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My 2 featured articles for the week ending November 5:

600 - November 5, 2004 - 10.44 AM EST

UBS sets price target of $160 on Google

UBS downgraded shares of Google on reasons that the search engine company could see reduced growth and profit margin degradation in 2004.

The brokerage set a price target of $160, almost $25 below its Thursday close and a stark departure from other Wall Street research houses who have touted the shares at $200. Google was recently down $4.20, or 2.3%, to $180.50 in Instinet premarket trading.

"We consider Google a great company but believe investors will see better entry points in the future," UBS wrote. The brokerage predicted the company will see slower growth, margin deterioration in 2005, and a lower valuation as investors switch their focus from earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to free cash flow.

Posted on Businessblog™

599 - November 4, 2004 - 7.08 PM EST

40% of people shop before Thanksgiving

A national survey done in October warns that the buying frenzy is set to start sooner rather than later. Although the new "Shopping in America" report, just released by the Macerich Company, concentrates on offline shopping trends this holiday season, online marketers and retailers should pay special attention — because their sales season comes even faster, and ends even quicker.

Posted on Businessblog™

598 - November 4, 2004 - 1.21 PM EST

Yahoo wants to succeed in entertainment

Lloyd Braun, who was removed in a Yahoo management shuffle in April, has been named to manage the company's entertainment and media properties.

His surprise appointment--which includes oversight of the Web portal's finance, news, sports, entertainment, gaming, television and movie businesses--could be a sign that the company is entering an important new phase of its strategic development as a leading site for Internet-only media.

Posted on Businessblog™

597 - November 4, 2004 - 11.58 AM EST

A9 search engine adds adult products to its database

Amazon's A9 search engine offers visitors a large collection of quality adult products available on Amazon's website. Who says a shopping search entity can’t turn up the heat and still not bow down entirely to the porn industry.

As some of the major online shopping and search sites have been laying down the law on riskee sex driven sites, Amazon.com signs on one of the largest companies in adult products.

Posted on Businessblog™

596 - November 3, 2004 - 1.46 PM EST

Retailers' search engines boost online sales

In DoubleClick's latest quarterly eCommerce trend study, it reveals that 2.1 percent of consumers who visited a retail website's search engine made an online purchase. Those numbers are up from 1.5 percent in the third quarter of 2003.

In total, 9.3 percent of e-commerce sales came from the search function on shopping sites, compared to 6.6 percent a year earlier. Of those who bought products through on-site search in the third quarter, the average order size per online buyer grew to $126 from $100 in the same period last year.

Posted on Businessblog™

595 - November 3, 2004 - 12.50 PM EST

LexisNexis ends dispute with Google

After some differences and a falling out a few months ago, LexisNexis and Google are talking joint ventures.

The first project will provide users of Reed's Kellysearch business information website with some of Google's links to advertisers.

Posted on Businessblog™

Web Hosting

594 - November 2, 2004 - 12.03 PM EST

AOL moving into personalised search

Web search is now at the forefront of AOL's strategy and represents a new direction the company is taking. A few years ago, AOL considered search important but not critical, but the company now sees it as a priority. "Search is a gigantic part of the company's focus," said Gerry Campbell, vice-president and general manager of AOL Search. "There's lots more to come."

The big goal is personalisation, or giving users the capability to customise their search activities, save queries and manage, manipulate and store results. Cambell said competitors such as Yahoo, A9 and Ask Jeeves had made strong moves in personal search recently, and that users could expect AOL to follow suit "in a few months".

Posted on Businessblog™

593 - November 2, 2004 - 8.55 AM EST

Google to offer Desktop Search for Mac computers

Google will offer its Desktop Search for Mac computers, introducing Google technology to a loyal group of computer users that are'nt using the Windows operating system.

Google’s chief executive did not lay out a set schedule for the Mac ready desktop search, but did confirm that it would be on the way soon when asked.

Posted on Businessblog™

592 - November 2, 2004 - 7.06 AM EST

Online sales to reach $21.6 billion this Christmas

Paid Inclusion

According to projections released by JupiterResearch, online retail sales will reach $21.6 billion this holiday season. Such numbers would mark a rise of 19 percent over 2003, the market research firm said.

Nearly 86 million Americans are likely to make purchases online for Christmas, compared with 73 million last year, it said.

JupiterResearch is also predicting a 2 percent jump in spending per buyer compared with last year.

Posted on Businessblog™

591 - November 1, 2004 - 6.59 PM EST

Firefox now displays Amazon's A9 toolbar

On Monday, Amazon's subsidiary A9 launched a version of its Internet toolbar for the Firefox browser.

A9 said the toolbar, which is available for free download, will offer the same features to users of the Mozilla open-source software as it does for other browsers.

Posted on Businessblog™

590 - November 1, 2004 - 10.18 AM EST

Blog search engine launches MoBlog

IceRocket and Blog Search Engine launch MoBlogs, a form of cell phone picture blogs into the search engine world with a new search feature producing image results of the latest MoBlogs images.

Blog Search Engine has over 10,000 blogs indexed in its blog directory and this new feature gives them a jump on other cutting edge search engines in the blogging world.

Posted on Businessblog™

Infomercials

589 - November 1, 2004 - 8.10 AM EST

Google hires only the very best

One of Google's earliest investors, Ram Shriram, sheds some light on the real reasons Google is such a success.

Shriram said there is no magic formula to success. Rather, it comes from continual small ``block and tackle'' moves. Oh, and it helps to have a little book called ``Ram's Book of Mistakes'' to guide the way.

Shriram -- who worked at early Internet companies like Netscape, Amazon.com and Junglee -- became a prominent angel investor by writing an early check to Google's founders in 1998, and then advising them one day a week while they were still in a Menlo Park garage. He held about 2 percent of Google's shares, and made $22.6 million at Google's IPO offering. He held an additional paper value of $969 million in stock as of Friday's closing.

Posted on Businessblog™

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