The Seattle-Search.com Blog

Details are beginning to emerge on Microsoft’s upcoming Google Analytics challenger. Gatineau will launch in beta later this summer to compete with Google and give AdCenter advertisers detailed stats on their campaigns.

Gatineau promises to take analytics one step further with the addition of demographic data. Beta 1 will include the ability to segment data by both age and gender buckets, so you can get more of an idea of what kind of visitors you have.
Google Analytics has already had a major face lift this summer, but Gatineau should provide enough competition to keep the improvements coming.

A Sneak Peek: <http://www.davidnaylor.co.uk/want-to-see-gatineau.html>

digg has decided to drop Google in favor of a 3-year exclusive deal with Microsoft.
The diggsters have signed on Microsoft as our new partner to sell and serve the ads on Digg. It’s a deal similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year. The move gives digg an advertising partner with a larger organization and a more scalable technology platform to keep pace with their growth. Best of all, it lets the digg team completely focus on new feature development.
Microsoft will provide display and contextual advertising on digg, with Federated Media filling in the blanks. Any doubts that Microsoft dangled a revenue share that was too tempting to turn down? If Microsoft can announce a few big deals like this - even if they don’t make a dime on them - other networks will take notice and come knocking.

During the recent Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Advanced conference, I got a chance to ask new Microsoft Search GM Satya Nadella whether Microsoft might follow suit with the corporate incentives it was offering to enterprise customers who chose to use Live Search and win rewards. Those search incentives came in the form of discounts on Microsoft software and other products.

Apparently, someone at MSN was listening, and thinking along the very same lines. MSN and Microsoft Live’s U.S. search query volume showed a 67% increase from May to June, according to Internet metrics company Compete, Inc. at least partially attributable to a prize award program.

“A good portion of the additional Live searches are coming from the Live Search Club, where you can apparently play games for points which you can redeem for fine Microsoft products,” said Steve Willis, a Compete analyst, in a blog post Monday. “All of the games involve using Live’s search engine — to get the points, you have to search with Live.”

Google saw its search query volume drop from 67% in May to 62.7% in June, a 6.5% decline. Yahoo’s search query share stood at 19.6% in June, down from 19.7% in May and from 26.7% in June 2006. Ask.com’s search query share declined to 3.3% in June, down 3.5% in May and 4.1% from June 2006.

Internet metrics company comScore published its take on U.S. search market share numbers for May: Google (50.7%), Yahoo sites (26.4%), Microsoft sites (10.3%), and Ask (5%).

In the biggest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, the company has announced that it is acquiring aQuantive, an online advertising services firm, in an all-cash deal at $66.50 per share, for $6 billion.

aQuantive, which has approximately 2600 employees, will continue to operate from its Seattle headquarters as part of Microsoft’s Online Services Business.

aQuantive posted a profit of $54 million last year on revenue of $442 million. Its Digital Marketing Services segment consists of Avenue A | Razorfish and a number of other international agencies. The Digital Marketing technologies (DMT) Group consists of Atlas, a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise and recently-acquired Accipiter, a publisher-side ad serving technology provider. Atlas Search (formerly Atlas OnePoint or GoToast) enables agencies and marketers to manage their PPC advertising campaigns. Accipiter provides web publishers an inventory management solution.

[Update: Marriage plans have been scribbed for now, but the happy couple amicably announced plans to "live together" before entering into a larger commitment. What that suggests is some sort of strategic partnership to challenge Google's hegemony. The bridal registry is temporarily closed! Note: Yahoo CEO Terry Semel happens to be speaking at a Microsoft online advertising conference in Redmond this coming week. Semel has actually spoken at the same event in the past, but maybe this time he'll have something more interesting to discuss than general industry trends.]

Microsoft is resuming its pursuit of search-engine operator Yahoo! that could help it better compete with Web search leader Google, published reports said today.

Yahoo! shares surged about 17 percent in midday trading in New York.

The New York Post reported today that Microsoft has asked Yahoo! to enter formal negotiations for an acquisition that could be worth $50 billion. Yahoo!’s market capitalization was about $38 billion on Thursday.

