This past Monday, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT)announced that it would begin measuring the effectiveness of online campaigns in a new way, which they have dubbed "Engagement Mapping."

Usually, the last ad a consumer saw online or clicked on got the credit for the sale, the lead or the traffic generated.

But with so many marketing channels being available to online advertisers, consumers are often reached multiple times on different sites in different ways, says John Chandler, principal analyst for Microsoft's Atlas Division.

"Instead of giving 100% of the credit to the last ad clicked, Engagement Mapping will take into account all of the marketing touch points when attributing conversion," he noted.

Microsoft said it will release a beta version of Engagement ROI, an integrated reporting capability within Microsoft's Atlas Media Console, on March 1.

National advertising clients and agencies such as Mindshare Interaction, Monster Worldwide, Sprint (NYSE:S) and Citi Cards (NYSE: C) have already signed up to participate in the program.

“Engagement ROI spans the whole lifecycle of the campaign,” Chandler said.

Microsoft anticipates that by using engagement ROI, rich media and video will be much stronger performers in terms of driving sales.

"What makes this unique is the fact that they are putting the information into the hands of the advertisers," Roy Shkedi, CEO of AlmondNet, commented, "The advertiser can now have a report that shows the steps that led to the final acquisition."

Mike Sprouse, Chief Marketing Officer of AzoogleAds noted “On the positive side, it's a very good indicator that the current metrics and measurement tactics for online marketers doesn't really provide a comprehensive view of a campaign's performance.”  Still, he was skeptical that Microsoft's solution is the answer.

“I'm not sure engagement mapping is an easy to understand term,” he added. "For it to reach broad adoption, it has to be general enough to encompass a wide variety of actions on the Internet and also needs to be really simple and easy to understand."

No kidding. I'm still confused as to how they will be able to track a consumer across all the channels they might cross before making a buying decision or taking some action desired by the advertiser. Particularly at a time when there is increasing concern about privacy on the Internet, I'm not sure how they can claim to essentially track a consumer every step of the way to a sale.

We'll keep an eye out for reports of its success once the beta launches next month.

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In yesterday's blog, I told you how it looked like Microsoft was backing off its attempt to buy Yahoo!, as Bill Gates said they would not up their offer and indicated they could move on with or without Yahoo!.

Turns out Bill was doing a bit of a fake out on us. Now we learn that Microsoft is taking a different tack, essentially running an end around the current Yahoo! board of directors' rejection of their offer. Microsoft is now planning to to start a proxy fight to try to replace Yahoo's board of directors with a slate of more Microsoft friendly directors.

This story for the San Jose Mercury News gives you all the current details.

Looks like Yahoo! may have to give a call to Rupert Murdoch at Newscorp after all.

 

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A few weeks ago, Microsoft fired a shot at Yahoo!, rattling their sabres at the same time, and indicating that they fully intended to buy Yahoo!

Since then, Google has offered to help in any way they could, albeit short of buying Yahoo! as that would be a merger that would never pass anti-trust muster. Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp also stepped in, renewing talks with Yahoo! regarding possible joint ventures or a merger.

And if these efforts weren't enough, Microsoft's stock has fallen 13%, reducing the cash and stock offer from its original $44.6 billion value to about $41 billion.

No one, outside of the Microsoft campus, seemed to want to see Yahoo! fall in Microsoft's hands. Many observers expected Microsoft to sweeten the pot, but now, based on statements made by Bill Gates, it appears Microsoft is moving on.

A story appearing on Reuters indicates that Gates has no intention of increasing their bid, saying Microsoft's offer is "very fair" and "We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done. We will do that with or without Yahoo!."

Since Yahoo! has already rejected the original offer, and the deal is now worth less due to Microsoft's stock valuation, it looks like Microsoft is moving on and Yahoo! is safe for the time being.

Of course, that doesn't mean that Newscorp might not continue its pursuit of Yahoo!

