Yahoo! share price takes a nose dive following new search partnership announcement

Wednesdays unveiling of the long-term partnership of Microsoft and Yahoo! to run their search engines jointly has hit Yahoo!’s share price hard, whilst Microsoft’s seems to be holding up. Wall Street clearly sees Microsoft as having come out with the better deal from the agreement despite Yahoo! reportedly receiving 88 percent of the ad revenue from the long-term agreement.

An address to a gathering of financial and industry analysts by Microsoft’s Chief Executive, Steven Ballmer on Thursday did nothing to halt the slide despite revealing how surprised he was with the markets reaction to the deal. He also suggested that Yahoo! were forecast to gain more from the new agreement because of the way the deal was structured. Yahoo!’s stock slipped 12 percent shortly following the announcement on Wednesday and a further 3½ percent in Thursday’s trading.

Many in the search marketing industry clearly see the convergence of the two former rivals as having a much greater chance to compete with Google than when they were separate. It is yet to be seen whether the financial analysts concur with this view in the longer term. Meanwhile search engine optimisation firms will be looking hard at what this will mean for them and their clients as Microsoft roll out the search engine technology behind the recently coveted Bing platform into Yahoo!’s web portals.

Facebook dominates the social networking world

Average worldwide traffic of the search terms Facebook, Myspace, Orkut, Badoo and Bebo from Google trends

Even though MySpace had a head start in the global market for social networking, in the Spring of 2008 Facebook caught its main rival in terms of search traffic and was receiving over 100 million unique visitors per month.

Perhaps the secret to Facebook's rapid acceleration in customers was down to the decision to involve its users in translations for the foreign language versions of the site instead of setting up regional offices and employing teams of paid translators. The timing of this move was perfect in terms of beating off the opposition from other up and coming social networking sites such as Orkut, Badoo and Bebo. By the end of 2008 Facebook was increasing its lead over MySpace and with the launch of the Facebook Platform for developers and over 20 language translations, there was no looking back.

UK Trends - Facebook catches and passes Bebo and MySpace in mid-2007

In the UK, Facebook not only caught MySpace in terms of searches made via Google, but also passed Bebo ("Blog early, blog often"), a UK social networking site popular with younger users, currently the sixth most popular website in the UK receiving more visitors than the BBC. Facebook uptake in the UK seemed to be a year ahead of the USA where MySpace was more established and dominated social networking for a year longer.

The UK Google trends are also showing searches for Orkut gaining (slowly) on the declining MySpace and Bebo and may soon exceed them.

USA Trends - MySpace and Facebook dominate

Understandably there is always a spike in social networking searches before the holiday period and in the winter of 2008 it may have contributed to MySpace users signing up for a second account with Facebook. In the UK the same effect can be seen exactly a year earlier.

In February 2008 the Spanish translation of Facebook was launched which may have contributed to the steady rise in USA Facebook users throughout the year.

Brazil - Orkut Domination

Named after Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten, Orkut is one of the most visited sites in Brazil and India. Roughly 50% of Orkut users are Brazilian. Other up and coming social networking sites in Brazil include Sonico and Minglebox an Indian based education network

MySpace and Facebook still have no market share even though Facebook's Portuguese translation was launched in June 2008.

Ireland - Bebo Domination

MySpace has made little impact in Ireland as Bebo has dominated the Irish social networking scene for over 3 years. One Irish user told the Guardian website that 'before Bebo, the folks in his small town were not getting along. Then everyone independently joined Bebo, and got to know each other and now there's a community spirit in the town pub that wasn't there before.'

Only recently has Ireland seen a steady rise in the number of Facebook users, Google trends is showing searches for Facebook surpassing those of Bebo for the first time this month.

Japan - Facebook challenges Mixi

The Japanese market for social networking like Ireland has been dominated by one website, Mixi, although since the middle of 2008 Facebook has been increasing rapidly in popularity after the launch of their Japanese translation. If the take-up continues at the same pace, Facebook may pass Mixi in terms of searches made by the end of the year.

China - Facebook makes gains on Xiaonei

Social networking in China took off in 2007 and in mid-2008 Facebook launched the Chinese translation of their site, but unlike other markets, the rate of Facebook searches in China is holding steady. It is Xiaonei, a social networking site popular among college students, which is leading the market. Xiaonei is widely considered to be a Facebook imitation or clone and as such Facebook may find it difficult to gain a wide user base in the most populous country in the world.

