Financial analysts are releasing May comScore search market share data to their clients, which means we're getting an early look at what the metrics firm will be generally exposing in the next 24 hours. Here are the numbers -- comparing April and May of 2013 as well as May 2012: Google: 66.7 percent (May) vs. 66.5 percent (April) vs. 66.7 percent (May 2012) Bing: 17.4 percent (May) vs. 17.3 percent (April) vs. 15.4 percent (May 2012) Yahoo: 11.9 percent (May) vs. 12 percent (April) vs. 13.4 percent (May 2012) Ask: Google: 2.7 percent (May) vs. 2.7 percent (April) vs. 3 percent ( [...]

Related Topics: AOL | Ask: Web Search | Channel: Industry | Google | Microsoft: Bing | Stats: comScore | Stats: Popularity | Stats: Search Behavior

We're getting the usual sneak peek at comScore data from financial analysts ahead of the official release tomorrow. In terms of the market-share horse race, Google gained ground vs. last month. Bing was flat; AOL and especially Ask gained as well. Sadly, Yahoo experienced another month of decline -- to its lowest market share in memory. And now, behold the September comScore numbers: Google: 66.7 percent (66.4 percent in August) Bing: 15.9 percent (15.9 percent in August) Yahoo: 12.2 percent (12.8 percent in August) Ask: 3.5 percent (3.2 percent in August) AOL: 1.8 percent (1.7 [...]

Related Topics: AOL | Ask: Web Search | Channel: Strategy | Google: Web Search | Microsoft: Bing | Stats: Compete | Top News | Yahoo: Search

Amazon has done a really interesting thing: it just bought mapping app UpNext. UpNext is a 3D mapping company that started on the PC in 2007 and more recently shifted its focus substantially to smartphones and the iPad. While UpNext has not received the same attention as other mapping startups the company has slowly built coverage and depth over the past five years. When the site originally launched it aspired to be a kind of "3D Yelp." There's a lot of room for speculation about what this means for Amazon and its future mobile plans. GigaOM, which first reported the acquisition, says th [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Apple: Maps | Channel: Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

AOL announced its most popular global searches (United States, United Kingdom and Canada) in 2011 at http://hot.aol.com. While other search engines have ranked Justin Bieber and Kim K at the top for the year, Charlie Sheen proved he won the hearts of AOL users by climbing to the top of their most searched for celebrity list. Most notable about the AOL hot searches feature this year is the ability to view the UK and Canadian top searches independently, by clicking each country flag to view the differences in search behavior among all three countries. As AOL has over 60 million montly [...]

Related Topics: AOL | AOL: General | Channel: Consumer | Search & Society: General

People have been speculating about it for weeks and now it's live: MapQuest Vibe. With the launch of the new neighborhood-discovery site MapQuest is striking out in a promising direction. It's not a new social network, as some speculated, but it incorporates social input into a larger algorithmic-based framework that generates a score for nearly every neighborhood in the US, as well as local places. MQ Vibe is launching with 50,000 neighborhoods to start. The idea is certainly compelling: to rank various neighborhoods and local businesses as a way to help residents and tourists (and mayb [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | AOL: Mobile | Channel: Mobile | Top News

In an apparent response to Google's rising prominence in the display advertising market, the rest of the major players -- Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL -- are reportedly teaming up to sell ads on one another's sites. The report in the Wall Street Journal's All Things D says the pact was explained to a group of ad buyers and Web publishers at a dinner last night in Manhattan. The agreement is also aimed at reducing the amount of inventory that's going to ad networks, where pricing is lower than the companies think they can charge themselves. Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL are also hoping to get other [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Microsoft: Bing Ads

AOL released its second quarter earnings this morning. Many financial analysts had a modestly positive reaction to AOL's display ad growth, though overall revenues were were off 8 percent: $542.2 million (vs. $592.2 million a year ago). Display revenues were up 14 percent overall, 16 percent in the US. However search and contextual ad revenues were down 21 percent. No one is very upset about the decline in search revenues given that analysts don't expect much from AOL in this category anymore. AOL's search market share has been declining over time and so it comes as little surprise [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | AOL: Search Marketplace | Channel: Search Marketing

Local SEOs have another tool to add to the "citation belt," as it were: MapQuest has announced its own Local Business Center, a place where local businesses can add and/or manage their listing(s) on MapQuest. As the video below shows, the MapQuest LBC functions very much like Google's and Bing's and offers many of the same basic features such as photo uploads, videos, categories and so forth. MapQuest is also offering two premium listing levels at $99 and $399 per year -- the latter of which includes distribution of business information to other sites like Yelp, Yahoo Local, SuperPages and [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Channel: SEO | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | SEO: Local | Stats: Hitwise

Today is Mother's Day in the United States and many many other countries and for the special day, Google and the other search engines have special logos and themes up. The logos and themes are to honor our Mothers for all they have done for us. Below is a listing of the logos from Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com and other search engines that have special logos up for Mother's Day. More Fun Google Logos: Google’s Royal Wedding Logo Your Guide To The Royal Wedding 2011, Social Media Style What Time Is The Royal Wedding? Google Tells You With Special [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | Yahoo: General

Today on Google's home page is a special interactive Google logo for Earth Day. Earth Day this year falls out on Good Friday and for the special day, Google made a fun, animated and interactive Google logo. Ironically, it seems as if you have Pandas playing (see the Google Panda update), the logo also has birds flying, fish swimming, lions sleeping, penguins sledding and much more. Here is a video me interacting with the Google logo. Google was not the only search company celebrating Earth Day with a special logo, so is Yahoo, Bing, Ask.com, AOL and others. Here they are: [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Ask: General | Channel: Consumer | Google: Logos | Microsoft: Bing | Yahoo: General

Following the success of its iPhone app, Mapquest has released a free, voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation app for Android handsets. The new app differs in a couple ways from its older iPhone sibling. Most significantly it takes advantage of Android's speech capabilities and includes OpenStreetMap data, which allows the app to be used outside the US and results in some enhanced local mapping within the US. I've had a chance to use the app for the past 24 hours and can report that it generally works well, although there are a few areas and features that are rough around the edges. Mapquest' [...]