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Yahoo! just told Microsoft to take a hike.

Yahoo's decision to reject Microsoft's $44.6 billion takeover attempt has led to speculation as to what's next for the staggering online media giant.

 A statement released by Yahoo!'s board of directors stated that the bid "substantially undervalues Yahoo including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments."

Translation-- $44.6 billion is not enough for Yahoo! to be led down the aisle somewhat willingly.

This has led to several possible scenarios. One has Microsoft continuing to press Yahoo! by taking the proposal directly to its shareholders. No doubt, more than a few shareholders would love to cash out and move on.

In another scenario, Microsoft might sweeten the offer to make it palatable to the Yahoo! board, which has made known its belief that the bid undervalues the company.

Yet another scenario has Yahoo! taking defensive measures and either partnering with Google on search advertising (which will draw heavy scrutiny from regulators) or by again discussing a possible merger with the AOL unit of Time Warner.

Microsoft desperately wants to close the gap between it and Google, far and away the leader in search engines. But even though the marriage of Yahoo! and Microsoft would combine the No. 2 and 3 players,  "Micro-hoo" (as it's unofficially been dubbed) would still substantially trail Google.

Regardless, the game is on. Don't expect Microsoft to go away quietly.  

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Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, has sent a message loud and clear to Yahoo!-- "Let's circle the  wagons and hold off Microsoft together."

Google, of course, has the financial clout to go toe-to-toe with Microsoft. The problem is, Google can't counter Microsoft's offer to buy Yahoo!. That would be a marriage that would never pass anti-trust law muster.

As a side note, because off Google's dominance of the search engine markets, a Microsoft purchase of Yahoo! probably would sail by any anti-trust concerns. Even a combined Microsoft-Yahoo! would still substantially trail Google in search engine market share.

So how can Google possibly step in and help Yahoo!

One solution, that might actually work, can be found in this New York Times article.

Basically, Google could buy the right to sell ads on Yahoo!'s search results. This could give Yahoo! a long term guarantee of advertising revenue on its search results pages and theorically goose the stock price, thereby somewhat appeasing Yahoo! shareholders.

It could also buy Yahoo! more time to figure out it's place in the Internet universe and reshape itself into a much stronger player, one that could maintain its indepdendence as a corporate entity.

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According to Comscore, in December, Google's share of core searches stood at 58.4 percent. Yahoo! ranked second with 22.9 percent, followed by Microsoft Sites at 9.8 percent, Time Warner Network at 4.6 percent, and Ask Network in fourth place with 4.3 percent.

Interestingly, Yahoo! experienced the most significant market share increase, gaining 0.5 share points as compared to November. This is as Yahoo! finds its stock price depressed and the company considering layoffs as a means to turn things around.

Regardless, they are all chasing Google, and Google remains so far out in front, their hold on the marketplace seems insurmountable.

The challenge facing the runner-ups is daunting. Is it a matter of changing their marketing to attract more searchers? Explore new options to offer?

I'm not sure what the answer is for any of them, particularly Yahoo!. Normally, being number two in a market with nearly a 23% share of that market would be a good place to be, but in the world of Internet search engines, not so.

Yahoo! investors want more. Unfortunately, that probably means the chopping block for some Yahoo! employees.

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The final figures aren't in yet, but Internet ad spending continues to be a growth industry (even if a lot of companies still haven't figured out how to advertise properly on the Web).

Year end figures aren't available yet, but according to BusinessWeek, through the first nine months of 2007, Internet ad spending stood at $5.2 billion. That's about a 27% leap over 2006's $4.1 billion in the first nine months.

Contrast that with $15.5 billion for network TV in the first nine months of 2007, down from $16.0 billion in 2006.

Watch for this trend to continue. More dollars will plow into Internet advertising and netwrok ad spending will remain roughly even, if they're lucky.

 

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Maybe we should make that (Web) address, since we are actually talking about URLs. Or better yet, we'll go with domain name.

