Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords Unveils New Top-Of-Page Bidding Options Google introduced a report in July that let AdWords advertisers compare performance between top-of-page ads and those appearing on the side (and now the bottom) […]
Facebook and the US Federal Trade Commission announced their formal privacy settlement today. Facebook and the federal agency each put their spin on it, with Facebook saying it was very similar to “agreements” previously reached with Google and Twitter: Recently, the US Federal Trade Commission established agreements with Google and Twitter that are helping to […]
Asked to reflect on the cultural differences between Google and Facebook, current Facebook COO and former Googler Sheryl Sandberg told Charlie Rose that “Google is fundamentally about algorithms and machine learning . . . We start from a totally different place. We start from an individual: Who are you? What do you want to do? What do […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Mobile Traffic To Retail Sites To Hit 15% During Holiday ’11 More evidence of the growing importance of mobile comes this time from IBM, which predicts that “an unprecedented 15 percent […]
As you may have seen last week, Groupon COO Margo Georgiadis, who replaced former COO Rob Solomon only a few short months ago, is leaving to rejoin her former employer Google in a new, more senior role. She will become Google’s president for the Americas. In leaving Groupon Georgiadis gave up a $500,000 annual salary and stock […]
Did you think the search engine war was over and that Google had won? Perhaps you believed that there were a few outposts still resisting the Google conquest, but expected that they’d give in eventually? If so, you’d better sit down and take a strong drink as the first salvos in the new Search Engine […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: SMX East 2011 Day Three Recap Day three of the SMX East conference is just about done. Below is some of the live blog coverage I discovered throughout the day. Beyond […]
100 million active users. 1 billion tweets every seven days. Plans to grow the ad business. These stats and facts are part of a “State Of The Twitter” talk Twitter CEO Dick Costolo gave to the press today. Live blogging below! Dick arrives. Nothing big, he says. “I just wanted to give you a state […]
There was a time before the “Great Recession” when a cluster of companies were seemingly always bidding against one another to acquire the hot startup of the month. The core of that group consisted of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, eBay, AOL and News Corp. But while AOL and Yahoo still buy companies — AOL bought HuffingtonPost […]
Yandex now has deeper cash pockets following its IPO -- so where and in what type of expansion is the company going to expand? Moving west and south perhaps? There are good competitive reasons why Yandex needs to take its battle with Google to other markets -- but it also needs to be secure at home -- in Russia.
Everyone knows that Facebook is going public. When was the only question. Now it appears that it will be early next year. Facebook apparently is being compelled go public by an obscure SEC rule that requires companies with 500 or more shareholders to start disclosing financial information even if they haven’t gone public. Thus Facebook […]
Google took its first daily deal baby steps yesterday with the launch of its first Google Offer in Portland. It was reportedly a hit for the business owner and a success for Google. According to CNET and ClickZ the first customer hit Floyd’s Coffee Shop within about 10 minutes of the offer going live. Overall, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Ireland Greeting A Google Street View Car Wouldn’t it be cool to know when a Google Street View car was planning on taking pictures of your office or home? Most […]
Yandex NV, the parent of the Russian search engine Yandex, had a very successful debut on the Nasdaq market yesterday. The company raised more than $1.3 billion in its IPO. It follows last week’s similarly splashy but much smaller IPO from LinkedIn. As with the LinkedIn IPO last week many investors turned right around and […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Maps’ “Game Changer”: Hi-Res Aerial Imagery Coming To Entire US and Western Europe Hot on the heels of last week’s Read/Write World effort, Bing Maps has announced another ambitious project […]
Russia’s leading search engine Yandex formally filed for an IPO that has been expected for at least three years but was delayed by the global recession. The company plans to raise roughly $1 billion through its US Nasdaq offering. Founded in 1997, Yandex controls approximately 65 percent of the Russian search market and is valued […]
With management changes and numerous other efforts Google is trying to “get back to its startup roots.” So how about a video from when Google was really a startup. On the Xooglers blog (and below) is a video of a “TGIF meeting.” Taken in 1999 by Doug Edwards, who was then the director of consumer […]
Google product chief Jonathan Rosenberg is not the first high-profile victim of the Larry Page era. While Google has officially confirmed to us that Rosenberg is leaving effective this summer, he is apparently leaving voluntarily. He is choosing family over making a new multi-year commitment to Mountain View. More Time with Family Google told us […]
If Digg and its myriad imitators were part of “social news 1.0” then a recent wave of personalized news sites, including Flipboard and Zite for the iPad, among others represent social news 2.0 (sorry). You can add LinkedIn today to that list. This is a breakout product for the company that could become highly successful […]
In a bit of a surprising interview on Bloomberg News, Kayak.com’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Paul English boldly stated that the travel search engine doesn’t fear Google’s entrance into the travel search market via the proposed acquisition of ITA Software. Kayak is officially listed as a member of the FairSearch Organization, but Google claims […]
