SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 18, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Topic: Federal Trade Commission
New Privacy Complaint Filed Against Google (And The Cloud)
Yet another privacy complaint has been filed against Google with the FTC, this time by the Electronic Privacy Information Center over Google’s cloud computing services and related privacy and data security issues. While Google is the named party, the company is basically the stand-in for “the cloud” as a whole. (If you want to read […]
Privacy Concerns, Online Ad Targeting On Apparent Collision Course
Call it the “Cuban Missile Crisis” of online advertising: consumers and publishers are increasingly at odds over online ad targeting and behavioral targeting (BT) in particular. While that may be a hyperbolic characterization, the majority of US internet users appear uncomfortable with online tracking and targeting at a time when publishers and search engines are […]
Google Gets Into Behavioral Targeting, Launches “Interest-Based Advertising” Beta
Google today is launching a form of behavioral targeting advertising named Interest-Based Advertising. Interest-Based Advertising allows advertisers to deliver ads based on hundreds of interest categories and previous interactions with those users. The beta is opening to select advertisers at first but will be expanded in the upcoming months. Brad Bender, Google’s Product Manager in […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 14, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Consumer Groups Trying To Preempt Behavioral Targeting For Mobile Ads
The Center for Digital Democracy and U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the same groups that initiated the FTC’s investigation into “behavioral advertising” online, have “amended their complaint” with the FTC to extend to mobile advertising. According to the 50+ page document filed yesterday: Right before the commission’s eyes, many of the same consumer data collection, […]
Ask.com Partners With NASCAR, Says “Super Verticals” Will Put It Back In Search Race
Ask.com — saying it plans to compete against the likes of Google, Yahoo and Microsoft — has announced a new “Super Verticals” strategy to take on its much larger rivals. These are specialized search engines that provide direct answers to factual questions. First off the mark? A NASCAR search engine. And yes, Ask also becomes […]
Yahoo One-Ups Google With 90 Day Data Retention Policy
Yahoo has announced they will be anonymizing their user log data to 90 days, compared to Google’s policy of 9 months. The data policy is not just inclusive of their search data but also their page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks. Yahoo does reserve the right to retain data longer than 90 […]
Crappy MP3 Sites, Comment Spamming & Enough Already
In covering search marketing for the past 13 years, I’ve tried not to be judgmental about certain marketing tactics some people might undertake. Search engines have “rules” that they themselves knowingly allow others to break. Arguments erupt over the idea that any type of marketing is “manipulation.” But at some point, enough is enough with […]
Search Biz: Google Going Down Under?; Times Selling About.com?; Latest Ad Outlook; Yahoo Offering ‘Deceptive’ Ads
Australian media are reporting that Google recently sent a five-person crew to Australia to investigate the idea of building a data center there. According to Australian IT, some Google services cost more in Australia due to the need to route data to and from the U.S. and other countries. Says Google Australia spokesman Rob Shilkin: […]
Online Privacy Hearings See Conflicting Testimony And Recommendations
Privacy has re-emerged as one of the most pressing and complex issues for everyone online, including search engines, after a sustained period of relative calm. However, the rise of behavioral targeting, domestic spying/wiretapping by the Bush administration, attempts by states to regulate privacy, and more aggressive moves by Europeans to protect consumers have created conflicting […]
Behavioral Targeting Under Fire As ISP Backs Away From Tracking Subscriber Activities
Privacy is dead, get used to it. In the effort to rescue display advertising from its historically dismal performance and so-called “banner blindness,” behavioral targeting (BT) was born a few years ago with Tacoda. It has both increased in popularity and infamy since that time. Consumers prefer more “relevant” ads but they also dislike being […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 8, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web
A Small Business Marketing Success Story: Avante Gardens
There’s a battle going on in the floral industry, and many small, independent florists are losing. Like other small businesses, they don’t have the time or knowledge to keep up with the latest marketing trends and tactics. But there are other challenges, too. Way back in 1998, the FTC warned consumers about phony marketers pretending […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 16, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Microsoft Proposes Comprehensive Framework To Protect Consumer Privacy
Microsoft has added its input to that of a host of other stakeholders in the growing debate over consumer privacy, online ad targeting, and potential US (and local) government regulation. (Here’s a related WSJ story on search engine efforts to block a proposed anti-tracking law in the New York state legislature.) In a filing today […]
Microsoft: Forget It On Paid Search Partnership, Google & Yahoo
So Yahoo’s going to partner with Google for a test of search ads? Better be only a test, Microsoft seems to be saying. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith just put out a statement suggesting that any partnership would likely be opposed on regulatory grounds, as Google would get more than 90 percent of the ad search market:
SearchCap: The Day In Search, April 8, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Is Yahoo Hoping For Justice Department Intervention To Stop MicroHoo Merger?