While I tend to spend less than ten bucks a pop for domain when I decide to buy one, other people seem to think some domain names are worth millions. Here are the most expensive domain names/web addresses purchased in 2006 and 2007--

2006: Diamond.com ($7.5 million), Vodka.com ($3 million), Cameras.com ($1.5 million)

2007: Porn.com ($9.5 million), Computer.com ($2.1 million), Seniors.com ($1.8 million)

Pretty ridiculous, huh? Especially when you consider that very few searchers on the Web would ever enter those URLs in a search term.

I'm sure whoever is behind them considers it part of their branding, but does that really do much in the branding department? I don't think so. All they are doing is enriching whoever had the names before them. i guess there really is money to made in domain name squatting.

Whoever bought those domain names should instead consider investing in search engine optimization/search engine marketing rather than over-priced URLs. They'd definitely get more bang for their buck.  

 

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  Microsoft has launched its new mobile display advertising feature on MSN Mobile. MSN Mobile advertising partners currently include Paramount Pictures and Jaguar Cars North America, who began placing banner and text ads on the Mobile MSN site in the US at http://mobile.msn.com yesterday (December 10, 2007).

MSN Mobile will offer additional content and services to US customers including the ability to purchase movie tickets, ring tones, wallpaper, games and video clips.

Will we see a battle for mobile platform supremacy in the near future?

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U.S. District Court Judge John H. McBryde has decided to let American Airlines proceed with its lawsuit against Google.

The airline's complaint alleges that Google allows rivals to pay to have links to their sites appear when computer users search Google for American trademark terms, such as AAdvantage. American claims that Google was infringing on its trademarks and deceiving consumers.

Google has successfully fought lawsuits making similar claims in the past. GEICO had sued Google for similar reasons but Google prevailed in that matter. And reportedly other companies have filed similar lawsuits against Google alleging that paid advertising by competitors amounts to trademark infringement.

The Judge actually gave no reason for his ruling, but it is interesting that he must have found reason to ignore the precedence established by the GEICO case against Google.

Should American prevail, and odds are an actual trial is still far off in the future (not to mention the appeals that will no doubt follow), the case has the potential to change the face on online advertising. Worse for Google, it potentially could strike a blow to their whole business model.

We'll keep track of the case as it slowly develops. 

 

 

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Who says the search engiens ignore the advertisers that they derive so much income from?...well, maybe its kinda true on the click fraud front.

Google Adwords has added a new page for Adword users called "Keyword Anaysis Page."  You can read all about it here.

With this tool, you can get more information about the Quality Score for keywords being used in advertisements. While it's not perfect, it could be a key tool for Adword users to make use of in crafting their campaigns.

Hey, Google is even asking for feedback on the tool, so try it out and let them know what you think.

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Apparently, Microsoft has a breaking point. After spending hundreds of millions fighting anti-trust allegations in Europe (including some hefty fines), they've finally decided to give in.

Read about it here.

After a nine year fight, Microsoft has finally seen the writing on the wall. This should mean both lower prices and faster development of new software.

 

 

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Click fraud just won't go away. In fact, despite repeated promises by Google, Yahoo! and others, it continues to be a growing problem.

Read all about it here.

If you're concerned about this problem that the search engines apparently can't or won't do anything about, check out Zunch's own Click Fraud Detective for your solutions to this pervasive problem.

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Microsoft, that company that so many love to hate (although don't include Zuncher Dan in that group), might have to pony up a $613 million fine handed done by the European Union soon.

They just lost their appeal and have two months to decide whether or not to appeal the appeal (kinda redundant, ain't it?). You can read all about it here.

The EU Court of First Instance, which I gather is what you call an appeals court in EU circles, ruled against Microsoft  on the major parts of the case, stating that the European Commission was correct in concluding that the company was guilty of monopoly abuse in trying to use its power over desktop computers to muscle into server software.

