February 3, 2008

Microsoft-Yahoo: All About Search, Not E-mail Assets

Tim O'Reilly views Microsoft-Yahoo as a Web 2.0 play with the combined company dominating free (Web 1.0) online e-mail services. In a great post generating lots of buzz, he cites Hitwise data showing Yahoo Mail / Yahoo! Address Book at 58 percent of market share (#1) and Windows Live Mail (#2) at 25.5 percent share (not including AOL).

Tim argues the combined personal and private data from e-mail applications would clear the way for developers to create more powerful Web 2.0 apps and an Open ID system. True. Data assets built on networks can be monetized.

Web 2.0, though, has largely been sustained by next-gen "made-for-adsense" online ad-supported business models, developer sweat equity, and the promise of a Google/Yahoo/Microsoft acquisition exit strategy.

O'Reilly thinks Microsoft would be making a "fatal mistake" to take the battle to Google on its own ground. "That's the very mistake that companies like Netscape made in competing with Microsoft," he notes. I disagree that lessons from the early browser search engine wargames apply in the age of cloud computing.

The primary problem with a pre-Bubble 1.0 Netscape world view: in online advertising, Yahoo properties successfully compete with Google. Hitwise and comScore data show a combined Microhoo entity far more popular than Google's network of sites.

Google's still trying to find ways to compete with the Yahoo/MSN vertical search engines (Finance, News, Sports, Travel, Auto). Fortune 500 brands love them for search-informed display / video ad campaigns. Only YouTube "branded channels" are starting to make significant inroads for Google in strategic digital marketing campaigns.

In O'Reilly Radar blog comments, the often profane but always brilliant Dave McClure of 500 Hats fame notes Google could then jump in to take AOL off the hands of the company formerly known as AOL Time Warner.

McClure also notes the other problem with the e-mail-centric view of the deal: social search engines like Facebook and LinkedIn already have built-in (crude) e-mail systems. Their online e-mail share isn't counted in the Hitwise data, as O'Reilly notes.

What O'Reilly and McClure omit: Facebook and LinkedIn already have better user data with extensive demographic profiles of their members who've given full opt-in permission and share their IDs openly. That's the fatal flaw in the e-mail as strategic asset argument.

The Microsoft-Yahoo deal is driven by search, not e-mail assets or their Web 2.0 potential. Ceding the search market to Google creates a GoogleNet that would supplant the Internet as an open marketplace.

If e-mail had such huge strategic value, Microsoft would have bid on Facebook at perhaps one-third the price: the much-scoffed at and oft-times scorned $15 billion valuation based on Microsoft's current stake in Facebook.

A more accurate way to evaluate the e-mail strategic assets: the success of contextual (content) advertising in Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live / Hotmail. Yahoo and MSN don't break out those numbers. My hunch: they're immaterial to paid search revenue even in the small MSN adCenter / Yahoo Search Marketing numbers that pale in comparison to Google. If antitrust concerns forced a spinoff of e-mail properties, the revenue from email contextual advertising wouldn't even be a rounding error in Google AdSense and the Google Content Advertising Network.

The social graph is radically changing search, driving personalization and more relevant results. E-mail plays a small part in the search equation.

Neither Yahoo nor Microsoft has been successful in building a social network around their online e-mail properties or Yahoo/MSN Groups. It's doubtful they'd succeed by mashing disparate and heterogeneous groups together.

Stay tuned to Techmeme for continuing coverage of the most historic M&A deal in what McClure calls the Internet Revolution, Act II.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:34 AM | Permalink

July 2, 2007

Google Et Al Should Buy Australian Hosting, Financial Times Suggests

The Financial Times suggests that the big three search engines should buy local hosting comapnies if they want to make inroads into the Australian market.

Australia does not have the population of their nearby Asian neighbors, but the market is financially capable and one that the engines are not overlooking. Add to this that the telcos are more protected in Australia and the move of Google and Micrososft to establish data centers and the space gets a little crowded.

"The likes of companies like Google and Microsoft could look to consolidate Australian hosting players to get a foothold in the market", analysts and industry executives told FT.com.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:34 PM | Permalink

May 19, 2007

Who Said It...

It’s the Saturday after major ownership changes have been announced in the online ad business. We have heard all the official reasons for the transactions. The true motivations remain with the players, namely Google, WPP, Microsoft, Yahoo, DoubleClick, 24/7 Real Media, aQuantive and Right Media.

So here's a quick puzzler. Try to match these players with the following "unquoted reasons" likely mentioned behind closed doors, in hushed tones. (Sorry, but answers will NOT be provided.)

– We serve ads to the world. – Improve those CPC buys! – We can change. – Make love, not war with publishers. – We can’t keep losing people. – Selling CPMs is dull. – Have advertisers, will travel. – We’re all about paid search. – Our publishers are impressive. – No more sweat shop for us. – So few ways to spend our money. – Our optimization rocks! – Don’t creative ideas matter? – Welcome Big Brother. – We finally joined the club.