If you’re getting tired of the relentless back and forth about whether Yahoo has any more options to avoid a Microsoft takeover, so are we. And I would imagine so are Yahoo and Microsoft employees. With News Corp. publicly saying it won’t bid against Microsoft and AOL seemingly fading as a merger/partner prospect for Yahoo, […]
EU Approves Google-DoubleClick Acquisition
The European Commission has approved the Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, valued at $3.1 billion. The EU started their investigation in November 2007. The commission found that the “transaction would be unlikely to have harmful effects on consumers, either in ad serving or in intermediation in online advertising markets.”
SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 3, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google Takes Top Prize At SMX Search Bowl
Last night was the first ever SMX Search Bowl. Basically, the Search Engine Land team created fifty questions that were asked to the various teams. The teams consisted of two players from Google, Yahoo, Ask.com, Live Search, and the SEM All Star team. Danny displayed the questions on the screen and the first team to […]
Is The Time Ripe For Search Marketing Standards?
Over the past ten to twelve years, various SEM practitioners have brought up the need for industry standards. I started asking the question in 1998, and others have brought it up since, but the industry seems to have a laissez faire attitude. Albeit, we’ve seen some standardization steps taken by the search engines themselves. Google, […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 11, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Microhoo At One Week 1: Decision Nears? Yahoo Brand To Survive?
Has it only been a week since Microsoft thought it was a nice day for a Yahoo wedding? Indeed, so. And what’s happened since? Rumors that Yahoo is nearing a decision, while Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer seems to want to encourage his potential new employees that a Yahoo brand will survive. Let’s do the news.
Live Blogging Microsoft’s Bid For Yahoo Call
The Microsoft conference call on the Yahoo bid is happening now. I’ll live blog rough notes. Greg Sterling will do a formal write-up later.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 23, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
FTC Complaint Filed Over AskEraser: “Unfair & Deceptive”
Photo adapted from one by Hans Engel Some felt Ask.com won the privacy oneupmanship that went on last year when it rolled out Ask Eraser, a tool promising to stop recording any information about someone doing a search. But questions quickly came up, including whether the tool helped at all, considering that query data was […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 21, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google-DoubleClick Drama Moves To European Stage
Much of the discussion and debate in the U.S. over Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick was about the impact of the deal on consumer privacy, even though that wasn’t technically part of the anti-trust analysis before the FTC. Accordingly, the FTC approved the acquisition with one commissioner dissenting largely on privacy grounds. Now, Pamela Jones […]
Search Year 2007: Search News, In Review
Each month, I compile Search Month — a recap of all the stories that have happened relating to search, categorized by topic. I thought it would be fun to take all the Search Months over the past year and produce this edition of Search Year 2007. It was far more work than I imagined, but […]
What Would A Google Antitrust Breakup Look Like?
How might Google be broken up into various companies? The story below explores the idea, in the guise of a chapter from a fictional book about how a Google break-up might have come about and the results from it. It explores the idea of a Search Engine Reform Act that breaks-up the company, as well […]
Scoop: Google Responds To Rep. Joe Barton’s 24 Privacy Questions
As we covered earlier, US Representative Joe Barton sent Google a letter with 24 questions relating to privacy — along with a week to answer them. I was annoyed that some seemed basic and already answered in a way that one of his interns could easily uncover. But Google’s now replied to the letter with […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 21, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 20, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
FTC’s Xmas Gift To Google: Approval Of DoubleClick Acquisition
The US Federal Trade Commission has granted its approval for Google to purchase DoubleClick. Google has a press release up with the news (and see also here), and the FTC announcement is here. The many parties have raised privacy issues with the deal, and the FTC noted this was not germane to its approval:
New Google Privacy Videos Offer Advice On Product Settings
If US Congressman Joe Barton never got an answer to his many questions about Google Privacy (which I thought wasted time asking for stuff an intern could locate), perhaps he’ll be happy watching some of Google’s latest videos released that cover some very specific privacy issues on a product-by-product basis. They join some other video […]
Privacy Emerges As Major US, EU Issue In DoubleClick Acquistion Review
Despite the fact that regulators are supposed to scrutinize the potential anti-competitive dimensions of the pending acquisition of DoubleClick by Google, privacy has sneaked into the debate as a major issue on both sides of the Atlantic. It almost threatens to overshadow the antitrust considerations, which are the heart and purpose of the regulatory review […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 14, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Google And DoubleClick: The Saga Continues
The relevant issues swirling around the pending acquisition of DoubleClick by Google are little understood by the public, pundits, and even, it would seem, by Congress and the regulators charged with approving or disapproving the deal. Danny has written at length about the competitive implications of the deal. But privacy concerns have gotten mixed up […]