by
1 Comment

Win For Small Business: Google Calendar Becomes Mobile

posted on May 25, 2007

Typically I’m the first one to criticize Google about any number of things, but I also love to see new mobile apps. So I was excited to just read in PC World that Google has launched an interface for the Google Calendar for the mobile phone.

I don’t personally use Google Calendar, but I do understand, as a small business owner, how Google Calendar is an incredibly cost-effective way to have team members share calendar info. The alternative, of course, is using the Microsoft Outlook Calendar. To share calendars via Outlook, however, you must use Microsoft Exchange Server. In addition to calendar sharing, Exchange Server provides synching capability to your mobile phone. The downside for most small businesses is that Microsoft Exchange Server can be costly to setup and support.

by
5 Comments

Microsoft Thinks It Can Overtake Google WITHOUT Yahoo!

posted on May 24, 2007

At yesterday’s Goldman Sachs Internet Conference, Microsoft’s senior vice president and chief advertising strategist, Yusef Mehdi remarked that he believes that Microsoft is well poised to overtake Google in the online advertising space. However, I’m not certain that their strategy is on target.

Mehdi alluded to the strategy by discussing Microsoft’s recent acquisition of aQuantive and describing Microsoft’s strategy as discretionary advertising–matching an ad buyer with an audience rather than specific pages. Mehdi further elaborated, “We think we have the largest audience to monetize,” when looking across the entire Microsoft suite of products–from Office to Xbox.

by
10 Comments

What the Heck Is Google’s Business Plan?

posted on May 23, 2007

Today I read that Google invested in a biotech startup, 23andMe. 23andMe was co-founded by Anne Wojcicki, new bride of Google Sergey Brin, so the investment is likely driven more by nepotism than by the drive to build Google’s business portfolio. However, it does bring up a good point — why must Google buy up every technology business under the sun?

Just this week, Google has been in talks to acquire Salesforce.com, a leading online CRM application, most likely to compete further with Microsoft. But is all this investment in companies that do not complement the search engine itself wise for Google? It depends on what Google wants to be when it grows up.

by
5 Comments

Google AdWords Unveiling New Negative Keywords Tool

posted on May 22, 2007

By Janet Driscoll Miller

Google is currently rolling out a new negative keywords tool as part of its AdWords Keyword Tool, and today I was able to try out the new addition. The negative keywords tool, when launched in an account, appears as a tab alongside of the “Keyword Variations” and “Site-Related Keywords” tabs. While long overdue, this tool will be especially helpful to novice Google advertisers who may not realize how to add negative keywords to their accounts.

There are two ways to find and select negative keywords:

Generate Negative Keywords by Selecting a Campaign/Ad Group

This method allows the advertiser to select the campaign and ad group on which to base the negative keywords. The tool then examines the full list of “positive” keywords in the ad group and suggests negative keywords to accompany that list.

Generate Negative Keywords by Entering Positive Keywords