16 October 2008 - SEO Tops Recession Marketing Tactics
Let’s face it, we’re experiencing more than interesting economic times. A recent marketing tactics poll asked; What 3 internet marketing tactics will you emphasize most in the next 6 months? The results revealed that the top answer was Search Engine Optimisation.
Here are the results of the poll:
* Search engine optimization (36%)
* Blogging (33%)
* Pay per click (26%)
* Email marketing (22%)
* Social networking (21%)
* Blogger relations/blog PR (14%)
* Microblogging (11%)
* Affiliate marketing (11%)
* Advertorial (10%)
* Video marketing (7%)
Search engine optimization, blogging and PPC taking the top 3 spots shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.
What do these poll results mean? Firstly, SEO has achieved a comfort level for most marketers. Contrary to some mainstream media characterizations, search engine optimization is a high impact, high value tactic for reaching customers online. Actually, search is about customers reaching/seeking companies, not the other way around. With SEO, it isn’t a matter of “Should we?” it’s a matter of, “What’s stopping you?”.
21 August 2008 - Online Shopping Traffic Remains Strong
Given the current economic climate, price sensitivity is driving more visits to the websites of online retailers, coupons, and comparison shopping tools as shoppers increasingly research potential purchases online. Overall, the market share of visits increased 19% in July 2008 as compared to the previous year.
Overall, the Shopping & Classifieds category received 25% of traffic referred from search. While the number may seem low, keep in mind that many of the product categories received a higher share of traffic from search while the Auctions & Classifieds are less reliant upon search (15% and 14%) but represent nearly 35% of the visits within the Shopping & Classifieds category.
16 June 2008 - Google Users Spend Big Online
It's hard to gauge in the larger context of search share, 70% of the US market would imply a pretty diverse set of users, but data released by Hitwise today shows Google users tend to be bigger spenders.
When compared to Yahoo users, Google appearss to attract more of society's upper crust. Either that or the portion of the upper crust spending large amounts of money online just happen to use Google.
Chart by HitwiseHeather Hopkins' chart (above) puts Yahoo and Google on opposing axes and divides American society into twelve distinct tribes, it shows "Affluent Suburbia," "Upscale America," "Small-town Contentment" all of which are most likely to have spent $500 online, clearly on the Google side of the lines.
The highest concentration of Yahooers spending that kind of money online are soundly in the "Struggling Societies," "Urban Essences," and "Blue-collar Backbone" segments, alongside big-spending "Aspiring Contemporaries," who are made up of yuppies and dual income no kids couples. The data also indicates Yahoo users tend to skew younger.
14 May 2008 - Microsoft Withdraws Bid for Yahoo
The build up had all the atmosphere of one of boxing’s bigger bouts. But three months after Microsoft laid down the challenge, it elected to walk away from its takeover bout for Yahoo!. On Saturday May 3rd the software giant laid down its gloves, despite expectations of a hostile contest. One last attempt to improve the deal had failed. Microsoft said that it had raised its $44.6 billion bid by $5 billion, but that as Yahoo! was holding out for a bigger purse it would walk away. Failing to buy Yahoo! leaves Microsoft well short in its bid to go after the ultimate champion of the internet: Google.
Microsoft and Yahoo! are a distant second and third in the lucrative business of web search and related advertising. The idea of combining was to challenge the clear leader, Google. Microsoft wanted Yahoo! in order to add critical mass to Microsoft's own advertising platform, to make it more competitive. But Yahoo! was not keen to join the effort to become an advertising counterweight to Google. Jerry Yang, Yahoo!’s founder, had no wish to see the company he created swallowed up by Microsoft. Last year, in an effort to revive his former giant of the web, he resumed his role as chief executive and from that position tried to ward off an offer that he reckoned “substantially undervalues” the company.
These efforts set off a string of shifting alliances, rumour, claim and counterclaim that offered a variety of permutations of tie-ups between big internet firms. Yahoo! has been aiming to compete with Google for years, but without success. Under assault from Microsoft, Yahoo! has hinted that it might give up and, in effect, piggy-back on Google's superiority in order to boost its own profits and persuade shareholders not to sell to Microsoft. Yahoo! ran a limited trial in which it allowed Google to place text advertisements on Yahoo!'s search pages in America. Rumours circulate still that it wants to extend this arrangement. Moreover, other rumours suggest that Yahoo! has been discussing a merger with Time Warner’s internet arm, AOL.
