Microsoft, oh Microsoft. So full of clever search marketing ideas you are. Your keyword research tools are actually much richer than others on the market. And your newly announced idea to distribute conversion to all the clicks that contributed (search and not)– we likey, we likey. Now if only you had the volume to make it worthwhile. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: February 2008
iPhone Changes The Mobile Search Conversation
Two recent related stories point to the continued flux in the mobile search market:
1. To the surprise of no one who has paid the least attention to the hype, the iPhone has increased its share of the US smartphone market quite rapidly for such a new entrant into the market. It is now the number 2 smartphone in the US, with a market share of 28% (compared to market leader RIMM/Blackberry with 41%). It also has a reasonably strong share of the global market; it comes in #3 with 6.5% (market leader Nokia has 53%). The iPhone is popular and its popularity is increasing; more importantly, the clamor over its user-friendly interface is having a big effect on overall smartphone design. And that brings us to:
Yahoo Users Tend To Spend Less: No Kidding!
A study released last Friday by Hitwise is causing lots of discussion: graphing search engine use against some of their demographic data, they assert that people who use Yahoo tend to buy less stuff online. To which anyone working in search replies, no duh! Client after client, our data shows that while impressions and even clicks from Yahoo might be fairly even with Google, Yahoo pretty much never equals Google in what really matters: conversions. People who use Yahoo just don’t buy stuff like Google users do. Our intuition has always been that these users are younger (and thus less likely to be affluent); data like this backs up that intuition.
Beth, You Naughty Thing
Well. A sudden new entrant is taking the Beth Morgan scene by storm. Although Beth Morgan news tends to be dominated by cricket Beth Morgan, the chatter these days is about a very, very naughty Beth Morgan in Australia who approved controversial real estate developments in exchange for sex and cash. Beth! That is shocking! And I thought that porno Beth was bad for the Beth Morgan brand. This sounds like something soap opera Beth Morgan might do. I’m sure it’s been amusing to cricket Beth, who has been in Australia cricketing away while all the sordid details of naughty Beth have been making headlines there.
Update: Big shout-out to Sex & Cash Beth for causing an explosion of traffic to the blog! As with the people seeking MILF Beth, I sadly don’t have much for you. I’ve never even been in a position powerful enough that I *could* demand sex and cash from anyone. Even with the husband it’s more of a negotiation than a demand.
Industry Standard: A 1.0 Brand Hops On The 2.0 Train
Remember 10 years ago, when we were all using Yahoo? In between searches we were reading The Industry Standard so we could find out all about which <insert merch>.com company had just gotten $50 million in funding and celebrated by hosting a party with Carlos Santana performing the background music at cocktail hour. (I’m kidding, of course– the party I’m thinking of had Carlos as the main act.) And when 1.0 went down in flames and we all “took sabbatical” and “became consultants”, the Industry Standard went down with it.
Microsoft Gets All Hostile On Yahoo!
Normally I am opposed to including the exclamation mark on the end of “Yahoo!”; I hate punctuation in company names and I just refuse to acknowledge it. Do you hear me Beverages, And More!? However news of Microsoft’s hostile takeover bid for Yahoo! this morning caused such a collective plotz here in Silicon Valley that I ran to stand in the doorway of my bedroom, thinking the Big One had hit. It’s worthy of gratuitous punctuation, is what I’m saying.
Microsoft’s offer is at a 62% premium over Yahoo!’s current stock price, and given Yahoo!’s seeming determination to screw the pooch I think if I were a Yahoo! stock holder I’d be saying, “Helllooooo, Master Bill! Come give me your filthy filthy!”
This development will be discussed extensively by all the usual suspects, so I won’t belabor it any further. Yahoo!
