Posts tagged Yahoo
Is paid search improving?
Jul 11th
Advertisers spent 20% more on paid search campaigns in Q2 2011 compared to a year-ago, while click through rates rose 12%, according to new research. But is spend really driving the popularity of the medium, or is it something else?
The Paid Search Quarterly Benchmarking Report from Marin Software also reveals an increase in efficiencies from search campaigns.
However, Google advertisers saw a dramatic decline in impressions with the average marketer experiencing a 15% drop, while click volumes rose by 8%. This suggests either search marketers took steps to improve efficiency or Google modified its algorithm for matching ads to queries, according to Marin Software.
So are advertisers getting better at paid search, or are search engines simply becoming smarter?
Gains in efficiency during the past year have been a result – in part – of advertiser efforts to refine match types. The share of paid clicks from exact- and phrase-match keywords rose 10% during the past year at the expense of broad-match clicks.
Exact and phrase keywords have higher click-through rates and lower costs than broad match terms, which not only explains the gains in efficiencies advertisers found during the quarter, but also improvements in quality scores.
In the past year, search marketers have increased their use of exact- and phrase-match keywords, growing click-share of these terms by 7% and 3%, respectively.
Aside from exact- and phrase-match keywords, spend on Yahoo! and Bing rose 52%, compared with the year-ago quarter as advertisers built out their campaigns on the combined platform.
Advertisers also experienced a boost in effectiveness on the Yahoo!-Bing platform, reflected by a 6% rise in CTRs.
Yahoo launches app for navigating apps
Jun 17th
With hundreds of thousands of apps, how can people find the best one for whatever they’re looking for?
Yahoo has the answer. The search giant is making an effort to solve the problem, both on your computer with a new Yahoo App Search service, and on iPhones and Android devices with a new Yahoo AppSpot app.
Shashi Seth, Yahoo’s senior vice president of search and marketplaces, this week compared the current state of the app world to the early days of the web, before Yahoo’s founders made navigation easier with their listings and search engine.
He reckons that people are already using Yahoo Search as a way to find apps.
So, as part of the company’s broader mission to provide “answers, not links”, Yahoo has attempted to provide more information for people searching for apps.
When a user tries to search for an app by name or type, instead of just offering a link to a listing in an app store, Yahoo now points people to a Yahoo profile page about the app, including reviews, an overall star rating, screenshots, and pricing.
If a user decides that they want to try the app, they can scan the QR code on the profile with their device, or Yahoo can send a text message to their phone with a link to the store.
Yahoo also points to related apps and provides daily app recommendations, personalised based on factors like what apps users have already downloaded to their phone.
To a certain extent, it sounds like Yahoo is just duplicating the kinds of information that you can already find in the app stores. But the company argued that it can provide some unique benefits to users, such as:
- The search results themselves are significantly better than what you’d find by searching in either of the app stores.
- The personalised recommendation engine is also unique because the results are constantly changing based on what’s trending in Yahoo itself, making them fresher than the relatively static app store rankings.
and…
- Yahoo’s listings can help you learn about an app and then download it on all your devices, rather than navigating multiple app stores to find the same app.
Yahoo plans to expand to other devices and app store eventually, too.
Good to see Yahoo trying new things.
Bing is finally starting to pose a serious challenge to Google
Jun 8th
Google and Yahoo! both lost market share in terms of searches in May 2011 as Bing, Ask and other search engines made significant gains.
According to the latest Experian Hitwise figures, Google Sites were still responsible for over 90% of UK internet searches in May, accounting for 0.32% fewer searches than in April.
Year-on-year, Google Sites were also down by 1.40%, with a lower share of the search market than in May 2010.
Yahoo! Sites also lost search market share last month, dropping from 3.15% of all UK Internet searches in April to 3.08% in May.
The dip in performance for both Google and Yahoo! Sites can be attributed to Microsoft Bing’s growth in popularity.
Microsoft Sites, led by Bing, increased their market share of all UK Internet searches by 0.18% last month, taking the company to 4.26% of UK searches.
Microsoft also improved on its performance in the search market year-on-year with a 1.26% increase in searches. Although not as prominent as Bing, Ask Sites saw growth in May improving their market share of searches by 0.10% and the niche search engines included in the Other category also saw growth of 0.10% between April and May 2011.
Robin Goad, research director of Experian Hitwise, said: “Google is still very much in the driving seat when it comes to search, and May’s minor loss in market share does little to dent the 90% share Google has in this field.