Microsoft? A monopoly?

Who knew?

Trust me. Even though Microsoft has more than enough cash to pay the fine, they're going to appeal. They literally have no choice since ultimately losing on this issue could mean they will be forced to reveal code and otherwise valuable intellectual property in order to comply with the EU's findings. 

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Not content with allowing us to stare down at our homes and offices from the heavens using Google Earth, Google now bring us Sky, which essentially turns the telescope around and points it at the rest of the universe.

 By downloading the latest version of Google Earth, you now can get Sky, Google’s eye on the universe, with it.

Download it and you’ll be able to zoom in on more than 100 million stars, 200 million galaxies, our solar system's planets and our moon. You can also see constellations and high-resolution images from the Hubble Telescope.

Sky also features a search function that allows instant viewing of specific astronomical features.

Check it out.

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 Google reported revenues of $3.87 billion for the quarter that just ended  on June 30, 2007. That’s an increase of 58 percent from the same time last year, and an increase of six percent compared to the first quarter of 2007.

The company said it expects to continue to do well this year.

Really? They expect to do well? That’s like me saying I expect my kids will bug for a new Bratz doll this week.

Seriously, Google continues to amaze with their continuous revenue and profit growth. At some point you have to expect that the day will come when they actually regress a bit, but that day seems to be a very long way off.

A few skeptics on Wall Street keep saying the day will come when Google can’t keep it up and the stock collapses, but the true test for the prescience of these Chicken Littles is for them to actually tell us when Google will stumble.

Despite those skeptics, I don’t know if you follow the stock market, but I’m pretty sure no one is shorting the stock right now.

 

 

 

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 Microsoft is doing some saber-rattling again.

 Microsoft executives said Thursday that they intended to respond to the growing threat to its software posed by rivals like Google that offer Web-based versions of its applications. The executives said Microsoft would add similar Internet services to its own well-known desktop applications like Office or Excel.

 

During a meeting with financial analysts, Microsoft executives laid out the clearest description to date of Microsoft’s plan to compete with companies offering free or lower-cost “software as a service.”

 

You can read all about it in this New York Times article.

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Meanwhile, Wikia, Inc., the for-profit company developing the open source search engine Search Wikia, has acquired Grub, a distributed crawler platform, from LookSmart.

Distributed crawlers are software programs used by search engines to roam the web to discover pages that are then downloaded and indexed for searching.

 The crawlers operated by the major search engines are highly centralized, operating out of massive data centers, and are capable of finding and downloading millions of pages per minute. Wikia acquired Grub as part of its plan to build a "transparent and open platform for search," according to Jimmy Wales, co-founder and chairman, Wikia, Inc.

Wales is currently on a mission to enter the search engine market,  with an eye toward toppling Google’s pre-eminence as the number one search engine.

Well, good luck with all that, Jimmy.

It seems everybody’s got Google in their gun sites, although Google just kind of nonchalantly goes about it business, cranking out new products and services (admittedly, some of which crash and burn pretty quickly).

And it’s interesting that Microsoft finds itself playing catch-up in offering office suite products on-line. Could it be that they’ll see their dominance slip away, ala their experience in the search engine market? This is a market still in it's infancy, but given the way the Net works, online office products for word processing and spread sheets could sudden;y becoem the rage in as a little as a few months. 

It’s too bad these companies can’t get into a "Texas Cage Match." You know, lock all three in a cage and let them wrestle one another for dominance. A kind of “Smackdown” Web match.

 

 

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  Google's share of the search engine market actually slipped slightly in June 2007, but it still gained in overall number of searches.

 Confused? Don’ t be.

 comScore, the marketing research company that tracks search engine data, tells us that over 8 billion searches were conducted on the Web in June, up from 3.6 billion in May.

 The number of searches conducted on Google actually went up, but as a percentage of overall searches, Google was down a bit.