As Yahoo! threw up its defences, Microsoft also became the subject of rumours. One suggested that Microsoft might team up with News Corporation, an old-media heavyweight controlled by Rupert Murdoch, a wily new-media operator too. The pair were said to be considering a joint bid for Yahoo!. Yet previously Mr Murdoch had been mooted as a “white knight” to save Yahoo! from Microsoft’s clutches. He, probably wisely, decided to avoid involvement in a bidding war against an opponent with deep-pockets.
In the end Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said that Yahoo!’s determination to pursue closer ties with Google, even as takeover talks progressed, were reason enough to drop the takeover offer. For its part Yahoo! reckoned that the prospects of closer advertising ties with Google justified a much higher price than Microsoft was prepared to pay. Mr Ballmer said Microsoft was reluctant to launch a hostile bid as the firm was unwilling to get involved in a protracted fight for the support of Yahoo!’s shareholders. There was also concern that that Yahoo! might make matters more difficult in the meantime: it has already introduced some “poison pills” including an expensive buyout for any worker sacked by a buyer.
Microsoft has lost out and may now look elsewhere to take the fight to Google. Yet there are few obvious targets that would give it the boost that Yahoo! offers, although AOL is a possibility. Yahoo!’s shareholders also stand to lose heavily. Shareholders may not take kindly to a boss who has turned down a fair offer for the company—although Microsoft may yet return to the fray and bid for Yahoo! at a later date. Amid all the dissatisfaction that the fight did not reach a conclusion one winner stands out. Google still has no worthy competitor to challenge for its title as heavyweight champion of the internet.
12 February 2008 - Microsoft vows to press Yahoo takeover bid
Yahoo has formally rejected Microsoft's unsolicited $US44.6 billion offer, saying it "substantially undervalues" Yahoo, but left the door open for further negotiations.
Microsoft reiterated it's takeover bid to Yahoo, claiming the offer was "full and fair" after Yahoo's board of directors rejected Microsoft's buyout offer. Yahoo said the bid was too low and not in the best interests of company shareholders.
"It is unfortunate that Yahoo has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies," Microsoft said.
Microsoft said its offer represented "superior value" to Yahoo shareholders and would establish an "exciting" set of solutions for potential customers.
Microsoft said a tie up between the two firms would also position Yahoo to compete better in the online services marketplace. "The Yahoo response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal," Microsoft said.
"As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo's shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realise the value inherent in our proposal," the software titan said.
01 August 2007 - Abacus Rent IT sign on with WCR.
WCR Internet Marketing is proudly providing internet marketing services to Abacus Rent IT to increase their presence online and improve sales. Abacus Rent IT is an Australian based computer rental company offering IT hire, computer rental, office equipment rental and much more.
21 May 2007 - WCR Looking for Staff.
Having established itself in new offices with room to grow, WCR is expand its staff.
Web Marketing Consultant
WCR Internet Marketing requires someone who is confident, ambitious, reliable and prepared to show plenty initiative when the time is right. Must be comfortable with new technologies and have some solid HTML/XML knowledge. The position requires some sales experience in any field. Duties will include preparation of keyword research and website analysis reports and proposals, and some sales administration. The Preference may be given to those that have some relevant tertiary or professional education in marketing, computing or ecommerce, although this is not a requirement of application.
Expert training in the Search Engine Marketing industry will be provided while on the job.
22 November 2006 - WCR Looking for Staff and Growth.
Having firmly established itself in the specialist Internet marketing marketplace in 2006, WCR is now looking to relocate its office and expand its staff.
Office Manager
WCR Internet Marketing requires someone who is well disciplined, can organise and multi-task and take control of a small team to allow the business founder to get out to his customers and communicate the good news that the Internet can deliver. Some supervisory experience in business is essential and some HTML/XML knowledge would be well regarded. Preference may be given to those that have some relevant tertiary or professional education in marketing, computing or ecommerce, although this is not a requirement of application.
The applicant must possess an eye for detail and willingness to listen and learn. Expert training in the Search Engine Marketing industry will be provided while on the job.
Web Marketing Sales Consultant
WCR Internet Marketing requires someone who is confident, ambitious, reliable and prepared to show plenty initiative when the time is right. Must be comfortable with new technologies and have some solid HTML/XML knowledge. The position requires some sales experience in any field. Duties will include preparation of proposals, follow up and sales administration. The Preference may be given to those that have some relevant tertiary or professional education in marketing, computing or ecommerce, although this is not a requirement of application.
Expert training in the Search Engine Marketing industry will be provided while on the job.
Work Experience Jobs - Uni Summer Break
WCR Internet Marketing is happy to offer work experience in keyword research and analysis and in link reputation building to ecommerce and marketing students in Perth.
