US Internet advertising up 38 percent in first quarter

"U.S. Internet advertising surged 38 percent to a record $3.9 billion in the first quarter as marketers moved additional dollars to the Web, according to data released on Tuesday.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers surveyed leading companies that sell advertising space online, including Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. , which are benefiting as consumers spend more of their media and purchasing time on the Internet. "

Source: Reuters

New spider Adsbot-Google to check landing page quality

A new Google spider is likely to be showing up in your logs soon - AdsBot-Google will be used to monitor AdWords landing page quality.

While we strongly recommend against restricting our system's automatic review of your landing page, you can edit your site's robots.txt file to avoid a review.

The file must explicitly exclude your page from our system visits as follows:

To prevent AdsBot-Google from accessing your site, add the following
to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: AdsBot-Google
Disallow: /

To prevent AdsBot-Google from accessing parts of your site, add
the following to your robots.txt file:

User-agent: AdsBot-Google
Disallow: /exclude/

Where exclude represents the directories you don't want the AdWords system to visit.

Read more

Chicken and Egg dilemma cracked

"According to Sky News a geneticist, a philosopher and a chicken farmer claim to have finally solved the age-old question:
What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Apparently, it was the egg.

Put simply, the reason is down to the fact that genetic material does not change during an animal's life.

Therefore the first bird that evolved into what we would call a chicken, probably in prehistoric times, must have first existed as an embryo inside an egg. "

There goes that old saying...

Dell embraces Google

High Impact Click Here Deal between the search giant and the PC maker gets Google into new territory. It's a strike against Google rival Microsoft.

"Google and Dell have agreed to a first in a series of deals to preinstall Web and desktop search software on the PC maker's computers, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said Thursday. "

"Under the deal, millions of Dell PCs will be loaded with the Google toolbar for Web and PC search, along with a co-branded home page, before they're shipped to consumers"

Source

2007 Microsoft Office Beta released

"Preview the 2007 Microsoft Office system and gain first-hand experience with the new look and feel, features, and functionality of the 2007 Microsoft Office release. 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 is a public preview release designed to help you evaluate the Microsoft Office system. The beta is not final and should not be used for business-critical work."

You can download it here

Yahoo, eBay form Web advertising alliance

"Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) and eBay Inc. (Nasdaq:EBAY) today announced a multi-year strategic partnership designed to mutually benefit both companies by better serving their user, merchant, and advertising communities in the U.S. The agreement consists of four major components in the areas of search and graphical advertising, online payments, a co-branded toolbar, and the opportunity to explore "click-to-call" functionality.

Our consumers will benefit from the combination of Yahoo! and eBay's leading technology and services, providing them with one of the best online experiences," said Terry Semel, chairman and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc. "Yahoo! holds a leadership position in all forms of online advertising. This partnership with eBay provides us with a great opportunity to further extend our sponsored search and graphical advertising reach to one of the largest and most active communities on the Web."

Full story

Streamcast sues Skype/eBay for $4bn

"StreamCast has just expanded its lawsuit against the firms to include eBay, Skype's new owner. With the new addition, the stakes in the case are substantially higher—StreamCast is now asking for US$4 billion in actual damages, US$12 billion in treble damages, along with various and sundry other damages and fines. "

"The complaint itself has more strange plot twists than a soap opera, but it remains to be seen whether the case is anything more than an attempted money grab now that Skype has made it big. "

Source

Vista Beta 2 Released

"Microsoft Corp. this week released a new test versions of what company co-founder Bill Gates called its three most important products: Windows Vista for desktop computers, Windows for servers and the Office business software suite."

Interesting for those of us who are keen on a preview:
"In the coming weeks, Microsoft will start the Windows Vista Customer Preview Program (CPP) for developers and IT professionals who are not members of the subscription services."

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/

Google to launch Video Ads

"In the coming days, we will be adding click-to-play video ads to the line-up of text, Flash and image ad formats currently supported by the Google content network. At launch, video ads will be available to AdWords advertisers in the US, Canada and Japan - but we plan to roll them out to other regions shortly."