 Here are the latest percentage of searches for the top five search engines in the United States for June 2007, as reported by comScore:

•   Google Network: 49.5%, down from 50.7% in May 2007
•  Yahoo Network: 25.1%, down from 26.4%
•  Microsoft Network: 13.2%, up from 10.3%
•  Ask.com Network: 5.0%, no change
•  AOL (Time Warner) Network: 4.2%, down from 4.6%

Here are the raw numbers:

•  Google Network: 4 billion searches, up from 3.6 in May 2007
•  Yahoo Network: 2 billion searches, no change
•  Microsoft Network: 1.1 billion searches, up from 757 million in May 2007
•  Ask.com Network: 403 million searches, up from 376 million in May 2007
•  AOL (Time Warner) Network: 341 million searches, down from 364 million in May 2007

 Microsoft  and Ask must be doing something right. Microsoft  had a huge gain, breaking the 1 billion mark for the first time. Ask broke 400 million for the first time, perhaps reflecting their new look and new services that have drawn raves from numerous corners. Take a look at Ask to see what i'm talking about.

 

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A law, recently passed in Utah, has caught Google’s attention. And not in a good way.

Google has joined the list of companies opposing the law which attempts to regulate keyword bidding.

The new law would ban companies from bidding to use rivals' names as triggers for ads that appear during searches.

Oddly, Google, a company which is in the information gathering business, failed to become aware of the law until after the Utah legislature unanimously passed it. Identified as the Trademark Protection Act, Utah Governor Jon Huntsman's staff told the Associated Press that no one objected to the law before he signed it.

How did Google and others affected by this law miss the chance to fight it before it passed? No one seems to know for sure, but somehow this law managed to slip under the radar and now poses a threat to Google, and other search engines’, bottom line.

A Google spokesman told the The Salt Lake Tribune, "This law hurts consumers, violates free speech, and is inconsistent with both established U.S. trademark law and our capitalist system."

To be fair, the law received little press attention before it was passed.

Now Google and others might end up challenging the law in court. As a guy who still occasionally practices law, I can tell you there's a very good chance the law will be struck down.

But in the meantime, it's set to take effect on June 30.

Crank up the lawyers and send out the injunctions.

 

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Baidu, the reigning search engine champ in Asia, has caught a serious case of click fraud, and it might work to Google's advantage.

According to an article appearing on the Bizreport site, the click fraud rate on Baidu may be as high as 34%, meaning one-in-three clicks is fraudulent. Baidu has a commanding 58% of the search engine market in China.

Meanwhile, Google, which has roughly 17% of the Chinese market, has set up filtering systems to try to catch click fraud. As a result, it's click fraud rate is estimated at 24%, ten percent lower than that of Baidu, but still way to high by any standards (you'll note in the article, Google reports it misses only .02% of fraudulent clicks).

Could this drive advertisers in China to turn more of their business Google's way? That remains to be seen.

What is certain is that advertisers should not depend on the search engines to take care of the click fraud problem. Wherever you advertise in the world, your best defense against click fraud is a detection tool, such as Zunch's own Click Fraud Detective.

If you are using pay-per-click, or some other form of paid advertising on the Web, you owe it to your bottom line to look into some type of click fraud detection.

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ITV is Britian's oldest independent television network. It competes with the government run BBC roster of channels.

It's also the biggest recipient of advertising revenue in Britain. But maybe not for long.

According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google's revenues in the UK hit $1.6 Billion in 2006. That makes it the number two ad revenue earner in Britian, trailing only ITV, which had revenues of $4.2 Billion in 2006.

Despite that seeming large gap between the two, Google is growing quickly in Britain, benefiting from a shift away from more traditional advertising mediums like television. The $1.6 Billion figure represented a whopping 83% rise in revenues over 2005.

Think there's room for growth in online advertising in the British Isles? With Google reporting numbers like that, it sure looks that way.

