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Yahoo: Actually, Search Is Still Popular (We’re Just Confused)

posted on April 29, 2010

Yahoo seems to be a little confused about its prospects these days. Now that their search deal with Microsoft is approved, they’re suddenly not that interested in search, because people aren’t interested in search. (Odd how that one’s not generating the same interest as a couple years ago when Ask.com did/didn’t say they were getting out of search.) And yet at the same time, they’re releasing research that shows just how important search really is.

SEO by the Sea reports on a study, to be presented today, that shows search is responsible for more than 1 in 5 pageviews online. Search itself saw 10% of online pageviews, and indirectly lead to 21% of the pageviews and about the same proportion of purchases online.

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Apple’s Cracked the App $ Code: Charge Big Bucks for iAds

posted on April 29, 2010

Apparently Apple just isn’t making enough money off the iPhone. In addition to making at least a little on each unit sold, Apple also gets a cut on the apps and other media sold for the device.

But they want more. The Wall Street Journal reports on a rumor that the new iAd network will come with a hefty price tag—possibly $1M to join the program, and $10M to be among the first. Additionally, Apple’s split of the ad revenue is 40%, and the price tag “comes with initial demands for greater control over advertisers’ marketing campaigns.”

It’s often routine to charge a premium to participate or especially launch a new platform, but even established advertisers are surprised by the price tag. Says the WSJ, “Ad executives say they are used to paying between $100,000 and $200,000 for similar mobile deals.”

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Apple, the Missing iPhone and the Blogger – Jon Stewart’s Take

posted on April 29, 2010

While bloggers and many others are watching this whole missing iPhone prototype drama unfold, let’s let Jon Stewart and his one-of-a-kind approach to “news” sort this out for us. As a note, Jon doesn’t have all the facts just right apparently but if you can’t laugh at iPhoneGate what can you laugh at? As always, a language alert is in effect ;-) .Hat tip to TechCrunch.

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Yahoo and Search and Unanswered Questions

posted on April 29, 2010

The fate of Yahoo search as we know it is still in limbo for sure. As the world waits with bated breath for the final look of the Microhoo search engine and the boatloads of opportunities it is supposedly going to afford the world at large, there are still many more questions than answers around the future of Yahoo search. Yahoo is attempting to start to shift the focus a bit by telling the world its new search story.

The SF Chronicle reports

Yahoo Inc. stresses that it’s still in the online search business, but a series of papers and presentations the company is unveiling at a major conference this week underscore how navigating the Web has less to do with the search box and blue links we know so well.

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Facebook Social Plugins on 50,000 Sites Already

posted on April 29, 2010

Facebook has its good and bad days. If we are talking about Facebook and privacy then it’s probably a bad day. In this case, we are talking about the rapid adoption of Facebook’s set of social plugins, in particular their “Like” button. According to Facebook they have hit the “50,000 sites served” mark with these new social media integration tools.

TechCrunch tells us some more

Facebook has just given us an idea of how quickly these widgets are being adopted: a week after f8, 50,000 websites now feature the Like button and the other new plugins.

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Google Staying out of FCC Broadband Fight (But They’re on the FCC’s Side)

posted on April 28, 2010

Earlier this month, the FCC lost a major battle when the US Court of Appeals decided they didn’t have the authority to regulate broadband. While the FCC can continue to appeal that decision, they’re also striving to get the definition of their authority expanded to explicitly include broadband.

And Google has no comment. On the definition issue, anyway. They’re all ready to pipe up on the central issue of the Comcast/FCC case—Net Neutrality. And they’re ready to speak up in the form of comments made to the FCC (i.e. not an amicus brief to a court):

We continue to believe that the FCC has ample legal authority to adopt broadband openness rules. In our initial comments, we explained that we agreed with the FCC that Title I of the Act appears to provide such a legal foundation for its proposed rules, and indeed for the FCC’s just-launched National Broadband Plan.

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Facebook’s Universal “Like” Showing Up in Searches

posted on April 28, 2010

Since Facebook has added the “Like” button to the whole Internet (and now the real world), the social feature is seeping into other sites, especially third-party search results. OneRiot, which indexes the real time web, has already started indexing Likes.

The strategy is a marked shift for Facebook, notes VentureBeat. It’s the first time the service has allowed even its public social data (ie anything beyond the basic profile search page) to be indexed by search engines. Even last year, Facebook only allowed access to its walled garden by signing search deals.