One can guess that Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak probably doesn’t “Like” Facebook anymore, the website that now topples governments. (I apologize but I couldn’t resist.) Back in the US the Facebook enemies or, more precisely, “frenemies list” is also growing says a piece in the the Wall Street Journal. The article discusses Facebook’s broad ambitions and […]
There are three companies that we know are interested in or “hungry” for Twitter: Microsoft, Google and Facebook. In an article on bubbly valuations, the Wall Street Journal says that Twitter is again in “low-level” acquisition talks: Executives at both Facebook Inc. and Google Inc., among other companies, have held low-level talks with those at […]
With Demand Media having gone public last week, it is worth taking some time to discuss the future of content farms. Clearly, lots of people are seeing value in the business model, as shown by the street’s willingness to accept the IPO, and the acquistion of Associated Content by Yahoo! last May. But what is […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The New York Times, Demand Media Edition Demand Media — widely described as a “content farm” — went public yesterday and quickly racked up a valuation higher than the New York […]
Demand Media — widely described as a “content farm” — went public yesterday and quickly racked up a valuation higher than the New York Times. I figured the news might cause some at the New York Times to wonder if they needed to be more Demand Media-like. Would every story be turned into a question? […]
Google has fired a warning toward “content farms” — you’re in our anti-spam sights in 2011. That message was made loud and clear in Matt Cutts’ blog post today, a post in which Google also says its search quality has improved due to new spam fighting techniques. Cutts points out that Google has already taken […]
Perhaps not surprisingly, the SEC is reportedly looking into the recent Goldman Sachs Facebook investment. The Wall Street Journal, citing “people familiar with the situation,” reports that the SEC is in the early stages of an inquiry over rules concerning the dividing line between public and private companies. Goldman Sachs created a “special purpose vehicle” […]
There’s a fascinating discussion developing around the question of what the Goldman Sachs $450 or $500 million investment means for a future Facebook IPO. Does it mean it’s around the corner? Alternatively does it do the opposite and delay an IPO a year or more? At the center of the debate is an obscure SEC […]
The news broke yesterday that Facebook was getting a whopping $500 million from Goldman Sachs and existing investor Digital Sky Technologies at a valuation of $50 billion. None of this has been confirmed by the company but it’s being very widely reported. Apparently the Goldman investment will enable the company’s most wealthy clients to “get […]
Groupon has apparently rejected the $5 billion-plus takeover bid by Google, electing to remain independent and probably go public later. AllThingsD is independently reporting that Groupon’s revenues are actually closer to $2 billion than the $500 million previously estimated. I was told several months ago by Groupon President Rob Solomon that the company was on […]
Google is sitting on more than $30 billion in cash so maybe $5 billion isn’t so much in that context. But it seems crazy (capital C) to me for Google to pay that kind of premium for the company — making it by far the largest acquisition in Google’s long history of acquisitions — despite […]
Google’s lost yet another high profile employee, apparently to Facebook. Another sign that Google’s slipping, to some. Perhaps. For me, Google has become the new “California,” stealing that role away from Yahoo. Come along a tale of equity refugees and companies growing up. California: The Former Golden State I’m a California native. I grew up […]
Local search powerhouse Yelp is planning to go public at some point in the future. That’s something that Yelp COO Geoff Donaker confirmed during his keynote conversation today at our SMX East conference in New York City. “We don’t see any reason not to be an independent company for years to come. Will we go […]
Good morning! It’s almost time for day two of SMX East to begin and the plan is to live blog this morning’s keynote conversation between Yelp COO Geoff Donaker and Search Engine Land Executive Editor, Chris Sherman. But first, I’m the master of ceremonies and so I need to run up to the stage and […]
With the Facebook movie’s debut a week away, how about something to keep you entertained while you wait? A book. About that other major internet drama story, Google. The book? “Googled, The End Of The World As We Know It,” by Ken Auletta. Googled came out at the end of last year, and I’ve been […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google AdSense Updates Ad Layouts The Google AdSense blog announced they have updated the layout of some AdSense units. The main changes were to make the ads “more space-efficient and visually […]
Demand Media has filed for an IPO. The company, known as a content farm to some, produces much of its content on sites like eHow and others in direct response to what it determines people are searching for on the web. Its filing shed new light on how much it depends on SEO and Google, […]
Raising Capital During & After The Great Recession Presentations from SMX Advanced Seattle, June 2010 The stock market is up and the banking crisis appears over, but that doesn’t mean that funding from sources like VC, private equity and IPOs is flowing. Intrigued about or considering raising capital? This session is for you. [flv:https://searchengineland.com/video_assets/adv10/ppt/RaisingCapitalDuringRecession.flv 364 […]
Something apparently happened. First TechCruch reported Yelp was going to sell to Google for $500 million or more. There was a frenzy of speculative coverage (including by me) that followed this initial report. The NY Times appeared to independently confirm that Yelp was going to sell. And I spoke to someone (not at Yelp) who […]
In anticipation of a spin off/IPO for AOL, TimeWarner bought back Google’s 5 percent interest in the company for $283 million dollars. Google originally purchased the equity stake in AOL in 2005 to preserve its search relationship with its largest partner and fend of Microsoft, which was seeking a potential deal with or acquisition of […]