• Ross Fadner, Apr 28, 2008, 11:16 AM
  • The Coming Mobile Threat BusinessWeek Mobile marketing presents both a challenge and an opportunity to Web advertising giant Google. While improvements to the mobile Web will cause more people to conduct searches on their cell phones, the cell phone's tiny screen means that Google will have less inventory to sell. On a standard computer screen the search leader can fit about 10 ads, but on a cell phone you get only one or two paid ads.

    Says BusinessWeek: "Imagine the horror that would befall your business if a large slice of what you sell suddenly disappeared. A similar fate could befall companies that depend on online advertising, as small screens become the gateway to the Internet." That said, no one believes that mobile phones will replace laptops overnight, but if the adoption of Web usage on Apple's iPhone is any indication, Google and its competitors better get prepared.

    Isn't Google already working on this? Earlier in the first quarter, when those infamous numbers from comScore were released (not that those were necessarily wrong, by the way), Google came out saying that it was tweaking its algorithm to promote ads that were likely to convert while eliminating those that were not. The end result was fewer ads, but more qualified--and thus more lucrative--leads generated from ads that were clicked on. Perhaps Google decided to tweak its algorithm with a view to the mobile shift in mind? After all, if the future means less space for ads, wouldn't Google be wise to make sure that fewer ads cost more and convert better? Read the whole story...
  • Yahoo (And Google), Await Microsoft Move TechCrunch Now that the deadline has passed, what happens next in the Microhoo saga? On April 5, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that a hostile takeover would follow: "If we have not concluded an agreement within the next three weeks, we will be compelled to take our case directly to your shareholders, including the initiation of a proxy contest to elect an alternative slate of directors for the Yahoo board."

    In an April 25 report, Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said there's a 45% chance Microsoft would up its bid, a 40% chance Microsoft would go hostile, a 10% chance it walks away, and a 5% chance for Yahoo to accept the initial bid. In other words, Mahaney thinks there's a 90% chance of a deal happening in some form.

    Meanwhile, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington points out that talk of a Google alternative has died down. Why? Sources tell TC that the two-week trial yielded ad revenue gains of between 80% and 100%. Regulatory issues abound with this scenario, but Arrington believes that Yahoo could get away with a deal that gives Google just a small percentage of overall queries. This would be especially lucrative if Yahoo directed its highest value queries to the search giant. Meanwhile, it's Microsoft's move. Read the whole story...
  • On Niche Sites, Advertisers Want Originality Reuters Sites like IAC/InterActiveCorp.'s CollegeHumor.com are finding that the online ad model for niche sites has completely changed in recent years. Whereas advertisers used to buy standard online ad formats, like banners, and then ask for a creative extra or two, "now advertisers won't even talk to you unless you have a great topline idea, something cool," said CollegeHumor.com founder Ricky Van Veen. "They use the banners and the rest of the stuff to support the deal."

    The result has been custom-built sponsorships with brands like Sprint Nextel Corp, Doritos and P&G's Old Spice. One of the most successful of these deals came from a partnership with Unilver's Axe brand, which has been noted for having a willingness to experiment with its marketing campaigns. Through the CollegeHumor site, Axe invited users to submit video clips for its "World's Dirtiest Film" contest, which drew more than a million visitors. The humor site's latest partnership, sponsored by Virgin Mobile, offers a paid summer job for the winner of a comedy writing contest.

    Meanwhile, CollegeHumor co-founder Josh Abramson said that economic woes haven't really affected the site, which generates about 6 million monthly viewers. "Spending as a whole is down," he said. "But people are still desperately trying to reach our audience." Read the whole story...
  • EA Bid Looms Over 'Grand Theft Auto' Launch Los Angeles Times Take Two Interactive's "Grand Theft Auto IV" is expected to have one of, if not the biggest launches in entertainment history when it hits stores tomorrow. Analysts are predicting a $400 million opening week for the video game, topping Microsoft's "Halo 3," which set the previous record last fall with $300 million in sales.

    "Grand Theft Auto", an 11-year-old franchise that's sold more than 65 million copies worldwide, also happens to be at the center of a $2 billion takeover war between Take Two and Electronic Arts, the industry's biggest third-party developer. Take Two has said it's unwilling to consider a deal until after tomorrow's launch, as the company believe sales will be so huge and Take Two shares will receive such a boost that EA will be forced to sweeten its offer.

    Early revues of GTA IV are glowing-indeed, many are already calling it the greatest of all time-and analysts expect the game will ultimately sell 18 million copies and ring up nearly $1 billion in sales, of which 80% goes Take Two as gross revenue, with the remaining 20% going to retailers. But will it be enough for EA to raise its bid? Read the whole story...
  • Google Researchers Tout New PageRank for Images The New York Times Google researchers on Monday unveiled a bold new image search technology. During a presentation at the International World Wide Web Conference in China, the Google scientists described the company's new VisualRank technology as blending image-recognition software techniques with criteria for weighing and ranking images.

    The scientists noted that despite years of attempts, image search remains an unsolved mystery-even though the likes of Google and Yahoo offer image search, the results are largely based on how the images are tagged, rather than on how they look. While progress has been made on face detection, finding objects has proven to be far more difficult.

    "We wanted to incorporate all of the stuff that is happening in computer vision and put it in a Web framework," said Google researcher Shumeet Baluja, who made the presentation with fellow researcher Yushi Jing. Their paper, "PageRank for Product Image Search," focuses on the 2000 most searched for products on Google Image Search, and creates a scoring system for image relevance. It found that that the new algorithm returned 83% fewer irrelevant images. The researchers claim that Google Image Search is now the "most comprehensive image search on the Web." Read the whole story...
  • Analysts: Microsoft Needs Yahoo Bloomberg News Read the whole story...
  • If Microsoft Goes Hostile... blog.pmarca.com Read the whole story...
  • Google: FTC Won't Bar Yahoo Partnership Reuters Read the whole story...