One wonders who's actually conducting these searches, but according to Nielsen/NetRatings, 43 percent of online searchers use the search box like the URL bar, typing in names like "Google" and "Yahoo." November data shows that the top ten search terms were site names rather than topics, with "eBay" topping the list with 13.9 million requests, followed by "Google" with 13.3 million requests, and Yahoo! with 8.0 million. In total, five of the 10 most searched-terms for the month were sites that have search engines themselves. A Nielsen analyst explained that those who use the search box to surf the Web …

Last year is projected to be a modest success for the advertising market, expected to tally a five percent year-over-year increase from 2004. However, much of that growth has been boosted by the incredible sustained growth of the online sector, which has grown at an average rate of 25 percent the last few years, and will continue to do so in '06. Online ad spending in 2002 was $6 billion, exactly half of last year's estimated total. Not only that, but the year-over-year growth from 2004 to 2005 will have been by about a third, should ad spending reach its …

PC Gamer, the country's biggest magazine for computer gamers, has said it will stop taking ads from companies involved in the virtual trade. It may come as a surprise to those of you who've never heard of this, but there are legitimate, money-making companies who charge gamers for special potions, armor, weapons, livestock, and whatever else you can think of for use in their massively multiplayer online role-playing games. In any event, these companies used to advertise with PC Gamer, but now they won't. PC Gamer has stopped buying the ads of so-called "gold farmers," which refers to those …

An inquiry into the possible securities violations of Japanese Web portal Livedoor sent Japanese stocks tumbling more than 450 points Tuesday. The news comes after a tepid first day of fourth quarter earnings for U.S. tech companies--including Yahoo!, whose stock fell 13 percent after it failed to meet Wall Street's expectations. On Monday, more than a dozen investigators raided the offices of Livedoor as well as the home of CEO Takafumi Horie, as tipped-off prosecutors and news broadcasters waited in the wings. Prosecutors did not release details about the company's suspected violations. In response, the Japanese Nikkei, the country's benchmark …

I'm not the only one who doesn't quite understand investors when a company reports a sky-high earnings increase of 83 percent, yet the stock goes plummeting 13 percent because Wall Street expectations were a penny more per share. The L.A. Times, wondering the same thing, asked analysts to break down why an 83 percent increase wasn't enough for Yahoo!, which yesterday reported net income of $683 million on $1.5 billion in revenue shares. Simply put, investors are holding Internet stocks to far higher standards than others--anything that doesn't match expectations at the very least is deemed a failure in investors' …

Details about the new media venture from craigslist founder Craig Newmark are still vague, but in a recent interview Newmark promised the new community journalism project would "promote the best of the press" by prominently featuring the most reputable journalists, as determined by the community. Newmark describes the project as providing people with trusted news with more fact checking--public fact checking, it would seem, a la Wikipedia. Interesting, sure, but how will the project make money? How will he be able to pay his writers? Newmark deflected those questions in the interview, saying only that payments could be received …

Branding and Web site design, apparently, mean everything to consumers, according to a new study. In one-twentieth of a second, the Canadian Behavior and Technology Journal found, consumers make aesthetic judgments that influence the rest of their experience with a given Web site. The study's author tells Retuers.com that the response is actually physiological--meaning Web designers must be sure not to offend users visually, or they'll simply leave. Yet the results don't show designers what leads to like or dislike--perhaps just personal taste.

As more and more consumers breeze past commercials with DVRs, product placement is growing into a multimillion dollar business. In an attempt to simplify the negotiation process between movie/TV producers and advertisers, a new Web site aims to connect those interested in product placements. On the site, called Media Matchmaker, advertisers input what they're looking for in terms of content and demographics and then post their budget limit. They are then matched to a list of producers and entrepreneurs willing to sell placements. Until March 1, Media Matchmaker will offer its services free of charge to prospective clients; after that …

Following a disappointing '06 outlook from Yahoo!, investment firms Stifel Nicolaus & Co. and Standard & Poors downgraded Google to a "sell" from a "hold." The fear is that, following lower than expected earnings from Yahoo! and a lower guidance on margins for the year, Google could also disappoint. Yesterday's reality check caused Stifel Nicolaus to call Google's valuation into question. "Where there is smoke, there is fire," a Stifel analyst said, adding that the time has come to focus on what these Internet companies are worth rather than where their stock may be going. In overnight trading, Google's shares …

For traditional media players, simply repurposing TV content online and slapping down a new pricing system will not be enough to edge out the stiff challenge from the likes of Google and Yahoo!, writes The Hollywood Reporter's Diane Mermigas. In so many ways, she says, the Viacoms and Time Warners of the entertainment business remain mired in an old-media-world framework of legacy operating structures and outdated audience measurement and pricing systems. While old-media firms are gathering together digital management teams, they're layering them on top of production, management and advertising operations now cumbersome in the new-media world. By breaking into …