12 October 2006 - Why Google’s YouTube bet will pay off bigtime
Google's acquisition of YouTube for $1.65bn stunned many in Silicon Valley.
Some thought it was way too much to pay for a startup with hardly anything in revenues and it indicates a bubble mentality.
While others took it as good news because it would boost the valuation of other startups in the same or related markets.
Those opinions would be true if this was 1999, but it's not. In 1999 we didn't have these massive computing platforms, such as Google, Yahoo, AOL, EBay, Amazon, etc.
One way to look at this deal is to say that YouTube acquired the most efficient and powerful computing platform on the planet. GOOG can offer YouTube instant economies of scale that would have taken it years to build.
In addition, Google has a business model that can monetize YouTube much better, and more quickly than anybody else. If YouTube had an IPO today, it would take it a long time to become a large thriving business, fighting off many similar competitors along the way.
GOOG can monetize YouTube far better and far more quickly than anybody else. Therefore YouTube's valuation is likely on the low side considering the revenues Google can make from this acquisition.
This also means that the valuations of similar businesses are not boosted by this deal, because suddenly, there is an 8,000 lb gorilla in the room. And it is taking all the oxygen out of the room.
In 1999, the Internet was still a level playing field, all the big Internet players were still relatively small, you could build competing businesses and take on the leaders and win. In 2006 this is not the case.
So what if you have a better search technology today? Google can monetize it better than you can, you would partner with it or sell out to it.
What the Google/YouTube deal represents is the bet that scale on the Internet will win every time. That if you can aggregate the largest number of users, the largest number of applications, the largest number of advertisers, you will win each time.
And today, there really is no "rule of three" in the market, the notion that the "big three" as in car makers, and in other industries, become the dominant monetizers and everyone else grabs the scraps.
The Internet is all about scale, where scale is rewarded. There is no reason for anyone but the largest, most efficient Internet company to dominate Internet markets.
Google is essentially building a proprietary Internet with efficiencies that the current Internet cannot hope to match. The Internet is a patchwork quilt of old and new systems and networks.
The "GooGnet" is a modern network made from the most cost efficient and effective systems and networks ever built.
Google's engineers are already influencing and changing the architecture of computer systems at Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard, of microprocessor designs at Intel, and influencing similar developments at hundreds of other companies.
Google is spending hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter and it will soon become the world's largest computer systems buyer as it builds out its platform.
And the more the GooGnet is loaded with massive applications such as YouTube, the faster Google can scale and dominate.
Over time, there will not be a number two, or a number three competitor in Google's markets. There will be many small companies living off the margins, in niche markets - making decent livings but nothing blockbuster.
That's why Google has its motto - "Do no evil" because with such scale it could do tremendous harm.
But will it be doing good? It doesn't need to "do" anything, it will be essentially neutral, just as the Internet itself is a neutral entity in any ethical and moral sense.
- - -So what about things like copyright problems on YouTube? It's not a problem because Google will sort it out in the same way its news aggregator Google News sorts it out: if you don't want to be in Google News, tell the company and it will remove you. And it will also remove any traffic that Google is sending to you.
With Google News, the news sites have become dependent on nearly half of their traffic coming from Google. It has become a distribution platform for them and they could not survive without it.
That's what will happen with "YouTube powered by Google," it becomes the distribution platform for the emerging world of IP TV.
I had an interesting chat recently with William Jolitz, a Silicon Valley veteran about this topic. He notes that it costs about $1 per minute to deliver TV content to a viewer as compared with 5 cents per minute via a service such as YouTube.
Those are powerful numbers, a 20 to 1 cost advantage is huge. It's a huge competitive advantage. And Mr Jolitz knows the value of a broadband driven business model, see: "The Google Test" on VentureBeat.
Source: ZDNet.com
19 September 2006 - Closed Captioning Hits Google Video
Google has begun providing closed captions for selected videos in its Google Video database, WCR Internet Marketing has learned.
The service went live last night, a Google spokesperson confirmed.
The videos with close captioning range from content produced by Nova to user-created media, typical to Web 2.0's video platforms.
Now the hearing impaired can enjoy the intricacies of such titles as "motocross crash at greenvalleys extreme park."
The measure to increase accessibility to Google content comes a little more than a month after the company announced Google Accessible Search, a way for the visually impaired to find Web sites friendly to their needs.
But the service could also provide Google some differentiation from rivals amid an explosion of video over the Web, not to mention user-generated video sites.
Market leader YouTube has spent the last sixth months fending off copyright suits and adding produced content through partnerships with traditional media outlets such as NBC and Warner Music Group.
Even today, Microsoft announced its own entrant into the space with its Soapbox, an addendum to their MSN Video product.