“However, the more interesting trends are to look at year-on-year changes in the search market, where Microsoft is taking market share away from Google. The key will be if Microsoft can continue this trend and mount a stronger challenge on Google.”
Why everyone wants a piece of group buying
Feb 23rd
Virgin is exploring the launch of a “daily deals” service to rival Groupon, LivingSocial and Google, are group buying sites the latest bandwagon?
Since the launch of social networking and the phenomenal success of Facebook and then Twitter, we’ve been looking hard and long for that ‘next big thing’.
Well guess what? It has arrived – group buying.
While these sites have actually been around for a little over a year, it’s only recently that the rest of the world – outside the US where they first took off – have started to notice.
Why?
Reason number one: Search is becoming more social and more local.
Reason number two: The recession may be ver, but people are still struggling to spend up. Just take a look at the retail sector at the moment, it’s plain to see that consumers are only spending if there is a sale on. We’ve become more cautious with our money.
Reason number three: For all those advertisers that couldn’t quite work out how to use Facebook to their advantage, group buying sites have provided an entirely new angle. Deals…for everyone.
Competitive market or crowded?
Group buying sites have reinvented social sharing as well as email marketing. And how do we know its going to work? Some of the biggest players in digital are getting on board.
Today, Virgin announced its bid to enter the group buying market place. Back in January Google attempted to buy Groupon’s and after being rejected is planning to launch Google Offers.
Amazon invested heavily in LivingSocial and even Yahoo! was rumoured to have offered over $3bn to also acquire Groupon. Facebook is also said to be launching its own offering, Buy With Friends.
Then there is MySteal.co.uk and Groupola.co.uk as well as LivingSocial, which is set to launch in the UK soon.
In Australia, Microsoft has entered the group buying market with the launch of Cudo.com.au as part of a joint venture with two of the country’s largest print and digital media companies, NineMSN and PBL Media.
Warning
As good as discounts of up to 90% sound, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has already banned some of ads on group buying sites for being misleading.
Some consumers have also reported problems redeeming their vouchers, or bad customer service from the retailers.
But as this next big thing in digital continues to grow, perhaps we can put it down to teething problems. there’s no denying that group buying is definitely where retail marketing is headed for the future.
Why Yahoo! CEO is confident of iAds failure
Sep 17th
In the past few months, Yahoo! has signed up David Beckham, extended a partnership with Facebook and launched itself into the world of internet TV. But the internet giant isn’t planning on getting into mobile advertising any time soon judging by CEO’s Carol Bartz’s latest criticism of Apple.
Known for her stern words, Bartz told Reuters this week that Apple’s iAds system will “fall apart for them”.
Bartz believes most advertisers will eventually reject Apple’s ad system because the company demands too much control over what advertisers do.
She told the news wire, “Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads.”
However, the tough CEO said Apple’s effort is “okay for experimentation.”
Meanwhile, it was just last month that UTalkMarketing.com reported that Apple was already facing a number of challenges with its iAds platform, with many campaigns experiencing delays.
Advertisers and marketers are both still learning how to master the new platform as they also come up against Apple’s tight controls.
Since launching its iAd mobile advertising service on July 1, Apple has been slow to roll it out.
Apple named 17 launch partners for iAd — but of these just Unilever and Nissan have had iAd campaigns in July. Other campaigns, including campaigns from Disney and JC Penney, began last month.
The problem right now is that Apple is handling ad unit production as it develops tools for external agencies with which ads can be designed in future. This means ad agencies “don’t necessarily know what it is capable of or how to use the technology,” one ad executive has said.
Clearly mobile advertising, although still a nascent market, has become the next battleground pitting Yahoo! against Google and Apple.
Binghoo and the future for Google as the competition heats up
Jul 15th
It’s now a year since Yahoo! and Microsoft agreed a deal that will see Yahoo! drop its own search technology and deliver results from Microsoft’s Bing instead. As soon as September we could see Bing results taking over in Yahoo!’s portal, but what will the change mean for the search market?
In much of the world Google is the dominant player, and all the others are losers. In the UK, and in most of Europe, almost 90% of all searches go through Google, according to Hitwise. The search giant’s massive advertising revenue means it can respond swiftly to almost any competitive threat in these areas.
In the US, Microsoft and Yahoo! will hold a combined 25% of the search market. By combining forces in their home territory they may be able to claw back market share and give Google a run for its money.