Microsoft and Yahoo to join forces in deal to challenge Google dominance

The internet search engine rivals Microsoft and Yahoo! have this morning announced a collaborative deal to challenge the dominance of search engine giant Google.

After the collapse of a bold $47 Billion attempt by Microsoft to take over Yahoo! last year failed many industry commentators had expected the relationship between the two rivals to become hostile after Yahoo! rejected Microsoft’s mega deal offer. However last year’s fall-out appears to have been put to one side as the two technology giants reached agreement with a clear distinction of duties which plays to each of their strengths. An attempt by Google to strike a deal with Yahoo! also failed last November, when in the face of stiff opposition by the US Department of Justice, Google withdrew from negotiations.

Early indications suggest that under the new deal, Microsoft will provide search technology to power Yahoo!’s web sites. Interestingly this comes just months after Microsoft unveiled its new ‘Bing’ platform which has received widespread acclaim from industry pundits who have time and again given short shrift to the many previous attempts Microsoft have made to play catch-up with the market leading Google. As Bing continues to tweak its technology and make improvements to its algorithm many believe that it will eventual be able to establish itself as a serious rival to Google.

New management within Yahoo!, headed up by Carol bantz their new Chief Executive are said to have championed the deal which sees the company benefiting from 88% of the ad revenue generated from the ten year agreement.

This deal sees the duo commanding up to 28% of the American market and slightly less in the UK. Annual revenues are said to be worth circa $12 Billion in the US alone, of which Google dominates a massive two thirds of the market.

Online marketers are likely to be cheered by the alliance which will provide a more credible platform with bigger market share, thus slightly eroding the powerhouse Google’s monopoly as the world’s largest advertising vendor. In the past marketers have overlooked both Yahoo! and Microsoft because the pairs’ market share was considered too small to bother with. Now, effectively three times the size, advertisers will be lining up to negotiate with the enlarged player.

"This deal will make for an interesting new element of competition in the paid search space as advertisers recognise that a sizeable chunk of the search market is now controlled by a third party", commented Fuse Optimisation Ltd’s, Head of Search, Mike Page.

Using Twitter to Market Small Businesses

Small businesses typically get more than half of their customers through word of mouth and Twitter is the digital manifestation of this process. These are three examples of small businesses who use Twitter as a marketing tool and example tweets broadcast to their followers who in each case, number in the thousands.








Curtis Kimball opened his crème brûlée cart in San Francisco and has followers who wait for him to post the current location of his cart and list the flavors of the day. 5,698 followers.

"I will be in dolores park tonight with vanilla bean, dark chocolate grand marnier and baileys creme brûlée."

Shamus Booth, the co-owner of Umi, a sushi bar in San Francisco, says that he sometimes gets five new customers a night who learned about his business on Twitter. 3013 followers.

"One of my favorite Japanese mackerel in tonight- Goma Saba (spotted mackerel) such an amazing flavor and so tender."

Scott Seaman from Christopher's Wine and Cheese Shop, also uses Twitter to expand his customer base. He uses TweetDeck, to start conversations with people talking about his town or the mountain nearby and converts them to customers 2,670 followers.

"Gearing up for Blowing Rock Farmer's Market. Bringing plenty of sourdough, seeded bread, chop blocks, bagels."

Google is not liable for defamatory snippets in search results

In a case involving Google and Metropolitan International Schools, David Eady, a High Court judge ruled that Google could not be sued as it was not the publisher of negative comments about Metropolitan.

In many European countries and the USA, search engines are protected from liability for the contents of search results gathered from third-party websites.

This ruling is the first of its kind in Britain and follows many "libel tourism" cases brought by non-British citizens taking advantage of the different laws in this country.

A Google spokesperson told www.out-law.com, "We are pleased with this result, which reinforces the principle that search engines aren't responsible for content that is published on third party websites."

"Justice Eady made clear if someone feels they have been defamed by material on a website then they should address their complaint to the person who actually wrote and published the material, and not a search engine, which simply provides a searchable index of content on the Internet,"

In 2005, Mr Justice Eady also presided over the "libel tourism" case brought against the American Dr Rachel Ehrenfeld for documenting Khalid bin Mahfouzhis' alleged financial support of terrorism in a book called Funding Evil.

As a result of this case, New York State passed a law that offered New Yorkers

"greater protection against libel judgments in countries whose laws are inconsistent with the freedom of speech granted by the United States Constitution."

Etail 3.0 - New e-commerce buzzword to take off?

From a spark to a flame... a new (commercial) web development and design term looks to be building up a head of steam.