YouTube leads the user-generated video market, with greater market share than MySpace, Google, and Yahoo as of August 16, according to Hitwise market research.
Meta-search engines such as Pixsey.com and AOL's video crawl the Internet to bring all its burgeoning content together. But video search remains difficult because unlike Web search, there typically isn’t any text for crawlers to recognize.
Source: Internetnews.com
19 July 2006 - Google Brings Click-to-Play Video Ads to Worldwide Advertisers
Continuing to offer advertisers around the world new ways to reach their target customers, Google today made its click-to-play video ad format available for advertisers worldwide. Advertisers globally can now run this new format on the Google content network, giving them a rich, immersive way to communicate with target customers.
To protect the user experience, click-to-play video ads are user-initiated, so that the quality of the user experience is preserved. As a result, advertisers get more engaged users and qualified leads. Click-to-play video ads can be targeted to specific sites or contextually. Both targeting models support a geographical targeting overlay, up to the city level. Pricing for click-to-play video ads can be either cost-per-impression or cost-per-click. Video ads compete in the ad auction with other text, image and flash ads for placement on a site.
Using this format is easy. An advertiser simply uploads a video file – up to two minutes long – and Google does the rest. Click-to-play video ads will automatically appear on sites within the Google content network that allow image ads. There are no hosting or serving fees, making click-to-play video ads accessible to both large and small advertisers and providing brand advertisers with a richer and more engaging format to communicate their messages. Users who want to view the ads press "play" on the control bar at the bottom of the window to start the video. Advertisers will be able to measure the effectiveness of their video ads by tracking video play-back rates, click-through rates to their destination site, as well as how long users interact with the video.
For further information, please go to: https://adwords.google.com.au/select/videoads.html.
Source: http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/press/pressrel/videoads.html
Source: Google.com.au
22 May 2006 - WCR Looking for Staff and Growth.
Having firmly established itself in the specialist Innternet marketing marketplace in 2005/6, WCR is now looking to hire and train more specialist SEM staff.
Search Engine Marketing Consultant
WCR Internet Marketing requires someone with marketing or business experience and some html knowledge or web development skills. Preference may be given to those that have some relevant tertiary or professional education in marketing, computing or ecommerce, although this is not a requirement of application.
The applicant must possess an eye for detail and willingness to listen and learn. Extensive expert training in the Search Engine Marketing industry will be provided.
4 Jan 2006: Google in Home Network Play?
Google in Home Network Play?
By Susan Kuchinskas
Google founder Larry Page will deliver a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show -- and the rumor mill says the search goliath may get into the hardware business.
But a $200, Windows-free Google PC is not in the works, according to the person who started the rumors.
The feverish speculation is based not only on Page's appearance, but on an "I, Cringely" column that appeared on PBS.org.
Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of Mark Stephens, a technology journalist, author and consultant.
According to his Nov. 24, 2005 column, "This embedded device, for which I am afraid I have no name, is a small box covered with many types of ports -- USB, RJ-45, RJ-11, analog and digital video, S-video, analog and optical sound, etc. Additional I/O that can't be seen is WiFi and Bluetooth.
"This little box is Google's interface to every computer, TV, and stereo system in your home, as well as linking to home automation and climate control. The cubes are networked together wirelessly in a mesh network, so only one need be attached to your broadband modem or router."
Equity research firm Bear Stearns ran with the information in a research note dated Dec. 19. Crediting Cringely, Bear Stearns analysts summarized his thoughts, adding, "The cubes would be designed to be as 'dumb' as possible (which is the whole point of making the network the computer), and Google would probably subsidize them."
Next, Los Angeles Times staff writer Sallie Hofmeister threw gasoline on the fire with a "predictions for 2006" column quoting unnamed sources saying Google was in negotiations with Wal-Mart Stores to sell a Google PC.
"The machine would run an operating system created by Google, not Microsoft's Windows, which is one reason it would be so cheap -- perhaps as little as a couple of hundred dollars," she wrote.
Cringely told internetnews.com that his theory was based on conversations with companies other than Google.
"I know where Google has been looking and who've they've been talking to," he said.
But Cringely doubted Google would introduce the cube at CES, let alone a dirt-cheap computer. "That would be insane," he said. "They can't afford to pull down their gross margins that much. They're in the software and service business."
The Google Cube will be an embedded device that can act as a home Internet gateway, Cringely said. "But the value of it comes when you have more than one, because they'll communicate with each other wirelessly or wired."
He said the cube would solve the problem of how to get downloaded video from the PC to the television, without buying a $2,000 Windows Media Center or a $500 Macintosh Mini.