Read the details

Motorola Launches BlackBerry Killer

"Motorola has taken the wraps off a new smartphone, called the Moto Q, that is primarily designed as a business tool that offers mobile access to e-mail, calendar, and contact lists as well as support for Microsoft applications. "

Source Motorola Q

Yahoo Publisher Network Launches Direct Deposit

Yahoo! takes another step to catch up to Adsense

"After listening to our publishers, we are very excited to announce that we have added Direct Deposit as a new method to receive your Yahoo! Publisher Network earnings. With this fast and easy payment option, you can avoid the hassle of depositing paper checks at your bank."


read more from:
http://ypnblog.com/

Microsoft reveals Vista requirements

Microsoft has revealed how powerful computers must be to run Vista - the new version of its Windows operating system. It has given advice on the basic specifications to run the software as well as the higher capabilities needed to get the most out of it.

Also available is a downloadable tool that lets people know if the PC they own now will run the system.

Download the Vista Upgrade Adviser

Minimum:
Processor 800MHz
System Memory 512Mb
Graphics card DirectX 9 capable
Graphics Memory - -
Free space on Hard Drive - -

Recommended:
Processor 1 GHz 32 or 64 bit
System Memory 1Gb
Graphics card Runs Windows Aero
Graphics Memory 128Mb
Free space on Hard Drive 15Gb

It is interesting to note that Windows Vista introduces a new concept in adding memory to a system. Windows ReadyBoost lets users use a removable flash memory device, such as a USB thumb drive, to improve system performance without opening the box.

Microsoft unveils new search tools for businesses

Microsoft Corp. has unveiled new tools this week that make it easier for office workers to share and locate information as the company seeks to fend off rivals such as Google Inc. in the enterprise software search market.

Windows Live Search, which will be available for free from Microsoft's Web site, allows users to search for documents stored on their computers, on departmental computer networks or out on the Internet and see the results in one place.

Source: Reuters

Google Notebook goes live

According to IT-Week Google's Notebook service, which allows web users to store and compile links to web sites, favourites, and snippets of information while browsing, went live last week as a beta.

...Notebook allows access the clippings file via the status bar of the user's browser. Text and images can be saved, along with the domain from which they came. Users will need a Google or Gmail username and password; and Firefox users will need to download version 1.5 of the browser.

http://www.google.com/notebook

- and make sure you also download the browser extension

Windows Media Player 11 leaks

It seems like it is by purpose - usually Microsoft ask to remove such things...

Try it out from here

Google and Nokia to Team Up

"The agreement calls for Nokia to introduce a handheld device that comes loaded with the Mountain View company's Google Talk, an instant messenger and Internet calling service.

Cellular signals will not be used for the calls. Instead, the calls will be made using a wireless Internet network, known as Wi-Fi. Such access is available in many homes and cafes that have Wi-Fi hot spots. Wi-Fi is also increasingly available through civic projects that blanket entire cities with wireless Internet connections. "

Watch out Ebay/Skype..

source

Put Your Small Business on the Web for Free

Create your own professional Web site in minutes!

Microsoft Office Live Basics is the perfect way to get started on the Web. It features all the basics you need to create your first Web site, including free hosting, Web site statistics, personalized domain name, and e-mail addresses.

Interesting concept from Microsoft - obviously the catch is probably that one would need Office in the long run - but it sounds quite attractive with free hosting, stats, domain and e-mail for free!

There are also a few other options - Collaboration and Essentials - both free during the Beta period and then $29,- per month moving forward - here you get more storage space, additional accounts and more.

http://officelive.microsoft.com/

BBC Search re-launched

The BBC has re-launched the BBC search engine with a new audio-visual search capability, a new user interface and enhanced usability and quality.

For the first time, users will be able to search selected television and radio programmes in addition to audio and video content from the BBC's News, Radio and Sports archives.