Posted by Deborah Richman at 4:44 PM | Permalink

November 20, 2006

Verizon Spins Off Idearc

Idearc is the newly spun off parent of local search provider SuperPages.com. The company started trading today on the NYSE. The SuperPages brand, which survives the spin-off, will continue to publish Verizon yellow pages. SuperPages has been the most progressive of the incumbent YP sites in embracing new business models (PPClick/Call) and consumer trends (ratings and reviews). Indeed, SuperPages sees itself not as a “yellow pages� per se but as a local search and shopping resource. Let’s see how far the company pushes that metaphor now that it's on its own.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 9:49 AM | Permalink

November 7, 2006

Text Link Ads Aquired By MediaWhiz

Text Link Ads has been acquired by MediaWhiz as of yesterday. Text Link Ads (TLA) sells text advertisements on web sites and RSS feeds, they also have a publisher network where small publishers can earn money selling TLA ads on their own site. The dollar figures were not disclosed as part of the release. The Link Building Blog says notes that "the people you will be dealing with tomorrow at TLA will be the same people you have always dealt with since our doors opened in 2003." They will be moving from Cincinnati to New York in a few months to run TLA from within MediaWhiz. Patrick Gavin, co-owner of Text Link Ads, said, "We are excited to join MediaWhiz's team and their suite of products. It is a great opportunity to leverage our publisher base by offering more ways for publishers to make money. This deal will also allow us to offer our advertisers new ways to send traffic and sales to their websites." There are related articles at The Cincinnati Business Courier and the official press release here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 1:12 PM | Permalink

November 6, 2006

Topix.net Gains $15 Million Investment From Newspaper Parents

News aggregator and search engine Topix.net announced a new round of funding in which its newspaper owners, Gannett, Tribune Co. and McClatchy, have invested $15 million in the site to help further develop it. According to Hitwise, Topix has been on a tear and, according to the company itself, is now a "top 25" news site. Over the course of the past year Topix has had success developing community forums and has launched local classifieds. The site also recently implemented a news archive search.

I have more discussion of the investment and its potential implications for newspapers on my blog.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 9:06 AM | Permalink

October 31, 2006

SideStep Buys TravelPost

SideStep acquired TravelPost for a combination of cash and stock. TravelPost will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SideStep.

According to the press release, "TravelPost.com has grown into a leading source for unbiased user-generated hotel reviews and ratings, travel news, information resources and travel blogs. The company has excelled at organizing travel information to improve the way people research and shop for travel."

TravelPost, with over 500,000 hotel reviews on its site, might be the smartest little travel site you've never heard of. The coolest feature is the ability to filter hotel reviews by Age, Gender, Budget, and Trip Purpose. TravelPost requires the reviewer to enter demographic information before posting.

As Sam Shank, CEO of TravelPost explained, I'd take trips off of my friends' advice or itineraries and have an amazing time because I'd stay at the right hotel or go to the right restaurant for me. [TravelPost] was a way to automate that word of mouth process."

TravelPost already is a close partner of SideStep, providing a subset of the hotel reviews found on the site. SideStep also works with PowerReviews and offers expert editorial content. SideStep has been an advertising partner of TravelPost for the last 6-8 months.

According to Sam "We have direct relationships with the Online Travel Agents (OTAs) and direct relationships with a majority of the major hotel brands like InterContinental, Hilton, and Marriott. We don’t see any of that presentation changing on TravelPost in immediate future, but this acquisition lends itself to lots of experimentation."

Asked if there's a conflict with these advertisers since some of the major OTAs, Expedia and Travelocity, don't work with SideStep, Rob Solomon, CEO of SideStep responded "we’re a media company – we want to work with the best advertisers in the space. We’ll continue to work with the OTAs. Expedia and Travelocity don't participate in search on SideStep, but they spend money on SideStep in the form of deals and graphical media. While they [OTAs] say they don't want to commoditize their offerings, SideStep had 5 million uniques over the summer. [The OTAs] will wake up and realize have to participate. Travel search is a very real model and a legitimate part of the travel ecosystem. We’re where NexTag, Shopzilla, and Shopping.com were 4 years ago."

It's interesting to note that Rob is the former GM of Yahoo! Shopping and Sam is a former employee of NexTag, so they both have plenty of experience with vertical search.

Sam and Rob both stressed the core of this deal is about user generated content. Sam explained "in travel, word of mouth and [recommendations from] friends are key. There's no better source of information than other people like you." Rob added "TravelPost really increases the corpus of information that's out there by allowing users to express their opinions. When you combine TravelPost with our scale, the consumer ends up winning."

Posted by Brian Smith at 9:55 AM | Permalink

October 25, 2006

Next Up For Sale, Digg.com

Techcrunch reports that Digg.com is looking to sell the property for $150 million. Digg's recent discussions to sell included negotiations with News Corp, and some other non-disclosed bidders. The word is that Digg wants "at least $150 million" but no one is willing to pay that much to them.