Cringely wouldn't discuss his ideas for the business model the cube would enable, saving them for a future column. But he said the Google Cube would handle digital rights management.
One potential business would be pay-per-view audio and video, with media accessed through Google search and paid for via Google Payments. Last July, Google CEO Eric Schmidt confirmed that the company was moving forward on a new payment system "to solve new problems in ecommerce."
In November, research firm Classified Intelligence dug up a patent application for Google Automat that included screen shots of a form for Google Purchases.
The firm speculated that Google Purchases could be used as the payment mechanism for consumer-to-business online transactions.
Combine Google Cube with the DRM system that Google hopes to patent, and you have a brand-new revenue stream that could be shared with media publishers.
The patent covers pay-per-view and subscription-based access to media. It also discusses swapping out ads in reproductions of print media delivered via search.
Google users could search for video, pay for it and download it. Then, Google Cube would transport it the last foot -- from PC to TV.
Source: Internetnews.com
30 Dec 2005: The View on Vista
Microsoft has confirmed -- over and over -- that it will ship Windows Vista, its next-generation operating system, in the second half of 2006. To some, that means no later than December 31; No one is holding their breath.
Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox said that Microsoft has missed the, um, window through which to get partners on board to ship. He points out that OEMs and ISVs needed information about SKUs last summer.
Meanwhile, analyst firm Directions on Microsoft said that one of Redmond's biggest challenges would be convincing enterprise customers that Vista, and Office 12, which will follow, are must-haves.
Even as Microsoft readies the new era of collaborative computing, in which the rich client connects to the smart server to run applications that can share XML data, it will continue its new direction: Windows and Office Live. Ad-supported, Web-based applications for e-mail, spreadsheets, Web design and corporate messaging will move Microsoft into the sexy on-demand category.
Source: Internetnews.com
30 Dec 2005: Browser Wars II
And you thought it was all over with the crushing defeat of Netscape at the hands of Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) in the 90s.
Despite IE's continued world dominance in market share, expect to see a lot of renewed competition in the browser industry. (Ever expect to see the words "competition" and "browser" in the same sentence again?).
The three mainstream Windows-based browsers -- IE, Firefox and Opera -- are all coming out with major upgrades in 2006: Firefox 2.0, code-named The Ocho; IE 7; and Opera 9, code-named Merlin.
And while UI improvements and new widgets in the browsers will certainly get an excited giggle out of technophiles, it's the stuff running under the hood that will bring the biggest changes to the way Internet surfers view Web pages.
For years, Web development has been stymied by the lowest common denominator in browser development, namely IE. While Firefox and Opera have a growing number of Web standards in its code, which allows developers to create more dynamic and interactive Web pages, most of the world still uses IE. Microsoft's browser has been idling somewhat since the launch of IE 6 in 2001 (Windows XP SP2 doesn't count, it was mainly a security update).
Expect to see Web pages next year that take advantage of some of the Web standards getting incorporated into the browser: notably in HTML, full support for CSS1 and pieces of CSS2.
Opera's CEO Jon von Tetzchner said the Web standards inclusions in the next upgrade by his company, the Mozilla Foundation and Microsoft are good for everyone and creates some welcome competition. Opera 9 will support XSLT 1.0, XPath 1.0, Web Forms 2.0, Web Apps 1.0 and others.
"All of this is going to be pushing the limits of what you can do with browsers, and it's hotter than it has been for quite some time," he said. "Obviously, Microsoft hasn't done too much in the past six, seven years, so them coming with a new browser is excellent news."
Source: Internetnews.com
7 September 2005 - Microsoft's chief executive vowed to "kill Google"
Microsoft's chief executive vowed to "kill Google" in an expletive-laden tirade against the firm, according to US court documents filed by Google.
The claim was made in a sworn statement by Mark Lucovsky, a former Microsoft employee who quit for Google in 2004. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer has denied the claims, saying they are a "gross exaggeration of what actually took place".
The statement is the latest salvo in a bitter legal battle between the firms. In his sworn statement, Mr Lucovsky - a key Windows architect - alleged that Mr Ballmer hurled a chair across the room when he informed him he was moving to Google, before launching into an abusive tirade against Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt.
However, Mr Ballmer has dismissed the claims. "Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterisation of that meeting is not accurate," he said in a statement.
Bitter row
The row between the two firms was triggered when one of Microsoft's vice presidents, Dr Kai-Fu Lee, was hired by Google to set up a research centre in China. Microsoft claimed the move was a violation of a one-year non-compete clause in his contract and began legal action against the search engine giant.
However, Google has retaliated by claiming that Microsoft's action is a form of intimidation designed to eliminate the threat of a fast-growing rival.
