr.
In her study, Wehr used the day a site achieved a Top30 placement at Google as a baseline and examined increases in visitors and conversions. Her findings are interesting as they not only confirm assumptions about Top10 placements, they also show stronger than expected results for sites with Top20 and Top30 placements. Read more…
The venerable About.Com is on the auction block. Founded in 1996 as the Mining Company, About is one of the oldest well-known Internet properties.
In October 2000, About was purchased by Primemedia for $690Million worth of stocks. Today, the final bids are being accepted from five companies are thought to be in the $300 – $500Million range.
The five companies expected to offer final bids are; Google, Yahoo, The New York Times, AOL/TimeWarner, and Ask Jeeves. The auction, which is managed by Goldman Sachs, has been quietly active for just over a month.
About has seen difficult times over the past few years. While carries has more information on more subjects than most websites, most web-users never included in the “must-visit-everyday” category of news and information sites.
Interest expressed in About from major search engines is not surprising but then again, neither is the bid from the NYTimes. About.com has a massive directory network of expert sites. It also has a huge archive of topic-based articles. Long-time search readers will remember Search Engine Guide editor Jennifer Laycock’s daily columns in About.Com.
The future of About.com depends on which of the five firms place the winning bid. Perhaps we are about to see the massive reporting resources of the New York Times appearing at About. On the other hand, perhaps About is smaller than the sum of its parts and one of the four search firms bidding will walk away with a larger advertising network. Whatever happens, About.com has suddenly become very interesting.
February has come in like a lion with a multitude of major announcements from several major players in the past 48-hours.
Three extraordinary things happened earlier this week. First, Google released a Forth Quarter Report that significantly exceeded investor expectations. The $1billion in revenues reported by Google over the last three months has reignited Wall St. speculation built on an already strong confidence in the search-sector. Second, MSN officially released its own search engine. Microsoft is so large and influential, the introduction of their search tool and the advertising campaign that is currently rolling across the web will push the sector forward. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, AOL and the rest of the Time Warner empire are finally finding substantial ways to work together, five years after the merger of the two giants. At the same time, Yahoo has been quickly solidifying relationships in the NY-Hollywood entertainment sector and is in the process of producing a mainstream entertainment division. Read more…
Google shares hit a record $210 in evening trading after the search giant released a quarterly report that beat most analysts’ expectations. Google considers itself the world’s largest generator of online advertising revenue, a claim founded on its triple digit growth from Q3 to Q4. Read more…
G-Hawg update. No shadow seen = early spring vacations for investors.
In an intense one-hour webcast and phone conference, Google released their Q4 numbers. Revenues were up 101% to $1.032 billion in the last quarter of the year. Income from operations was pegged at $303 million, a staggering 30% growth. That’s on top of two previous quarters that each showed 15% increases in income.
Watch for an initial review of the Q4 announcement in a few hours and a much longer analysis in tomorrow’s StepForth newsletter.
My personal opinion is no. Sure their market share may increase, but I doubt, in the short term anyways, that they will make any significant increases to overtake Google. I’ll use myself as an example. I personally look at search results across the big three on a daily basis across a wide range of industries. In my opinion (and I am sure many SEO’s and webmasters will back me up on this) MSN now provides better, more accurate and relevant search results. That being said, I still use Google for my personal searching.
Whether I am at home, or in the office, Google is my search engine of choice. My wife uses Google, most of my friends and family use Google, and lets face it, the majority of searchers worldwide use Google. So why, if MSN is providing better results, do I still revert back to Google, knowing that I will most likely have to filter through a bunch of rubbish.
I think this is due to a number of factors. For years now I’ve been using Google, dating back to before I entered this industry, at a time when Google was providing relevant results. So a big part of this is habit. My fingers automatically type Google.com whether I like it or not. My default home page is set to Google. The only toolbar I have installed is the Google toolbar. This began for the checking of Page Rank, but now I use it almost exclusively for its search field.
Even though I know MSN provides better results (in most cases) I still use Google. This makes me think that the general public, many of which are unaware that MSN has changed, will also stick with Google. Behavior patterns are hard to break – although a month late, perhaps I will make it my new years resolution to stop using Google.
Part of the draw to use Google is the cleanliness of the site. Even though MSN has released, along with its new results, a new look and feel, it may still seem too cluttered, and many times slow loading, for users looking to simply perform a basic search.
The general searching public likely doesn’t realize that results from one engine are more relevant than that from another, or that the results generated in MSN were once duplicates of what you would find in Yahoo. Many tend to stick with what they know – they’ve always used Google, and as they haven’t “shopped around” so to speak, don’t realize that the other engines may have more to offer. Old habits are hard to break – and until such a time as a “quit Google patch” is invented, many may be there to stay.
Welcome to G-Hawg day! This is the day that Google’s team of accountants make their highly anticipated Q4 Report.
At 4:30 PM Eastern, or 1:30PM Pacific, a Google accountant will lift his head high above his low-fat latte. According to folk-legend, if the bright TV lights produce a shadow behind the accountant, we’re in for six weeks of financial instability in the market. If, on the other hand, the accountant does not see his shadow, many Google share holders will be in for two week vacations somewhere warmer than here.
