SEO Articles

Visit Rank for $ales

Read my bio

email me

Home

Infomercials

My 2 featured articles for the week ending Sept. 23, 2005:

Archived blogs for the week of September 19, 2005

997 - September 22, 2005 - 11.31 AM EST

Search engines expect a lot of digital media content

Unless the trend reverses 180 degrees, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft all expect a flood of digital media content directed at the consumer.

However, even though all major search engines today know digital media content is coming rapidly, Internet companies are anything but sure how the consumer will respond or just how the consumer wants to receive all that new content.

"We're all trying to figure out how to marry digital media content with technology," said Jennifer Feikin, director of Google unit Google Video.

She made the comment at the Digital Hollywood trade show in Santa Monica, Calif., an annual event that draws several thousand hard-core techies. The three-day event -- focused on Hollywood, the digital consumer and what's ahead -- ended Wednesday.

Others on Feikin's panel shared her view. "The consumer will drive how this technology will be used," said Blair Westlake, corporate vice president of Microsoft's media/entertainment & technology convergence group.

"It's not that we invent the technology and find an audience for it, it's what the consumer wants and do we have the technology to provide it."

Part of the challenge, he says, is the divide between the over-30 and under-30 age groups. The younger audience grew up with PCs, handhelds, cell phones and the Internet. Those over 30 didn't.

"The younger consumers will have very different habits than us," said Westlake. Gone are the days when viewers watched a TV show only when the networks chose to play it. That was also true with music and radio. Read more on digital media content here.

Posted on Businessblog™

996 - September 21, 2005 - 2.38 PM EST

Fewer clicks, with Yahoo's Quick Links

In an effort to have its users find local businesses with fewer clicks, Yahoo has launched Quick Links.

These days, search has become such a fact of life, that most people take it for granted.

But it seems like every week I'm reminded why its so much fun working on a search engine that is used daily by millions of people, and most importantly by friends and neighbors and that lady in the store down the street.

Take, for instance, last week: I was out for coffee at the local Starbucks when the guy ahead of us in the line had lost the piece of paper with directions to the restaurant he was meeting friends at ... and I was extremely happy to show him this.

Posted on Businessblog™

995 - September 20, 2005 - 9.57 PM EST

Baidu ordered to halt some search referrals

Chinese search engine Baidu has been ordered to halt providing search referrals to all music download sites offering copyright-protected songs.

Legal experts say that courts have not fully clarified the issue of whether search enjoys full protection from copyright laws, that is, whether Baidu or Google bears the responsibility if a user who finds copyright-protected material through their search engines goes on to illegally use that material.

The order from a Chinese court came in conjunction with a case in which Baidu has been found responsible for consumer infringements of music copyrights held by EMI Group.

Baidu said the case stemmed from confusion over Baidu's role on the Internet. The company emphasized that it does not offer download services, but that sites that do appear in its search results.

Baidu said it would "vigorously appeal" the case to a higher court but did not say whether it would comply with the order to stop referring users to sites where songs owned by Shanghai Push, a joint venture between EMI and a Chinese firm, are available for download.

Posted on Businessblog™

994 - September 20, 2005 - 9.51 PM EST

Yahoo regroups its European search properties

Yahoo has decided to merge all of its European search properties under one business name, Yahoo Europe. In 2003, Yahoo bought the PPC search engine Overture, which itself had previously acquired AltaVista and AlltheWeb earlier in that same year.

Signalling an increased interest in paid search, Yahoo named Overture Europe's current regional vice president and managing director, Stephen Taylor, as the head of Yahoo Search Europe.

Dominique Vidal, a regional VP and managing director of Yahoo Europe said: "The creation of this new role marks an important step towards the ongoing synergy of Overture and Yahoo Search in Europe and reflects Yahoo's ongoing commitment to introducing the next generation of search technology and products for advertisers, publishers and users alike."

Yahoo has been rebranding its various international divisions over the past six months starting in North America with the introduction of Yahoo Search Marketing Solutions (why sms?) in early spring.

It plans to merge its other international units, with the exception of Japan and Korea, before the end of the year.

Posted on Businessblog™

993 - September 20, 2005 - 8.29 AM EST

Google's controversy over scanning library books

Even though it said it won't do it just now, Google's program to scan millions of library books still concerns many observers.

On the one hand, some credit the program for boosting sales of obscure titles. On the other, they're worried that Google's plans to create digital copies of books obtained directly from libraries could hurt the book industry's long-term revenues.

With Google's book-scanning program set to resume in earnest this fall, copyright laws that long preceded the Internet look to be headed for a digital-age test.

The outcome could determine how easy it will be for people with Internet access to benefit from knowledge that's now mostly locked up - in books sitting on dusty library shelves, many of them out of print.

``More and more people are expecting access, and they are making do with what they can get easy access to,'' said Brewster Kahle, co-founder of the Internet Archive, which runs smaller book-scanning projects, mostly for out-of-copyright works.

``Let's make it so that they find great works rather than whatever just happens to be on the Net.''

To prevent the wholesale file-sharing that is plaguing the entertainment industry, Google has set some limits in its library project: Users won't be able to easily print materials or read more than small portions of copyright works online.

Google also says it will send readers hungry for more directly to booksellers and libraries.

But many publishers' remain wary. To endorse Google's library initiative is to say ``it's OK to break into my house because you're going to clean my kitchen,'' said Sally Morris, chief executive of the U.K.-based Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers. ``Just because you do something that's not harmful or (is) beneficial doesn't make it legal.''

Morris and other publishers believe Google must get their permission first, as it has under the Print Publisher Program it launched in October 2004, two months before announcing the library initiative.

Under the publishers' program, Google has deals with most major U.S. and U.K. publishers. It scans titles they submit, displays digital images of selected pages triggered by search queries and gives publishers a cut of revenues from accompanying ad displays. Read the story here..

Posted on Businessblog™

992 - September 19, 2005 - 11.15 AM EST

A bidding war over AOL?

Google and Microsoft could very well enter into a bidding war over who could be acquiring a large stake in America Online.

Last week, the New York Post reported that Microsoft was interested in paying Time Warner an unspecified amount of cash to take a large enough stake in AOL and then merge it into their MSN network.

The Microsoft ‘acquisition’ of AOL would surely lead to an establised partner where MSN could showcase its MSN Search Engine and MSN AdCenter Keywords advertising (to be launched by MSN this year). The acquisition would also add to MSN’s registered customer base, edging it closer up the ladder to Yahoo.

However, Google currently powers AOL’s search engine and Google AdWords ads are served on AOL during search results.

Additionally, Google revenue generated form its AdWords partnership with AOL is 12% of Google’s total revenue model. As a defensive move to keep that revenue, Google may enter a bidding war with Microsoft over AOL.

Posted on Businessblog™

Copyright © Serge Thibodeau 2005. All rights reserved.

All views and opinions expressed on this blog are those of Serge Thibodeau only and are not representative of any company listed. All slogans, trademarks, text or logo representation used or referred to on this blog are the property of their respective owners.