The group has been moving further into the software arena - most recently with the launch of Talk, a service which lets e-mail account holders talk to each other via a PC, microphone and speakers. The system is a direct threat to online voice and instant messaging service providers such as Skype, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Microsoft won the first round of the increasingly bitter battle between the two firms in July, when a King County Superior Court judge issued a temporary order barring Mr Lee from carrying out the duties he had been hired to do for Google.
The two sides will face each other in court again on Tuesday when Microsoft will ask a court to extend that order until the matter comes to trial in January.Source: Entireweb.com
5 August 2005 - Chinese Search Engine Baidu Quadruples Stock Price In IPO
The IPO made one of the biggest gains since the dotcom era. Baidu claims to be the sixth most-visited web site in the world and the second in China.
Search engine Baidu.com, widely viewed as Google Inc.'s equivalent in China, more than quadrupled its stock price Friday in its debut on the Nasdaq Stock Market, making it one of the most successful initial public offerings since the dot-com era. The Chinese company's stock price soared from an opening of $27 to close at $122.54 at 4 p.m. EDT. The IPO raised a total of $109.1 million, with $86.6 million going to Baidu.
With search among the hottest Internet markets today, the Baidu offering generated immense interest on Wall Street. Based in Beijing, the company is seen as a competitor in the growing Chinese market against Google, Yahoo Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and others.
The IPO recorded one of the biggest first day gains since the dot-com era.
Despite its success, Baidu is substantially smaller than its biggest rivals. In addition, the company is facing copyright infringement lawsuits filed by two Chinese firms. The suits stem from allegedly letting users make unauthorized downloads of music and a Chinese film.
Baidu claims to be the sixth most-visited web site in the world and the second in China.
28 July 2005 - Google claims Microsoft's lawsuit is a 'charade'
In a simmering legal tussle, Google, the Internet search company, is asking a judge to reject Microsoft's bid to keep a prized research engineer from taking a job at Google, saying that Microsoft filed a lawsuit to frighten other workers from defecting. Microsoft sued the research engineer, Kai-Fu Lee, and Google last week, asserting that by taking the Google job, Lee was violating an agreement that he signed in 2000 barring him from working for a direct competitor in an area that overlapped with his role at Microsoft. "This lawsuit is a charade," Google said in court documents filed before a hearing on Wednesday in Seattle. "Indeed, Microsoft executives admitted to Lee that their real intent was to scare other Microsoft employees into remaining at the company."
Google countersued last week, seeking to override Microsoft's noncompete provision so that it can retain Lee. "In truth, Kai-Fu Lee's work for Microsoft had only the most tangential connection to search and no connection whatsoever to Google's work in this space," Google said in court documents. The judge in the case, Steven Gonzalez of Superior Court, who heard arguments in the case on Wednesday, said he expected to issue a ruling on Thursday. Google's filings include details about a conversation Lee had with Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, suggesting that his company was becoming increasingly concerned about Google's siphoning of talent, and perhaps intellectual property. Lee said Gates told him in a meeting on July 15, referring to Microsoft's chief executive, Steven Ballmer: "Kai-Fu, Steve is definitely going to sue you and Google over this. He has been looking for something like this, someone at a VP level to go to Google. We need to do this to stop Google." A Microsoft spokeswoman, Stacy Drake, declined to comment on Gates's statement directly. "Our concern here is the fact that Dr. Lee has knowledge of highly sensitive information both of our search business and our strategy in China," she said. Lee said Google did not recruit him and had not encouraged him to violate any agreement he had with Microsoft. Microsoft countered that Lee's job with Google gave him ample opportunity to leak sensitive technical and strategic business secrets. Microsoft noted that Lee attended a confidential, executive-only briefing in March, which was labeled "The Google Challenge." "In short, Dr. Lee was recently handed Microsoft's entire Google competition 'playbook,"' Microsoft said. Lee joined Microsoft in August 2000 after he helped to establish its research center in China. At one point, Microsoft said, he was in charge of the company's work on MSN Search. Microsoft and Google, along with Yahoo, are locked in a fierce battle to dominate search, both online and through desktop search programs. Google has begun offering new services, including e-mail, that compete with Microsoft offerings.
Microsoft said it had paid Lee well in exchange for his promises to honor confidentiality and noncompete agreements. The company said that Lee made more than $3 million during nearly five years at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, and that he earned more than $1 million last year. Microsoft asserts that there is "an extremely close between the work Lee did at Microsoft and what he will be doing at Google." Google argued otherwise, insisting that Lee is not a search expert and noting that his most recent work at Microsoft was in speech recognition.