Related Topics: AOL: Local | AOL: MapQuest | AOL: Mobile | Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Top News

Mapquest has introduced public transit and walking directions. It has had walking directions on mobile for awhile. The transit directions are limited right now to rail (including subway) and in only a few cities: Rail Transit Directions are now available in six major metro areas (NYC, Chicago, D.C., San Fran, Boston and Philly) all of which have large subway, elevated and/or commuter rail networks. Rail transit is integrated with walking directions, allowing travelers in these cities to route between towns, addresses, points of interest, or specific transit stations. Google has had [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Channel: Local

The would be AOL-Yahoo merger is apparently off, according to Crain's New York Business. The site is reporting that "AOL tried to either get enough backing to make a run at Yahoo, or get Yahoo interested in buying it . . . Yahoo didn't bite, and AOL didn't have its ducks lined up to be a buyer." Yahoo reportedly didn't receive any formal offer or proposal, however, so it's hard to know how serious any of this is or was. The article goes on to document some of AOL's ongoing challenges in the market, though it has had some successes under new CEO Tim Armstrong. Meanwhile the Wall Street Jo [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Employees

A district court judge in Seattle has granted motions filed by Google and AOL to dismiss a Paul Allen patent infringement lawsuit against those two companies (and others). Judge Marsha Pechman agreed with both Google and AOL, who said that Allen's lawsuit was too vague. Allen's patent infringement complaint "failed to identify the infringing products or devices with any specificity," Pechman wrote in her ruling. You can read the full decision on Groklaw. Allen has until December 28th to refile the case. He first filed the lawsuit in late August, accusing 11 companies -- including Goo [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Social | Facebook | Google: Legal | Legal: Patents | Top News | Yahoo: Legal

This morning brings another report of AOL M&A machinations involving ways to merge with or be acquired by Yahoo, now that both sites have very similar missions and strategies. They're in a way like the Ford and Chevy of the internet these days: workmanlike but not very glamorous. Maybe that's unfair to Ford. Both Yahoo and AOL are focused primarily on display advertising with content creation driving page views. There's a lot of similarity and a lot of overlap. Reuters is saying that AOL is exploring how the company might break itself up, through a "complicated series of transactions [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues

A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma: according to the Wall Street Journal and Reuters, based on the Journal's report yesterday, financial advisers have been hired by AOL to "explore various strategic options for the company, one of which includes a possible tie-up" with Yahoo. This is just the latest installment of the long-running speculation about a Yahoo-AOL merger, which started when Microsoft was trying to take over Yahoo. AOL is trying reinvent itself under former Googler Tim Armstrong. The company, however, saw a steep ad revenue decline in Q3, though earnings were pos [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: Employees

There are rumors flying that AOL and private equity firms may be trying to buy Yahoo in a complex transaction that would involve a likely sale of Yahoo's stake in Alibaba. Matt wrote up the item last night. Bloomberg has more this morning suggesting that, as with Microsoft a couple of years ago, Yahoo is positioning to fight a takeover. One of the very hypothetical scenarios involves taking Yahoo private to "avoid the scrutiny of the public markets," allowing the company to make some of the "tough choices" necessary to really turn it around. Such a scenario would not involve AOL obviousl [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Top News | Yahoo: Business Issues | Yahoo: General | Yahoo: Search

Rumors are circulating tonight that Yahoo might be a candidate to be bought, possibly by some combination of AOL and various private-equity firms. The Wall Street Journal report is citing "people familiar with the matter" who describe this as one possible scenario: Silver Lake Partners and Blackstone Group LP are among the firms that have expressed interest in teaming up with AOL to buy Yahoo or trying to take it private on their own, these people said. They added that at least two or three other firms could be interested in participating if a formal buyout proposal is drawn up. The [...]

Related Topics: AOL: General | Channel: Industry | Yahoo: Business Issues

Mapquest has launched a useful new site: Atlas.Mapquest.com. As the name suggests it's an interactive atlas, directed toward students and teachers, with tons of useful data and information -- from the CIA. There's a wealth of information here (as one might expect from the CIA) about populations, culture, the economy (and of course the military). There are numerous charts and photos. There's also an interesting "compare countries" feature. Those interested can click the "find the insurgents" button to locate political agitators in each geography (just kidding about that last one). You [...]

Related Topics: AOL: Local | AOL: MapQuest | Channel: Local

Mapquest is continuing down its new "open" path with OpenStreetMap. Previously the AOL company announced an investment in the open-source mapping community and the creation of "Mapquest Open" a parallel, crowd-sourced mapping effort in the US and UK based on the OpenStreetMap data. Now that initiative is being expanded across Europe to France, Italy, Germany and Spain: MapQuest, a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL Inc. today announced the beta launch of four new European mapping sites built on OpenStreetMap (OSM) data. The sites in France, Germany, Italy and Spain will utilize the new MapQues [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Channel: Local