Delicious founder and angel investor Joshua Schachter announced he was leaving Google after a year and several months as an engineer there. Schachter and his team sold social bookmarking service Delicious to Yahoo! (then del.icio.us) in 2005 and he remained at Yahoo until mid-2008. He left, apparently, due to dissatisfaction with the direction Yahoo was […]
Silicon Alley Insider is reporting that talks are underway about a possible Yahoo acquisition of the hot local check-in service Foursquare. SAI isn’t naming names, but cites “a source close to bankers involved in Foursquare’s current fundraising efforts,” who says the price tag would be “around $100 million.” A “source close to Yahoo” is quoted […]
Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz says the company’s recent search market share declines are due, in part, to the loss of toolbar deals with HP and Acer computers. She made the comments during a keynote presentation today at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York City. Late last year, Acer dropped Yahoo as […]
There are signs this week that Google is slowly turning YouTube into a legitimate source of revenue, but there are also questions whether that’s happening quickly enough and if the revenue will ever become a profit. Let’s start with an AdAge article that reports YouTube is selling ads on about 9% of its video views […]
Silicon Alley Insider raises a provocative question about Google CEO Eric Schmidt: how much have he and his leadership contributed to the company’s success? Is he smart or the luckiest man in the world? Clearly Schmidt is smart but the article tries to dissect Google M&A activity and results during Schmidt’s tenure to determine whether […]
Silicon Alley Insider reports Yahoo’s search ad share dropped 36% in the fourth quarter of 2008. The numbers come from AdGooroo, that claims Yahoo’s search ad share was 30.4% in September, then dropped in 23.7% in October, then to 20.4% in November and then to 19.4% in December. Meanwhile, Microsoft grew from 12% in October […]
The Yahoo layoffs are underway, and are happening live online. Blogs, news sites, and social sites like Twitter are filled today with live reports about what’s going on inside Yahoo’s offices. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve found. Silicon Alley Insider is posting updated comments from the now ex-Yahooers, who are describing the scene at […]
When Google went public in August, 2004, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin made no secret of the company’s disdain for how the Wall St. system of analyst ratings and recommendations works. They wrote a letter saying they had no interest in trying to manage analysts expectations and keep Wall St. happy on a quarterly […]
Today, the United States is electing a new president, voting on one-third of the seats in the U.S. Senate, and voting on all 435 seats in the House of Representatives. An important election? To say the least! And interest in the election results is higher than many of us “experienced” voters can ever remember. Tonight, […]
Earlier this year, we reported that YouTube said they will be providing live streaming features by the end of 2008. According to a new report at Silicon Alley Insider, YouTube now says they will not be releasing live streaming this year and likely not even next year. A source told Silicon Alley Insider that Google […]
AllThingsD and, picking up on that post, Silicon Alley Insider speculate about potential, forthcoming job cuts at Yahoo to streamline consumer-facing and ad-focused business units.
Google had a strong quarter, given the challenging US and global economic climate. Revenues were basically flat vs. Q1 (+3 percent) but grew 39 percent as compared with the same quarter a year ago. AdSense and paid clicks were down slightly. Google may not be “recession proof,” but it’s moreso than most other online ad […]
Earlier today TechCrunch reported that Yahoo and Microsoft were in acquisition talks again. However, Silicon Alley Insider says that’s incorrect and it’s only about search. But that doesn’t make much sense either given the recent rejection of that very proposal by Yahoo, unless the terms now being discussed are substantially different than before. CNBC says […]
In a bit of irony, Microsoft-owned Avenue A/Razorfish’s search VP Matt Greitzer said that the recently announced Google-Yahoo paid search pact “is going to be good news for advertisers.” Greitzer subsequently qualified (or might have been asked to qualify) his early enthusiasm for the deal by suggesting that it could result in higher prices for […]
Consistent with earlier speculation, Jeff Weiner will be leaving Yahoo and become an “executive in residence” for both Accel Partners and Greylock Partners in the fall (he remains at Yahoo for a transition period). Yahoo President Sue Decker informed the rank and file and tried to maintain confidence in the company (her email via TechCrunch) […]