Source: Entireweb.com
9 June 2005 - Google Declared Most Valuable Media Company in the World
Google took over the top spot as the most highly valued media company this week, surpassing Time Warner in just 10 months of trading as a public company.
Google's share price on the Nasdaq rose another $US2.18, or 0.75 per cent, to close at $US293.12 on Tuesday, an all-time high. US stock market analysts have suggested the stock could go as high as $US325 or $US350 a share. With a current stock market capitalisation of more than $US80 billion, Google is now worth more than any other media company in the world. That includes Time Warner, created five years ago when AOL purchased Time Warner for $US106 billion in a much-hyped combination of old and new media. But Time Warner's share price has deteriorated since the dot.com bubble burst - its market capitalisation on Tuesday stood at $US78.1 billion and investors view Google as the hot Internet and media company these days.
Other, more traditional, media companies trail Google's stock market worth by even more. Viacom and Walt Disney for instance, hold stock market capitalisation of between $US54 billion and $US55 billion. Even Yahoo, seen as one big Internet media competitor, carries a market value some $US27 billion less than that of Google. This all comes just 10 months after Google debuted in an initial public offering last August, priced at $US85 a share. It has led to some concerns that the company may be overvalued, a throwback to the hype of the dot.com era.
Google's sales last year, for instance, totalled just $US3.2 billion while Time Warner's stood at $US42 billion. California-based Google is trading at a sharply higher multiple than any other media company except Yahoo. Google shares now trade at 50 times the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Reuters Estimate of earnings in 2005. Compare that with Time Warner, which trades at 22 times earnings, Disney, which trades at 21 times earnings, or Viacom, which trades at 19 times earnings.
Source: Reuters, ABC News Online
5 June 2005 - Internet Advertising Boom!
This week the big broking house Goldman Sachs declared that 2005 would be the "breakout year" for online advertising. And while that survey predicted an increase of around 30 per cent in the United States online market this year, that's only half the explosive growth in revenue being recorded in Australia.
It's amazing that it's taken this long for marketers to wake up and go, Around 15 per cent of consumers' time is being spent on the Internet and yet we barely have 4 per cent of marketing dollars being spent there, so the catch-up between those two forces is what's driving the growth in online advertising.
The Australian online advertising market grew 64 per cent last year. It generated $388 million in sales, more than cinema and outdoor advertising combined!
In Australia, close to 11 million people now have internet access, and perform 500 to 600 million online searches every month. "From an advertising perspective", says James Packer, "the debate is no longer about whether the Internet works as an advertising medium, but rather how to get the most out of it."
Source: Inside Business, ABC News Online
1 May 2005 - WCR Looking for Staff and Growth.
Having firmly established itself in the specialist internet marketing marketplace in 2004, WCR is now looking to take the business to the next level with a senior appointment.
Business Development Manager
WCR Internet Marketing requires someone with marketing or business experience and some html knowledge or web design skills. Preference will be given to those that have some relevant tertiary or professional education in marketing or ecommerce.
The applicant must possess an entrepreneurial spirit, an ability to prepare marketing proposals for prospects and a motivation to provide exceptional customer service. Expert training in the Search Engine Marketing industry will be provided by the owner.
PS: we are pleased to announce that an appointment has since been made.
13 July 2004 - Sensis launches new Australian Search Engine.
Sensis Pty Ltd today launched its hotly awaited search engine, sensis.com.au, to create a global benchmark in commercial search by providing fully blended search results across local proprietary and global internet content. Unlike traditional search engines, sensis.com.au allows everyday Australians to conduct both general information and specific local searches that can deliver deep information like opening hours, maps and directions.
Mr Greg Ellis, General Manager – Sensis Search said: "With the launch of sensis.com.au, we have created a new paradigm for internet search – search is about being able to provide local and international results that are both relevant and of high quality. It is not about technology and it's not about volume or providing thousands of irrelevant results. After all, who wants 10,000 irrelevant results when you can receive 20 or so highly relevant results that meet your precise needs? What we have done with sensis.com.au is create a new benchmark for internet search against which future search engines will need to be compared."
Official Sensis Search Media Release: http://www.about.sensis.com.au/media/pdf/sensiscomauinfo.pdfThe launch this week of its own internet search engine sensis.com.au, incorporating the company's existing online content, has been accompanied by a high profile advertising campaign to attract the attention of Australian internet users likely more familiar with web mammoths Google and Yahoo. Telstra said its search engine can offer better targeted results.
18 May 2004 - global tourism marketing campaign
Federal tourism minister Joe Hockey today unveiled a new $360 million global tourism marketing campaign featuring the tagline ‘Australia. A different light’.
