Net Ad Spending Up Forty Percent
Sales from online advertising hit $4.6 billion in the first half of 2004, up more than 40 percent from the same period the previous year, according to a new U.S. study.
And in the second quarter, online ad sales reached $2.37 billion, up 42.7 percent compared with the same quarter in 2003, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers said in the report, released Monday.
The biggest winner was paid search, or ads linked to search results in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other portals, which saw revenue of $947 million in the quarter, up 97 percent from $481 million in the same period of 2003. In addition, search ads made up 40 percent of all second-quarter sales, the report said.
Read More @ News.com
Linking Is More Important Then Ever
Companies large and small are sucked into deals like the classic, "submit your site to 50,000 search engines and directories for less than the price of a bunch of Bananas" type scams, to the more complex and corporate, 'now we've got you by the balls for a year', type contracts.
One such search marketing operation based in Redmond, in the US, was recently forced by the State Attorney to refund its customers for failing to get them top places on the major search engines as they had guaranteed.
There is no doubt that, with the current euphoria surrounding search because of the predicted billions that go with it, everybody in the marketplace is an expert and everybody has the best deal. Rarely has the term "Caveat emptor" (Latin for "let the buyer beware") had a more active environment to be bandied around in.
Read More @ netimperative
Amazon Launches The A9 Search Engine
Amazon.com subsidiary A9.com today launched its A9 site and accompanying toolbar, adding new features to the search service that has been in beta testing since April.
New features added today include image results, movie results, and reference information. The company has also added a Discover feature, still in beta testing, which presents the user with recommended sites based on their own surfing history as well as different views of their history, such as most-frequently visited sites. A new toolbar function, called Lists, enables users to keep lists of search results or other links handy for easier browsing.
"It's a better way for you to organize your information and access it," said A9's CEO Udi Manber. "The mandate for A9 is to be a search technology company -- to invent and innovate in the search space, and to look at the broad sense of the search problem. We think that search is just starting, and there are a lot of things that can be done. We want to be in the position to invent the new breakthroughs."
Read More @ ClickZ
How Do Searchers Think?
Which search engines do searchers prefer and why? How do users use search engines to find the information they want? And how do searchers perceive paid versus free listings? New research offers insights into the workings of the searcher's mind.
During the session "Inside the Searcher's Mind" at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, industry experts from Enquiro, Vividence, iProspect and Google asked searchers, "What are you thinking?" Their research unearthed some surprising results that will help site owners better understand their customers.
"We have to look at search from a strategic level," said Gordon Hotchkiss from Enquiro. "Search is a marketing channel that connects your company to your target audience."
Read More @ SearchEngineWatch
Search Tool Incorporates Blogs and News
The company behind the advanced metasearch service SurfWax has released a free web based search related tool called Nextaris. It is a search tool as well as an information manager.
(September 1 2004) To access Nextaris you register by filling in a web form to get a user name and password that you use to log on to the Nextaris start page. Once you have logged in to the discreet white and blue interface, you have access to eight tabs that lead to the different functions.
Under the Search tab there is a search field that you can use to query 30 search services that are grouped under different headings. First you find the largest of the regular search engines, and then come news services, shopping search, sport, entertainment, economy, health and reference.
Nextaris
Read More @ Pandia
Blog Search With A Buzz Factor
A new start-up joining the ranks of weblog tools, Blabble is aimed at the corporate market. According to an Internet Retailer article, the service will be fee-based when it officially launches in October. A beta is currently available free online. The article reads like Blabble will be something similar to what IBM is developing with WebFountain.
Blabble defines what they’re doing as “thought parsing.” From the article, “Existing software products aggregate listings from blogs, but require the user seeking a view of overall trends or opinions as represented in blogs to read through all the blog listings to make that determination manually.
Blabble
Read More @ ResourceShelf
Don't Blink Its Blinkx
Blinkx, the search engine company Kathy Rittweger co-founded last year, is growing rapidly. Since its low-key launch at the end of July some 800,000 people have downloaded the Blinkx technology - and that is just those she knows about.
Hundreds of thousands more are probably using it after downloading Blinkx from other websites or from CDs cover-mounted on magazines.
Like Google in its early days, the number of users is multiplying fast. There is huge interest from venture capitalists eager to invest and grab a share of what could be the next hi-tech money-spinner.
Blinkx
Read More @ This Is Money
