Transcript

Wednesday April 16, 2008

SearchIgnite & comScore Data Released, Google & Yahoo Q1 Financial Results Expected Soon

According to data from search advertising technology firm SearchIgnite, Google lost a portion of its share of search advertising dollars to Yahoo in the first quarter of 2008. Google’s total share of search ad spending declined slightly to 70.4 percent, while Yahoo’s grew 57 percent from last quarter to 24.2 percent. Data from research group ComScore revealed that Google’s U.S. paid clicks for the first quarter grew just 1.8% year over year, a sharp deceleration from the company's 25 percent growth rate in fourth quarter of 2007 and 48 percent growth in the third quarter. The SearchIgnite and comScore reports come days before both Yahoo and Google are scheduled to report financial results for the first quarter of 2008. Should Yahoo fall short of its first quarter projections, which call for net revenue to grow at between 8 percent and 17 percent, the results will disappoint investors and may reduce any negotiating leverage Yahoo has with Microsoft in its ongoing effort to takeover Yahoo. If Yahoo’s growth is strong, it will help Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang make the case that Microsoft should pay more. Google maintains that the decline in paid clicks reflects its efforts to improve the quality of its advertising leads, which is expected to increase the average price per click, offsetting Google’s decrease in paid clicks.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/study-google-lost-share-of-search-ad-dollars-to-yahoo/index.html?ref=technology
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120833235225819121.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news

Microsoft Launches Live Search News, Competitor To Google News

Microsoft has launched Live Search News, a direct competitor to Google News. Live search news includes breaking news supplied by MSNBC, local news delivery determined by tracking a users IP address, top news videos, which sets it apart from Google News, and the ability to refine results based on categories that are relevant to the article being viewed. No official announcement has been made on the Live Search blog.

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13515_1-9919801-26.html
http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2008/03/15/microsoft-continues-on-off-public-testing-of-new-live-search-update-rome.aspx
http://search.live.com/news

[edited by: Vanessa_Zamora at 5:10 pm (utc) on April 16, 2008]