The Australian Tourist Commission’s latest marketing initiative includes a series of new television commercials featuring personalities such as Delta Goodrem, commentator and cricketing legend Richie Benaud, poet Les Murray, artists Barbara Weir and Brett Whiteley, and media identity Jono Coleman. Author DH Lawrence and English broadcaster Michael Parkinson also feature in the commercials.
This diverse group of personalities tell their stories through food and wine, literature, music, poetry and painting.
The slogan for the international campaign "Australia - a different light", attempts to entice the viewer to see Australia in a different way and to promote or acknowledgement the unique quality of Australian light.
Australians will also get to see the ads, with the bulk of them to be aired locally.
The new Brand Australia is a major shift away from traditional tourism marketing and attempts to differentiate Australia from its competitors. It will be interesting to see in the months and years ahead, to what extend these tv commercial will influence viewers to search the Internet for further information or indirectly colour the language of both searchers (keyword phrases) and tourism providers (website content).
As always, WCR will follow the click stream, so as to be ahead of the major trends for the benefit of its tourism clients.
18 Feb. 2004 - Google adds 1 billion Pages to Search and Farewells Yahoo!
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Google Inc. and Yahoo! Inc. are revving up their online search engines as the once-friendly business partners shift gears and prepare for what promises to be a fierce rivalry.
Google unveiled an even more powerful version of its leading search engine with the addition of 1 billion additional pages to its Web index, increasing its breadth by about one-third. Google's engine, the most popular on the Web, now spans 4.28 billion Web pages, up from 3.3 billion pages earlier this week.
By rolling out its expanded search engine early Tuesday, Google stole some thunder from Yahoo, which announced Wednesday that it's ready to run its search engine without Google's help."
Article from CNN http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/02/18/google.expands.ap/.
12 Feb. 2004 - Interactive Ad Revenue Sets Record With Best Quarter Ever.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced that online advertising revenue in the United States for Q4 2003 totaled an estimated $2.2 billion, with revenues for the year 2003 estimated at $7.2 billion.
Greg Stuart, President & CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau said: "Our medium is such that we should expect this positive performance. Based on sound business principles the industry has grown up and become a great competitive advantage for those marketers who have been paying attention. Not exactly a secret weapon any longer, our medium continues to lead where others have fallen off, and smart marketers know it, and are shifting dollars and gaining share."
Article from IAB http://www.iab.net/news/pr_2004_2_12.asp.
7 Jan. 2004 - White Chalk Road launches their new Web site.
White Chalk Road launches www.wcr-internet-marketing.com.au to reflect its commitment to specialist Internet Marketing Services. "We make available our 5-Point Internet Marketing Plan online for the first time. The Web site will be in a development stage over the Christmas period, and will go live in the new year."
2003 - Yahoo! AND Inktomi Announce Completion of Acquisition
Sunnyvale & Foster City, CA -- March 19, 2003 -- Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), a leading global Internet company, and Inktomi Corp. (Nasdaq: INKT), a leading Web search provider, today announced the completion of Yahoo!'s acquisition of Inktomi.
"Bringing together a powerful combination of Yahoo!'s global audience and unmatched breadth and depth of services with Inktomi's leading search technology, will allow us to create one of the most relevant, comprehensive and highest quality search offerings on the Web for both our affiliate partners and Yahoo!," said Terry Semel, Yahoo! chairman and CEO.
"The acquisition enables Yahoo! to integrate Inktomi's world-class technology throughout the network as well as offer more value to consumers and businesses through programs such as paid inclusion, which provide higher-quality commercial search results," Semel added.
"We are very excited about gaining direct access to the end-product so that we can continue to improve and innovate Yahoo!'s leading search platform based on a clear understanding of consumer needs," said Vishal Makhijani, Inktomi vice president and general manager of Web search. "Results of a recent consumer blind test we conducted have already shown that Inktomi's search relevancy rates among the highest in the industry."
2003 - Online Ad Industry Experiencing Another Growth Spurt
The Interactive Ad Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers are reporting the third consecutive quarter of growth for the online advertising market.
Revenues for the first half of 2003 reached $3.29 billion vs. $2.97 billion for the first half of 2002 -- a 10.5% increase.
As can be expected, pay-for-performance search advertising is leading the growth, now accounting for 31% of all online ad revenues. With a credit card and just $50, anyone can launch an online ad campaign on Google or Overture -- and hundreds of thousands have. Google alone has about 150,000 active advertisers and Overture reported 95,000 active clients in June 2003, each paying an adverage of 40 cents per clickthrough.