Google is obviously aware that its growth in ad revenue in the UK might be making some uneasy. Google issued a statement that "[t]he market for online ads is growing and there's room for many players within it."

Translation?

"We'll try not to wipe other media companies off the face of the earth. But it's not our fault if they can't follow the money."

Odds are Google won't overtake ITV this year, but if Google's ad growth in Britan remains on its current tear, it's feasible that Google could be number one in ad revenue in the UK by 2009, possibly as early as 2008.

On a side note, not everything at Google may be quite as rosy as its ad revenues would indicate. The SEC has made several formal requests regarding probing Google's tax accounting. There's probably way more smoke than fire there, but you have to wonder about the repercussions of an accounting/ earnings scandal at Google, were one to ever come.

 

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Google  has announced a change in its policy on indefinitely storing search histories. Google will no longer store data that could link individual users with their search histories for an extended period of time.

Instead the records will become anonymous after 18 to 24 months, meaning the information would no longer be traceable to the individual searcher.

Some privacy advocates hailed the move as a step forward. Others, among them Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, feel there's no reason to keep the data even that long.

"I think it is an absolute disaster for online privacy," Rotenberg told The New York Times.

His fear is that Google will set a standard, and the 18-24 month period will become the standard length of time that search companies retain such information.

It's not necessarily clear why Google needs to retain logs that tie individual users to their searches for any extended period. 

Admittedly, companies need some information about how many clicks came from the same address to resolve click fraud disputes.  But those disputes usually focus on how many clicks came from the same IP address in the span of minutes or hours.  Moreover, its questionable that such information would be needed for more than two-to-three months anyway.

Expect this issue to continue to grow, especially if another "AOL"-type incident occurs.

you may remember that in the summer of 2006, AOL inadvertantly released search logs for more than 650,000 users. Although the information was not tied to IP addresses, some searchers were still easily identifiable just by the nature of their queries. The New York Times used the information to identify  Thelma Arnold, listed as "User No. 4417749" in the search logs, based solely on her search history records.

And recall also that the Justice Department attempted to randomly grab millions of records from Google.

Is there a good compromise on this issue? Privacy advocates would say "no," particularly since none of the search engines has yet to offer a good non-commercial reason why it's necessary to store the information.

I'm not sure how this will ultimately play out. Google's move is a step in the right direction, but in an age where maintaining privacy is increasingly difficult, how do you balance the needs of commerce against the rights of individuals?

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you've probably encountered this problem. you do a search on Google, take a look a look at the organic listings and click on one that looks like its what you're after.

Only once the page pops up, instead of finding the information you're looking for, you get a page full of listings of sites with links to other sites. Usually these are links that the holder of the particular Web page will be paid for if you happen to click on one.

Sometimes you get lucky and there are links that actually help you in your search. But, more often, it's an annoyance, cutting into your all too valuable time and slowing your search for information you really want.

Well, the days of those "list" pages showing up in the top of the SERPs may be coming ot an end, at least on Google.

You can read more about the problem and Google's planned solution in this article from Search Engine Land.

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Google is adding maps and word processing services to its Chinese site in its ongoing fight to grab a bigger share of the search engine market in China.

In the last quarter of 2006, Baidu had a 58% share of China's 476 million yuan ($61 million) search market, while Google trailed with a 17% share. Google wants a much bigger share of that fast growing market, but has had difficutly making inroads into the Chinese market.

The new service, known as Google DI Tu, Chinese for 'map," covers 146 cities in China. Google also offers word processing and spreadsheet programs in Chinese, just as they do in the United States, although the specific links apparently aren't yet available in Zunch's corner of the world..

Whether the average Chinese citizen will switch to Google remains to be seen. As evidenced by its marketshare, over half of all Chinese currently prefer Baidu. But don't count Google out.

As the Internet continues to shrink the world (so ot speak), expect the Chinese to become more trusting of Google. Especially if they happen to be a Chinese company wanting to do business with Western nations.

