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My 2 featured articles for the week ending Feb. 24, 2006:

Archived blogs for the week of February 20, 2006

1113 - February 23, 2006 - 3.24 PM EST

Yahoo bans bidding on competitor's trademarks

Yahoo is changing its editorial guidelines on how to use keywords containing trademarks of competitors.

"Previously, we allowed competitive advertising by allowing advertisers to bid on third-party trademarks if those advertisers offered detailed comparative information about the trademark owner's products or services in comparison to the competitive products and services that were offered or promoted on the advertiser's site".

Posted on Businessblog™

1112 - February 23, 2006 - 1.54 PM EST

Google users display biggest brand loyalty

A new survey released by Boston-based marketing agency Compete shows that Google has beaten its competitors, one more time. For many years now, major search engines have been building membership lists by offering a diverse range of services to registered users.

Yahoo and MSN, for instance, have offered email accounts to its users for several years. The major search engines are working to brand user experiences on as many levels as possible and claim memberships as indicators of user loyalty.

The search engine's membership race heated up dramatically over the past two years with the introduction of Google's wide array of membership driven services.

The report, Searching for Loyalty, examines the search habits of people who have declared themselves "loyal" to one brand or another.

Every user tends to start their search with their preferred search engine. Compete's study shows how many searchers ventured beyond their search engine of choice and how many used one brand exclusively over others.

Posted on Businessblog™

1111 - February 22, 2006 - 11.41 AM EST

Google submits its WiFi project for San Francisco

Officials said yesterday Google and EarthLink have submitted a proposal to build a Wi-Fi network for the city of San Francisco. Google's and EarthLink's bid was one of six San Francisco city officials said they received Tuesday evening.

Other proposals were submitted by MetroFi, Communication Bridge Global, NextWLAN, Razortooth Communications and SF Metro Connect, which is an alliance of SeaKay, Cisco Systems and IBM.

City officials did not release any details of the actual proposals or make them available Tuesday. They said a panel will review the bids and make recommendations by early April.

"Affordable Internet that is accessible to all San Franciscans regardless of geography or income is simply essential,'' said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in a statement. ``We must recognize that access to information is a fundamental government service akin to libraries or public schools."

Posted on Businessblog™

1110 - February 21, 2006 - 8.25 AM EST

AOL to launch major new services

America Online is set to launch important new services over the next few months to help it better compete in key Internet markets.

AOL's move is targeting competing sites MySpace, voice powerhouse Skype and others, CEO Jonathan Miller said in an interview.

Some of AOL's plans, such as building a MySpace-style network onto AOL's market-leading instant messaging service, have not previously been made public.

AOL is trying to keep pace with chief rivals Google, Yahoo and Microsoft as it shifts from a subscriber model to an advertising strategy, Miller says: "Job One is to make sure we're part of that group."

What's coming: Shows include Welcome Back Kotter, Kung Fu and Battlestar Galactica. Truveo will allow users to search for specifics, such as guest appearances by Brad Pitt.

AIM-ing at MySpace. AOL's No. 1 instant-messaging service — AIM — has 43 million active users. AOL will use that clout, and AOL's substantial music and video offerings, to compete with the red-hot MySpace, owned by News Corp. It should roll out in about eight weeks, AOL says.

Posted on Businessblog™

1109 - February 20, 2006 - 3.18 PM EST

AOL improving video search with Hi-Q Video

NBC Olympics signed an official partnership with Google Video to help deliver highlight clips via the Google Video interface.

Under the agreement, NBC is to provide Google Video with Olympics previews, 15-second clips and it will post Olympics Games footage available for viewing via Google Video.

Most of the 15 second highlights on Google Video are actually previews to longer highlight reels at NBCOlympics.com.

If you look at the Google Video NBC Olympics highlight page, footage is currently available of Finland’s upset of Canada in Men’s Ice Hockey and Men’s Alpine Skiing clips.

If you go beyond Google Video and official sponsorships to YouTube, one can find some unofficial Torino Winter Olympic Games coverage such as Lee Hom performing at the games, someone blowing smoke rings into the Olympic Ring logo, Torino Opening Ceremonies, the Ghetto Winter Olympics, and a really cool video of Torino Olympic Locales via Google Earth.

Posted on Businessblog™

1108 - February 20, 2006 - 2.21 PM EST

CityExpress improves its platform

CityXpress Corp. announces a partnership with Planet Discover to integrate Planet Discover’s Ad System technology into its eMarketplaceXpress platform.

Through the partnership with Planet Discover, a leading provider of search and advertising technologies to local media publishers, CityXpress can now combine the Ad System technology with its eMarketplaceXpress platform to deliver highly targeted keyword-based advertising alongside search results.

This will enable newspaper customers to match advertisers with shoppers’ interests at premium online advertising rates, creating new revenue streams from online classifieds in addition to revenue from listings and feature up-sells.

Additionally, local advertisers will have the option to self-manage their ad campaigns using Planet Discover’s robust self-serve interface, while advertisers can edit their ads and review performance.

“The addition of contextual advertising is a perfect complement to our platform, and allows newspapers to approach new local advertisers with an innovative advertising campaign tied to their classifieds,” said Phil Dubois, president and CEO of CityXpress.

Posted on Businessblog™

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