Marketing Pilgrim

It seems like just yesterday I was using AOL for all of my Internet needs. Now as AOL continues to hang on by tooth and nail, they are forming to new divisions: People Networks and MediaGlow.

The People Networks division is pretty straight forward. Its primary focus will be AOL’s media properties Bebo and AOL Instant Messenger (does anyone still use a single IM client?).

AdWeek reports that the MediaGlow division will focus on the niche properties that AOL owns, like AOL Health and TMZ. AOL claims that these sites are what set them apart from their rivals Yahoo and MSN. I suppose they gave up on trying to catch Google.

EVP, and now MediaGlow President, Bill Wilson says:

UPDATE: Yahoo has confirmed Carol Bartz as the new CEO, and announced that President Sue Decker will resign at the end of the transitional period.

As rumored just a few days ago, Yahoo is expected to announce Carol Bartz as its next CEO. Bartz, the former chief executive of software company Autodesk Inc., will take over from Jerry Yang, according to the WSJ.

There’s no official word of the appointment–CNET suggests that Bartz has not yet accepted Yahoo’s offer–and Silicon Alley Insider has gone as far as to suggest that board politics played a major role in the selection decision:

[A] Yahoo executive went so far as to call Bartz a “board buddy” of Yahoo’s current top management, because she sits on the Intel board alongside Decker and with former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang on Cisco’s board.

UPDATE: Scott Edwards points out in the comments below that the phenomenon described below is the result of a bug in a plugin that I currently use. I want to say I am sorry for making this mistake and hope this serves as a lesson to us all that nothing is as it seems in search marketing!

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Okay, I am going to admit for a moment that I don’t know that much about sponsored search. Sure, I know what it is, I know how to put together basic PPC campaigns but when it comes down to it, I am more an SEO kind of guy.

By Carrie Hill

A recent JP Morgan poll asked readers what it would take to get those surveyed to switch search engines.  The market share numbers are decidedly in Google’s favor—they were over 72.07% in December ’08—with the next closest being Yahoo! at 17.79%. 

The question being asked is: “What would make you leave Google for greener pastures?”

The results aren’t all that surprising. 45% said “Better Results” would make them change, while the runner up “Nothing Would Make me Change” got 38%.  TechCrunch reports that the sample size was only 776 respondents and recreated the poll to see if they could achieve better results with a larger sample. 

Yahoo is finally doing what so many of us have been begging them to do: something Google hasn’t already done. According to BusinessWeek, Yahoo is working with Intel and television makers to bring TV widgets to home viewing.

Yahoo made the announcement last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Yahoo and Intel announced a range of televisions and related products that would be loaded with the software, in addition to hardware partners and TV-friendly sites.

So what type of widgets can you expect? Have you ever found yourself sitting in front of your TV, your laptop on your lap as you attempt to watch LOST while answering emails and twittering about the latest twist? Imagine the ease of doing all of those things right at your TV.

Man, I love the Internet! I mean seriously, things are getting really good! What’s got me all excited, you ask? Well, how about the fact that CBS has announced their plans to go head to head with hulu.com with its own media mega house, TV.com! Yep that’s right, we now have two high class web sites that are going to fight it out to see who can deliver the best in TV shows and movies!

TV.com already has a host of different CBS shows and has recently announced deals with MGM, Sony, PBS, Endemol USA and Showtime. However, the real power behind this mega site is its social network. Reports indicate that TV.com’s userbase is some where between 4.8 million and 16 million. That’s a pretty big margin but what ever the case may be one thing is certain, hulu.com has had a pretty hard time developing a social network anything near that.