Topic: Comscore

Multiplatform Yellow Pages Usage On the Rise

Having just wrapped up one of our most successful Yellow Pages Association annual conferences, one thing is clear: Our industry has been able to navigate all types of business climates and has evolved to meet current and future market needs. Recent data from the 2008 Yellow Pages Association Industry Usage Study, conducted by Knowledge Networks/Statistical […]

Local Store And Inventory Data Poised To Transform “Online Shopping”

The neglected part of the local story is about products. Often local search is discussed exclusively in terms of finding service businesses or small businesses in one’s own area. But an equally important, if less obvious, part of the “local search” phenomenon is shopping in the more traditional sense. I’ve written previous Locals Only columns […]

Drilling Into Google’s Decline In Paid Clicks

More doom and gloom on the paid search side for Google. comScore is once again reporting a drop in sponsored clicks, something that also happened last month. After last month’s fallout, comScore did a lot of further analysis shared at the Searchscape panel at our SMX West conference and online to ease concerns that it […]

Google AdWords Officially Launches Demographic Bidding? Maybe Not

On Friday, Google announced they launched demographic bidding to every advertiser in the AdWords program. In short, demographic bidding allows advertisers to show their ads to specific age groups and genders. They did a beta launch of this earlier this year, where they dropped using comScore data for their own. The problem is, I, as […]

PPC

Search Biz: New York Privacy Law May Set National Precedent; AOL Worth Half Of Yahoo?, & Surprise, Google Still #1

A privacy law taking shape in the New York legislature will make it a crime for internet companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent. And because of the generally boundary-free nature of the internet, it would effectively set a national precedent for companies collecting data about internet use. The New […]

Branding Coming To Search In A Big Way

Search has historically been seen as a direct response vehicle and the notion that search is a branding medium has traditionally been met with considerable skepticism by search marketers, albeit somewhat less recently. In an effort to be provocative in moderating the “branding and search” panel at SMX West last month, I said, “Search is […]

SEO

Pew: Cellphones More Important To Users Than Internet, TV, Email

Anyone who doubts how important mobile phones are and will become as a platform and marketing medium needs only to look at the latest Pew Internet & American Life report. Cellphones are now more important to US adults than the internet, television, landline phones, and email. In addition, an increasing number of consumers are using […]

SEO

IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine

IAC’s Ask.com to Cut Staff, Outlines New Search Strategy from the Wall Street Journal reports IAC has cut 8% of Ask.com’s workforce, by letting go 40 people. Not only that, the Wall Street Journal says IAC is changing the strategy of the search engine to “focus to better answering search queries posed as questions.” Ask’s […]

comScore Paid Search Data & How The Sky Might Not Be Falling

Last week comScore came out with a report that showed a 7% sequential decline vs. December 2007 in paid search ad clicks. Plus, they showed an 8% drop in the number of clicks per Google searcher from December 2007. The report set shock-waves through Wall Street and caused the stock to drop and drove concerns […]

SEO

Mobile 411: A Leading Indicator For Mobile Search

There are roughly 250 million cell phone users in the United States and more than ten times that figure around the globe. Approximately 42 million (or so) people use the “mobile Internet” in the US, with varying degrees of frequency. The number of people texting constitutes at least 100 million more on top of that. […]

SEO

Vertical Search Provider Healthline Beefs Up Content, Features

Health is one of the “strategic consumer verticals” that Microsoft has identified and is an important consumer and advertiser category for all the big search engines and portals (Google is soon to launch Health after delays). There’s also Steve Case’s much-hyped Revolution Health. (WebMD is the category leader according to comScore.) However, one of the […]

Not So Crazy: Yahoo May Partner With AOL To Escape Microsoft

Wondering what’s next after the news that Yahoo apparently plans to reject Microsoft’s takeover offer? The Times Of London reports Yahoo will restart merger talks with AOL. Below, more about the news along with some back history on AOL in search and why a Yahoo-AOL partnership might indeed be a compelling way to convince Yahoo […]

Microsoft’s Prize: Big Yahoo CPMs, Largest Display Share

On Friday comScore put out ad publisher site rankings. Unsurprisingly, Yahoo ranked as the top site with just under 19 percent of US online display advertising. MediaPost took this data and further analyzed it, finding that Yahoo enjoys the industry’s highest CPM rates at $12.65, more than $4 higher than the next highest site, MSNBC. […]

IAC Troubles, Ask.com, And Post-Yahoo Search Share

The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both report on the legal battle for control of IAC’s board and thus the company itself. It’s not pretty, and IAC claims that it’s impeding the company’s ability to effectively operate. The legal fight arguably prevents IAC from making any sort of overture (so to speak) toward […]

Google’s Video Sites Gain Market Share

Americans are increasingly turning to the web for video, averaging 3.25 hours of video per person during the month of November, according to new data released by comScore today. Americans viewed nearly 9.5 billion online videos during the month and Google was the leading destination, with 3 billion videos viewed (31.3 percent share of all […]

New AOL Finance Gains Market Share To Become Top Site

TechCrunch is reporting comScore data that shows AOL’s new finance site (which we wrote about here) passing Yahoo Finance and MSN Money to become the internet’s top finance destination. If these traffic numbers are accurate, it would be a very striking development — especially beating out Yahoo, which has held the top finance position seemingly […]

What Does 2008 Have In Store For Local?

Many people I speak to still ask the familiar question, “Is this going to be the breakout year for local?” while expressing frustration or disappointment that “local hasn’t yet lived up to expectations.” But local is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s also more complex than the general search market, which features an ecosystem built […]

Google To Sign Deal With Japan’s Largest Mobile Operator, NTT DoCoMo

Via TechCrunch, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo to tie up with Google-sources from Reuters TechCrunch reports that Google is set to close a deal with NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s largest mobile phone operator. The deal will make Google search the default search service for NTT DoCoMo’s 48 million customers. In addition, Google Apps will also be the email […]