Etail 3.0 is generating some buzz online with tweets, blogs and news articles starting to mount up. What do you think?

Not wanting to miss out on the latest craze, the acutely fashionable Fuse ecommerce and copywriting team got to work straight away to try to earn some kudos online by posting details of our etail 3.0 services.

Our experienced view is that etail 3.0 builds on the back of Web 2.0 - a seamless integration of all business processes and IT systems end-to-end, enabling customers to interact brilliantly via retail websites. Let's face it, current processes and IT systems are not as well connected as many businesses would like.

As they say in the news business, this buzzword looks like its got legs (i.e. could run and run)! Guess we'll see.

Using Pseudo-Scientific Surveys as Linkbait and Brand Recognition

Pseudo-science is the linkbait of the future. In order to gain nationwide publicity for your brand, all you need is a survey, a 'scientist' and a formula. These are six of my favourite PR campaigns which have been disguised as science, fooling not only the general public but science journalists from all over the world.


Scientists Say Jessica Alba has the Perfect Wiggle

This study commissioned by Veet the makers of hair removal cream was carried out by Cambridge University professor Richard Weber. The Daily Telegraph reported the story saying

it is the ratio between hips and waist that puts the sway into a woman's walk

the perfect ratio is 0.7 according to the scientists and Jessica Alba beat off opposition from Marilyn Monroe and Kate Moss amongst others. But further research by Ben Goldacre from www.badscience.net uncovered the fact that the whole study was commissioned on the understanding that Jessica Alba would win and the PR company concerned looked around for a 'scientist' to back up their findings with a suitable equation. Veet received plenty of publicity from the mainstream press and a number of backlinks from websites critising the research.


The perfect way to pull a Christmas cracker

Commissioned by Tesco, this research published by Paul Stephenson of the University of Surrey conlcluded that you should pull straight and steadily while your opposite number weakens the bonds that hold the cracker together. This piece of PR resulted in widespread coverage across all the British media including the Daily Telegraph and the BBC, but the BBC news piece gives a link back to the researchers Qinetiq rather than the Tesco website. A huge opportunity missed in link terms but plenty of brand coverage for Tesco.


The Perfect Penalty Kick

hit the ball at a speed of at least 65mph and aim for one of the top corners

Now I'm not the greatest footballer in the country but isn't it a little obvious? Even the England team understand the principles here. The actual formula doesn't seem to be available, but this research sponsored by the betting chain Ladbrokes and carried out by Liverpool John Moores University resulted in plenty of brand exposure especially in the sporting press but no links back to the Ladbrokes site.


The Formula to Find the Happiest Day of the Year


This equation sponsored by Wall's Ice Cream and developed by Dr Cliff Arnall at Cardiff University has appeared in the press in 2007 and 2008. The symbols are explained as follows

O - being outdoors and outdoor activity
N - connection with nature
S - socialisation with neighbours and friends
Cpm - childhood positive memories
T - mean temperature
He - holiday expected

Walls Ice Cream received a lot of press coverage and the association of the brand with a lovely summer's day is obviously beneficial to their sales, but once again there are no lasting links to their website from the articles or news stories.


The most miserable day of the year

Another equation by Dr Cliff Arnall but this time sponsored by Sky Travel who succeeded in receiving a number of links from travel websites and large amount of coverage in the UK and US press. But once again when you look at what the impressive looking symbols represent you begin to see a pattern emerging.

W - weather
D - debt
d - monthly salary
T - time since Christmas
Q - time since failed quit attempt
M - low motivational levels
NA - the need to take action

Journalists can be lazy, a neat little equation backed up by an academic from a well known university can gain you plenty of publicity for your brand and plenty of links back from websites critical of your research!


The Beer Goggle Equation


Sponsored by Bausch & Lomb the eye care specialists this piece of PR genius disguised as scientific research has everything a reader of a tabloid wants to hear. Produced by Dr Nathan Efron from the University of Manchester the symbols represent:

An - the number of servings of alcohol
S - the smokiness of the area on a scale of 0 to 10
L - the lighting level of the area, (candelas per square metre)
Vo - Snellen visual acuity
d - the distance between the observer and the observed, (metres)

The basic premise is that the more you drink, the more attractive persons from the opposite sex appear. Links back to the Bausch website from articles about this study are few and far between, the only one seems to be from SEOBook suggesting that in the future, 20% of linkbait will come from commissioned 'scientific' studies, I have to agree entirely.

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