Read the announcement from BBC

The re-launched BBC web site search engine is to be powered by enterprise software company Autonomy, while Microsoft's Windows Live Search will power the BBC internet search.

Google Trends launched

"With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often. "

Take it for a spin - a very interesting way of searching:
http://www.google.com/trends/

Google Trends launched

"With Google Trends, you can compare the world's interest in your favorite topics. Enter up to five topics and see how often they've been searched for on Google over time. Google Trends also displays how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and which geographic regions have searched for them most often. "

Take it for a spin - a very interesting way of searching:
http://www.google.com/trends/

Google goes after Microsoft

Google Inc. took direct aim at rival Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday by unveiling several search products while simultaneously calling the Redmond, Wash., software giant a "convicted monopoly."

Some new products were also announced on May 11th:

Desktop software is Microsoft's traditional turf. Google's increasing interest in the area has ratcheted up an already formidable rivalry.

Google Notebook, to be released next week, will allow users to keep notes on a scratch pad. Users will be able to store text, links or images as they sift through results while shopping or for school research; users can then review the information privately or share it.

Google Co-op, another new product, makes searching more of a social event. Users can help others by labeling Web pages or creating specialized links to which others can subscribe.

Google also unveiled Google Trends, a product that allows users to see the popularity of specific search results over time. A user who enters "full moon," for example, will see a trend line showing that the popularity of the query spikes about once a month, but because of proprietary concerns, users cannot actually see the number of individual searches of specific terms.

Source: SFGate.com

Windows Media Player 11 release details

Microsoft is planning a Public Preview Beta of Windows Media Player 11 for XP on Wednesday, May 17th. Users will be able to download the beta here (anyone will be able to get it):

The final RTM release is scheduled for late June 06. Here is a list of features that will and will not be in the XP version:

Features in WMP 11 for XP (June 06):
* New UI
* Support for better synchronization for portable devices
* Album “stacks” of album art
* Indexed libraries with search-as-you-type features
* User controlled downgrade of quality for DRM content to allow for smaller files
* DRM content will contain metadata that shows what the user is allowed to do with the file
* Includes Microsoft and MTV’s Urge music store

Features in WMP 11 for Vista (Early 07):
* Everything that is in the WMP 11 for XP
* Playing content (including DRM) on your PC from another PC or device
* Viewing content from the Vista Media library on other PCs or digital devices, such as Tivo
* Playback of High Value video content
* Shell integration with Windows Media Player
* Content Indexer change notification to sync My Music and WMP library
* DVD Fullscreen playback enhancements
* DRM Transcode
* High quality video streaming over home networks
* Media foundation for playback

source: Bink.nu

Microsoft Invests in DeepMetrix

The heat is on - and Microsoft is going for it...

"Microsoft has not only built adCenter to deliver innovative reporting capabilities, but also announced that it had acquired DeepMetrix Corp..."

Wonder if Microsoft are going to make this a free service for all like Google Analytics?

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060504/sfth053.html
http://www.deepmetrix.com/

MSN Adcenter Open to all Now

Adcenter launched yesterday (May 4th)

"Microsoft today is launching its adCenter online advertising system in the U.S., and will now compete directly with Google and Yahoo! in selling ads on the Web.

The official announcement is coming this morning when Chief Executive Steve Ballmer addresses the company's Strategic Account Summit, a wide-ranging two-day event that on Wednesday included an unusual onstage interview of Chairman Bill Gates that touched on his private and professional life."

Read more

Will Microsoft buy Yahoo?

Microsoft has been in talks with Yahoo! about potentially acquiring a major portion of the company, according to a report published Wednesday.

Members of the company's top management are considering a deal despite Microsoft's history of winning over major technology markets - think Web browsers - on its own, The Wall Street Journal said.

http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/03/technology/microsoft_yahoo/index.htm

That could be interesting:

Microsoft Mkt Cap: 243.20B
Yahoo Mkt Cap: 46.65B
Google Mkt Cap: 118.71B