Microsoft had no immediate comment on the report, spokesman Lou Gellos said today.

The Wall Street Journal said executives of the two companies are looking at a merger or some other kind of matchup and said the talks appear to be early-stage discussions. It said the companies explored the idea of combining last year, but the talks led nowhere.

The newspaper reports each cited unidentified people familiar with the situation.

Industry analyst Matt Rosoff with Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland said a huge takeover is unlikely, noting that it would duplicate services MSN already provides, such as instant messaging and e-mail.

It is possible, Rosoff added, that Microsoft and Yahoo! might be talking about a deal involving only online search advertising.

Microsoft is feeling increasing pressure to compete with Google, which plans to beef up its portfolio with a $3.1 billion purchase of online advertising company DoubleClick.

Earlier this week, Yahoo! said it would buy 80 percent of advertising exchange Right Media for $680 million, increasing its stake in that company to full control.

Yahoo! shares were up $4.81, or 17.1 percent, to $32.99 in midday trading in New York, while shares of Microsoft were down 46 cents, or 1.5 percent, at $30.51.

It has not escaped Microsoft’s attention that some of the coolest sites on the Web — YouTube and MySpace included — get much of their flash from Flash and other design programs sold by Adobe Systems Inc.

But as Microsoft Corp. gets ready to ship its own line of tools for designers and Web developers, the world’s largest softwaremaker finds it must also defend against Adobe on its home turf, the desktop. At the same time, the line between Internet and desktop programs is blurring — and both companies see an opportunity to capture new business.

Microsoft Corp. is preparing to launch Expression Studio, a suite of design software that will go head-to-head with Adobe’s flagship tools, Photoshop and Illustrator. It also will include a tool for building multimedia programs to bring it in line with Adobe’s Flash. At $599 for the suite, Expression is a steal compared with the $1,000 or more Adobe charges for its Web developer suites.

Expression Web, a Web authoring tool to compete with Adobe’s Dreamweaver, is already on the market. Last week, the company said its Flash-like browser plug-in, Silverlight, will be released in beta at the end of the month. Both programs enable multimedia presentations that work regardless of the viewer’s Web browser or operating system.

Adobe, meanwhile, started shipping its Creative Suite 3 last Monday, an upgrade to Photoshop and other core programs. Adobe touted smoother integration with Flash and Dreamweaver, which the company acquired when it bought Macromedia Inc.nearly two years ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft has decided that a new manager and management structure may be the wining combination for it to turn the corner in Internet search.

The company has named Satya Nadella, an executive in charge of Microsoft’s line of business software, to head research and development for a new group that will now merge Internet search with the advertising platform through which search generates cash.

Nadella, who will take over by April 19, assumes responsibility for a high-profile, high-pressure part of the business where Microsoft has struggled against entrenched competition.

Last month, more than half of the estimated 3.6 billion U.S. Internet searches were done using Google. Yahoo! was second and Microsoft’s MSN/Windows Live Search was third with a 9.6 percent share, according to data released earlier this week by Nielsen//NetRatings. What’s more, Google expanded its market share by 40 percent in the previous year; Microsoft grew 9 percent.

How does Microsoft challenge Google’s hegemony in Web search as an unaccustomed challenger brand? One frequent flier credit at a time. The mighty Redmondites are offering large enterprise customers free service and product credits if those customers promote Live search inside their enterprises.

Called “Microsoft Service Credits for Web Search,” a Powerpoint overview of the program sent to me states: “Employees search the web daily with tools from Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo. OEMs and web sites are already earning credits based on searches that their users bring. Now, your organization can earn credits for Microsoft web searches and redeem them for Microsoft or preferred partner deployment and training services. More searches earns more credits towards the services you value.”

Acccording to the story which broke on John Batelle’s Weblog, the value is non-trivial - the Powerpoint deck estimates companies can get from $2 to $10 per computer annually, plus a $25K “enrollment credit”. For sites that have tens of thousands of computers, that can add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in free stuff from Microsoft. Most large enterprises spend millions on Microsoft services and software each year. It’s not hard to imagine a CFO getting jazzed over savings like these.