 

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Google Apps is about to step into waters that Microsoft has long dominated. Although the current move is probably the equivalent of putting your big toe in the water to test it, it's a sign that Google is getting serious about challenging Microsoft's suite of office products.

You can read more about it in this BusinessWeek article. 

As we all know, Google dominates the search engine market, a sore spot with Microsoft. What happens if Google actually mounts a challenge to Microsoft's dominance of the business applications market?

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DMOZ, long considered the leading directory on the Internet and an absolute must for listing your Website, had literally stopped accepting new submissions for the past three months.

The problem?

The site is run by volunteers and they had become overwhelmed by a backlog of listing requests. The situation had gotten so bad, some pundits were predicting that DMOZ was dead and no longer relevant.

DMOZ is a source site for all the top search engines, and getting listed there enhances your listing visibility on the search engines. So if you're not already listed on DMOZ, sign up today at www.dmoz.com.

A few tips for your listing--

• Make sure you choose the correct listing category for site
• Avoid offering any spam-like information
• Be patient, there still is a substantial time lag between submitting your site and getting listed
• Don't re-submit your site multiple times; DMOZ editors might interpret your attempts to do so as being spam

 

The Open Directory Project (DMOZ) has opened its doors again for submissions to its directory.

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By Todd Wasserman/BrandWeek

The market for mobile search is so new that analysts haven't yet put a dollar figure on it, but it could emerge as a lucrative advertising category, according to a new study by the Mobile Marketing Assn.

The MMA report shows that the technology—which puts search engine features on mobile phones—is catching on quickly: most cell phone users are interested in the service and a fair amount (41%) say mobile search ads would not have an adverse impact on their use of the service.

The survey, of 587 U.S. adults with cell phones, found that half of them who have not tried mobile search are interested in trying it over the next few months and 48% of current non-users expect to use mobile search at least once a week. Moreover, the demographic information on those who already use mobile search is compelling. Respondents with an annual income of $50,000-75,000 conduct an average of 16 searches a month, the most of any segment.

The catch? That base of current users is very small. Though the MMA, based in Boulder, Colo., offered no estimates, Eric McCabe, vp-marketing at JumpTap, a company that provides search software for wireless firms, said mobile search usage is now in the 3-5% range.   Continue reading

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Google retained its commanding lead of the U.S. search engine market in June, when it handled almost half of all queries, leaving competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft to fight for the remaining usage share, Nielsen/NetRatings said Friday.

Google processed almost 2.67 billion queries, or 49.4 percent of June's total, while Yahoo followed in a distant second place with 1.24 billion, for a 23 percent market share.

Microsoft's MSN unit (10.3 percent), Time Warner Inc.'s AOL LLC (6.9 percent) and IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com (2.3 percent) rounded out the top five.

In terms of usage growth, Ask.com led the pack with 66 percent more queries than in June 2005, followed by Google (31 percent) and Yahoo (29 percent.) MSN and AOL had growth below 4 percent each.

Online ads delivered along with search engine results have become a multibillion dollar market in recent years, almost single-handedly fueling Google's impressive revenue growth and stratospheric stock price.

Drawn by the revenue opportunity, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL and Ask.com have all invested heavily in their search engine services and search-based ad offerings.  -PC World

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Search marketing ROI is at the highest level in 15 months, according to a new study released by Performics.  I'm continually amazed at the power and opportunity of search marketing.  I also love to see and hear from new converts, typically those clients who come to us with a great product and smart website, but no optimization.  After implementing a search strategy, they soon discover what has been missing all along.  Targetted and qualified visitors begin appearing on the site and making business decisions (a purchase, a lead, etc) which propel the business.  It really is a beautiful thing!