In the fast-growing mobile market, Google’s Android operating system is gaining ground on Apple, whereas Microsoft remains a niche player. Mobile search holds little hope for a Microsoft / Yahoo! renaissance, but Google faces a tough fight to attain any kind of dominance there.
Facebook, the fast-growing social networking site, has been touted as a potential successor to Google. The two perform very different functions, but both rely on advertising for their revenue, and both follow a similar pay-per-click model. Facebook is no competitor in search – yet. But it’s already eating into Google’s advertising revenue.
In short, Google’s share of the search market looks pretty impregnable in the short term, and it will remain the main target for marketers. In the longer term, it will have to be careful that fighting a war on multiple fronts does not deplete its resources and produce losses on all of them.
Bruce Townsend of ecommerce software specialist, Actinic.
Let the web TV battle begin – Google’s and Intel’s assault on Apple and Yahoo!
May 17th
Google and Intel are expected to launch their ‘Smart TV’ platform this week, revealing a deal with Sony that will bring web services to TV sets. Has web TV finally arrived?
The launch will happen at Google’s highly anticipated annual developer conference in San Francisco, but it’s not secret.
Google tied up with Intel, Sony and Logitech back in March for a project which was called Google TV. Under this, all the involved companies sought to create a technology to make navigation of web applications easy through TV. And Intel and Sony are along for the ride in an attempt to find new markets.
And a year from now, according to Intel, TV will have been reinvented by the concept of Smart TV.
The venture includes Intel’s Atom microprocessor and Google’s Android operating system in set-top boxes and TVs featuring integrated internet services that could also allow broadcasters to turn set-top boxes into video game consoles.
The venture will allow the search engine giant to control internet access on yet another category of devices, ensuring it keeps its dominance in the global internet market. By offering its Chrome web browser on the Android system, Google will also be able to ensure its search and advertising technologies continue to bring in more profits.
With TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes adding internet connectivity to their features, a host of companies are tailoring and integrating web-based content for our living room TV’s – further blurring the line between home entertainment and computing.
The question is, who will do it best? Read the rest of this entry »
Google makes its first acquisition in the UK
Apr 12th
Google has made its first acquisition in the UK, and it’s not the kind of heavy -hitter you might expect the giant to snap up.
Visual search company, Plink, is just a two-man start-up, based out of Oxford. It’s founders Mark Cummins and James Philbin are now both joining Google to work on Google Goggles.
Publically launched just four months ago, the site shot past 50,000 users in just four short weeks.
The company’s first product, PlinkArt, enables users to identify paintings and artworks with just a snap from their phone’s camera. Once recognised, users can read information on the artwork and artist, share their favourite pieces with friends, or even order a print to hang on their wall.
“We started Plink to bring the power of visual search to everyone, and we’re delighted to be taking a big step towards that goal today,” said Cummins and Philbin in a posting on Plink’s company blog.
“Google has already shown that it’s serious about investing in this space with Google Goggles, and for the Plink team the opportunity to take our algorithms to Google-scale was just too exciting to pass up.” Read the rest of this entry »
Digital TV everywhere. Google, Apple and Yahoo will slug it out
Mar 29th
There’s been a lot of talk lately about Google TV, Apple TV and Yahoo! TV. While there are many out there touting its arrival, consumers are already watching TV through their computers, the future is upon us.
Some years ago, I remember seeing a story on 60 Minutes about the future of TV. Living in Australia at the time, in an outback wayward town where we only had four TV channels, seeing this story and Liz Hayes explaining that we’d soon have over 200 channels available to us, through HD (whatever that meant) seemed somewhat futuristic.
Yet, all those ‘beyond 2000’ predictions seemed to have integrated themselves perfectly, and somewhat under the radar.
Back then, I though 200-odd channels were exciting. I wanted to watch CNN and all those American reality shows…like the one with the people stranded on an island. Now days, the reality is much better.
Being the proud owner of a new 27-inch iMac – the screen which adorns my lounge room TV unit – I now watch TV digital through my computer screen.
Alway being connected is no longer a luxury, it’s a normalcy. No wonder the internet giants are looking to cash in.
Google has tied up with Intel, Sony and Logitech for a project which is currently called Google TV. Under this, all the involved companies want to create a technology to make navigation of web applications easy through TV.
It’ll be competing with Yahoo!, which has already launched a ‘Widget Engine’ for TV sets at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year that will allow consumers around the globe to connect to the internet via their TVs.
The search company will begin shipping the widgets by the end of Q1 2010.
The race is on.
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