When the highly anticipated Yahoo-Google paid search deal was announced on Thursday, the fallout and speculation began immediately: would it help Yahoo or was it an act of capitulation to Google? Coming as it did with the formal end of talks with Microsoft, was it a betrayal of Yahoo shareholders? Ironically, insurgent Yahoo stockholder and […]
Today’s Search Biz is a nearly all Google column. Barry wrote about departures at Yahoo and Ask, which were originally part of today’s roundup. So today’s column is mostly culled from a series of interviews in which Google CEO Eric Schmidt opines about a range of topics, from Android-iPhone competition to whether Google has become […]
The question of the day seems to be how low will Yahoo go when the US stock market opens later today. Even I, optimistic about Yahoo’s chances on its own, don’t expect it to rise. But maybe the latest blog spin from Yahoo, along with formal news of a deal with Google, will help slow […]
It’s Monday morning and there are no official statements from either Microsoft or Yahoo on the passage of the Microsoft-imposed three week deadline to respond to its takeover offer. (The deadline passed on Saturday.) The Wall Street Journal has a quick assessment of where things stand. Silicon Alley Insider also posts (picking up on an […]
Silicon Alley Insider reacts to Wall Street Analyst Mark Mahaney’s note that he anticipates Microsoft will raise its bid for Yahoo from $31 to $34 dollars per share. Barring an 11th hour alternative for Yahoo, this should move toward Yahoo’s public position that the original Microsoft bid undervalued the company. It also should please Yahoo’s […]
Many people think that Google is a search engine. That’s true, but it’s only part of a much larger story that Google is developing. Indeed, the company increasingly sees itself as a diversified media buying platform. Already print newspaper ad buying, radio and TV are integrated, to varying degrees, into AdWords. And last Thursday Google’s […]
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., which had previously said it won’t be competing with Microsoft for Yahoo (largely because it doesn’t have that kind of cash), now emerges as a potential “white knight” in Yahoo’s struggle to a) avoid the Microsoft deal entirely, or b) have a credible bargaining chip to raise the bid. Silicon Alley […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Silicon Alley Insider is predicting impending layoffs at AOL and recommending them at Yahoo. Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget says that layoffs would be good for Yahoo and “Demonstrate that CEO Jerry Yang can make the tough, unpopular decisions necessary to get this company humming again.” I think that he’s correct that the pressure on Yahoo […]
Yahoo to Start Internet Program for Technology Investors from the New York Times reports Yahoo is going to launch a new technology finance portal named TechTicker next month. The portal will focus exclusively on technology companies and stocks. Brian Nelson, Yahoo spokesperson, said the portal would offer daily streaming-video segments, blog posts, and live coverage […]
For those just joining us, Facebook was overly aggressive with its Beacon tracking program, one of several new ad programs launched in early November. Beacon required users to opt-out or have their activity and transactions on Facebook partner sites broadcast to their networks back on Facebook. Discovering this, many people were frustrated and upset by […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Gary Price reports that LookSmart has sold off FindArticles to CNET Networks for $20.5 million. LookSmart published a press release that details the sale is in cash, not in stock. Neil Ashe, CEO of CNET Networks, said:
First reported by Silicon Alley Insider and then confirmed with additional detail by TechCrunch, Google has added more high-profile partners to its OpenSocial initiative. They are MySpace, Bebo, and SixApart, which now join LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Friendster, among several others, in the alliance or coalition.
Propelled by strong quarterly earnings and rampant speculation (and coverage) about its mobile plans, Google stock earlier today crossed the $700 price target many Wall Street analysts had set for the company. It’s down slightly right now. Once Google provides more visibility about its mobile plans, investors could become more bullish or potentially be disappointed. […]
While Google events are a known entity for those in the search crowd, the rest of the world is now getting a taste. In an effort to craft more targeted events, parties now focus on a single vertical. From a sales perspective, this most certainly makes sense. However, the recent “Press Party” held on October […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Henry Blodget’s Silicon Alley Insider has some interesting data and analysis (Q2 2006 vs. 2007) that shows how Internet media are gaining at the expense of traditional media: TV, newspapers and radio in particular. Among traditional media, only outdoor grew in Q2. Everyone knows this intuitively and anecdotally but Blogdet breaks out some numbers. In […]