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Google has quietly launched its new Web-based spreadsheet software today, currently in a limited test run over at Google Labs.  Whether this is the Microsoft Excel killer some people might be looking forward to, I have no clue.  Unfortunately, you must sign up to have access and I'm still waiting for my invite to come into my Gmail.  But, it does have one very unique feature that really caught my eye - after you save your document on the web, you can share it with people on your Google Talk contacts by entering their email.  Once shared, they can open the document at the same time as you and you can *both* make changes at once.  To me, this is the holy grail of office applications - integrated support of live collaboration.  Once the document is complete, you can download the Excel file (XLS format) document to keep.

This is the first direct stab at a Microsoft product.  Well, technically I guess you could consider Google Page Creator to be a competitor with Microsoft Front Page, but that might be kind of a stretch since Page Creator doesn't come close to the same feature set of Front Page.  Either way, you can bet this means war.  Computer software is about to change forever :-)

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Are ya keeping up with the latest on the future of Internet Explorer 7.0?  Well, you may not have to, if you’ve got a great firm like Zunch to manage or build your website.  But, if you’ve got some code loving monkeys on your team (like us crazy kids here in the Zunch Dev Pit), then the odds are someone should be paying attention to the latest release of worlds most used browser. 

We’re eagerly awaiting to see the direction Microsoft takes the browser, and have been following along with news surrounding the new platform over at IEBlog, which is regularly updated by members of the Internet Explorer dream team.  There you can find useful geeky topics such as CSS Support, the Developer Toolbar, Tabbed Browsing, and plenty more late breaking information.

We can't wait - some of the Zunchers here have already installed the new IE and are actively using it to start learning it's capabilties.  If you care to take a walk on the wild side, you can download the latest beta here.  Faint of heart beware!  This is a beta (read: not finished yet!), and is likely to have some bugs, so don't install this if you aren't willing to encounter some technical issues, as some users have been.

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Zunch Director of Click Fraud Services Jeff Martin was recently featured in an article in Internet Retailer about click fraud.  Check it out.

Zunch was also recently featured in DM News.

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I attended a informational Webinar today on Pay-Per-Call.  It was sponsored by SEMPO and moderated by a representative from Ingenio, who currently has a Pay-Per-Call product that is designed for national and local advertisers. 

Pay-Per-Call  is similar to Pay-Per-Click in many ways. Advertisers are able to select a category, establish monthly budget and bid against the competition. The major difference is the consumer will be directed to call a "vanity" phone number to place the order instead of visiting the company's Website.

The advertising dollars spent on Pay-Pay-Call has been projected to double over the next five years. Many major advertisers and advertising agencies have begun to add Pay-Per-Call to their marketing strategies. Zunch has tested this product and will offer it to clients that would benefit from this service.

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According to a recent study released by Forrester Research, some Internet companies still haven’t realized that Website designs are actually business decisions. 

Analyst Nate Root says companies constantly change their Website designs to keep up with branding changes, add new features and fix problems but they never consider the financial impact of those changes. 

Of web professionals at 89 of the companies that Forrester surveyed, only 13 percent of them measure the ROI of all the changes they make to their Websites.  While 50 percent of them measured the ROI of major changes, the rest of the professionals don’t measure the ROI of any of the changes.

Here at Zunch, our Website design team understands the business value of the design process by taking into account the External ROI as well as the Internal ROI.  We have continued to help companies avoid the damaging costs of bad Web design with our professional service—mainly because we know that usability is key. 

There is simply no use in having a company Website if its design can result in the loss of potential sales and users can’t maneuver and find what they are searching for.

 

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As if being recently named the Top SEO Company by PromotionWorld.com wasn’t big enough—the talented team here at Zunch has been hit with another outstanding accolade.

Zunch Communications has once again been ranked the top search engine optimization company on topseos.com.  This means Zunch beat out more than 10,000 Internet marketing firms worldwide.  Absolutely phenomenal!

Zunch continues to receive these awards for its search engine optimization work because its team works hard and is totally committed to the success of its clients.  No where else will you find a more experienced team of SEO professionals that is driven by measurable results. 

No where else.

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