This is Why Microsoft is So Far Behind Google on The Web
Microsoft has billions of dollars to spend, and more market clout than any software company in the world, thanks to its Windows and Office hegemonies.
Isn't it stunning that the company is far behind Google and even Yahoo in the online space? Why is that? It's not for lack of resources and talent.
When it has really wanted to, Microsoft has made fine moves in search and advertising. It bid for Yahoo in February 2008, albeit unsuccessfully, and came back around in July 2009 to strike a 10-year search deal that will give it more search clout.
Bing is a great product, it's unfortunately trying to challenge the Windows of the search world in Google, whose 65 percent market share seems indomitable to us as we slide into 2010.
But then there are other times when Microsoft's reticence to pull the trigger makes you scratch your head. The latest example involves Yelp.
Most of you know by now that Google and Yelp had been in recent days bargaining for a $500 million acquisition that would give Google dominance in local search and reviews. Depending on who you believe, Google or Yelp walked from the deal, which is now on ice.
Citing multiple sources privy to the negotiations, Kara Swisher of AllThingsDigital said that not only was Microsoft surprised that Google acquired mobile display ad specialist AdMob, but that:
Microsoft (MSFT) execs were similarly surprised when news emerged late last week that the search giant was offering more than $500 million for local search site Yelp, and were scrambling to figure out the best response, because both their MSN portal a/> [...]
Wed Dec 23, 2009 05:30 am
BIGLIST Social SEO Blogs Update 031110
Welcome to the post-Winter/pre-Spring version of the BIGLIST review of SEO blogs. Snow is starting to melt and you can actually walk around outside (in Minnesota) without your eyelashes freezing together. We have a nice group for you to review so fire up your RSS reader and subscribe.
LyndiT blog gets our attention for great design and user experience in this BIGLIST update. Lyndi Thompson is a Social Media and Online Marketing Specialist and like me, is addicted to peanut M&Ms. Besides writing about a mix of social media, SEO, web design and online marketing topics, you might be interested to know Lyndi lives on a mini farm, owns several animals including a donkey and supports some great causes in the Northwest.
- Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing – Frank Reed blogs on several sites including Marketing Pilgrim and Biznology. Here, he shares is talented writing skills to tell stories about SMB internet marketing topics. This isn’t a how to blog, it’s a broader topic and things to think about blog as the name implies about Search, Mobile, Social and Local.
- State of Search – What’s going on in the search and social medi/> [...]
Thu Mar 11, 2010 13:40 pm
Google: Location a "Hugely Important" Signal
Google made a couple of interesting comments at a mobile marketing and advertising event in Vegas. Michael at Mobile Marketing Watch reports that Diana Pouliot – Director of Mobile Advertising at Google says a third of all Google searches via the mobile web pertain to some aspect of the searcher's local environment.
In addition, Google Mobile Ads Group Product Manager Paul Feng reportedly said, "We think of location as a hugely important signal."
How important is location to relevance? Discuss here.
So just how important of a signal is location to Google? Feng may have been talking about ad relevance specifically, but we know it plays some role in organic search. Otherwise, people would not get different search results based on where they are, which has been the case for some time. Perhaps the real question is whether location will start carrying more weight as searchers increasingly turn to their mobile devices for a greater percentage of their queries.
Location is already playing a significant role in the way people are searching on their mobile devices, and not just with search engines. WebProNews had an interesting discussion with RateItAll President Lawrence Coburn at the Online Marketing Summit last month about how consumers sharing their location has in essence become a new way of sending out a generic query, one that is becoming more prevalent with the growing popularity of location-sharing services like Gowalla and Foursquare.
"The thing about Foursquare and Gowalla, and these /> [...]
Thu Mar 25, 2010 15:25 pm
8coupons.com – Aggregate Mobile Coupons and Deals Near You
8coupons.com, find mobile coupons and deals in your neighborhood is evolving and growing. Once only known in New York City for Mobile Coupons and OCHO LOCO! promotions, 8coupons has improved into a one-stop shop for locating all of your favorite deals, regardless of where you live. With a loaded database of over 60,000 mobile coupons and deals throughout the country, consumers can now find all their money-saving information in one place.
When a user visits 8coupons.com, the map on the homepage will automatically populate the top 8 most popular deals based on his or her IP address. This ensures that anyone who visits the site will see the deals that are most relevant to them specifically. The top 8 deals will change dynamically as the user moves the map around to different locations, zooms in on a specific street, or narrows down the deals by sub-categories such as restaurants, entertainment, beauty & spas, services and shopping.
The deals on 8coupons.com now come from several different sources [...]
Wed Dec 09, 2009 09:50 am