Specifically one of the reasons mentioned is because Comscore figures claim Digg has "1.3 million monthly unique visitors and flat growth since April" but Digg claims they have "20 million unique monthly visitors and steep monthly growth." Danny reviews Rand's SEOMoz article named Website Analytics vs. Competitive Intelligence Metrics that concludes "no publicly available competitive analysis tool we're aware of provides solid value," including Hitwise or other reporting engines.

So does Digg have 20 million visitors? I do not know. It is hard to measure without direct access to one's server logs and even then things can be spoofed. Advertisers and those looking to sell their sites always want to represent the highest numbers as possible here. But can you trust any of them? There are just too many variables and ways to fudge those figures.

Postscript: Matt Tatham from Hitwise sent me some recent data on Digg.com, so I thought I would add it here.

Recent US data on Digg.com in regards to their potential acquisition talks: -Digg.com’s US market share of visits increased 231% comparing the week ending October 21, 2006 versus the week ending October 22, 2005 -Digg.com US market share of visits increased 176% comparing September 2006 versus September 2005 -Digg.com is the third most visited website within the Hitwise US News and Media - IT category for the week ending October 21, 2006 -Digg.com is the ranked at 114 most visited website within the Hitwise US News and Media category for the week ending October 21, 2006 -Digg.com received 55% of its US traffic from Google for the week ending October 21, 2006

Thanks Matt!

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:47 AM | Permalink

September 7, 2006

RH Donnelley Buys LocalLaunch

The press release has yet to come out but it's official that RH Donnelley, the third largest US yellow pages publisher, has acquired local SEO/SEM firm LocalLaunch. That means YellowPages.com/AT&T is the only remaining major US yellow pages publisher that has not acquired an SEM firm. SuperPages recently bought Inceptor and Yellow Book purchased ClickForward previously.

I'll do a more elaborate post on my blog later.

Postscript Barry: Just a quick note that ClickZ has more details on this, and the Search Engine Roundtable has the community reaction to the sale. Congrats Justin and Brad!

Posted by Greg Sterling at 12:49 PM | Permalink

August 21, 2006

ClickTracks Acquired By J.L. Halsey

The ClickTracks web analytics service has big news today, that it has been acquired by marketing technology firm J.L. Halsey. J.L. Halsey also owns marketing tools such as Lyris, EmailLabs and Hot Banana. Congrats to John and all the crew over at ClickTracks! More information from the press release here.

Postscript: Halsey Goes Beyond E-mail With Two Acquisitions from ClickZ has more details on the sale, including the $10.6 million valuation on it.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 11:55 AM | Permalink

August 17, 2006

Seevast: It's Kanoodle & More

Catching up on some industry news earlier this month, Kanoodle has done some restructuring. Previously, Kanoodle offered both search and contextual ads. Now, Kanoodle only offers search ads. Contextual ads are being sold through a sister business unit, Pulse 360. Meanwhile, the Moniker domain traffic service has been acquired and will run as a third sister business. Above all of these is a new operating company, Seevast. For more, see this ClickZ story: Kanoodle Makes Acquisition, Becomes Seevast.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 1:36 PM | Permalink

July 25, 2006

SuperPages Buys Inceptor

As reported in ClickZ today, SuperPages, which is itself up for sale, has acquired SEM firm Inceptor for an undisclosed amount. Verizon has been the most forward thinking and acting of the yellow pages publishers when it comes to offering performance-based products and leveraging search. This acquisition gives SuperPages more range in what it can offer and how the company can implement it -- and brings that cost in house.

For more on this deal see my blog post.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 8:36 AM | Permalink

SuperPages Buys Inceptor

As reported in ClickZ today, SuperPages, which is itself up for sale, has acquired SEM firm Inceptor for an undisclosed amount. Verizon has been the most forward thinking and acting of the yellow pages publishers when it comes to offering performance-based products and leveraging search. This acquisition gives SuperPages more range in what it can offer and how the company can implement it -- and brings that cost in house.

For more on this deal see my blog post.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:36 AM | Permalink

SuperPages Buys Inceptor

As reported in ClickZ today, SuperPages, which is itself up for sale, has acquired SEM firm Inceptor for an undisclosed amount. Verizon has been the most forward thinking and acting of the yellow pages publishers when it comes to offering performance-based products and leveraging search. This acquisition gives SuperPages more range in what it can offer and how the company can implement it -- and brings that cost in house.

For more on this deal see my blog post.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:36 AM | Permalink

SuperPages Buys Inceptor

As reported in ClickZ today, SuperPages, which is itself up for sale, has acquired SEM firm Inceptor for an undisclosed amount. Verizon has been the most forward thinking and acting of the yellow pages publishers when it comes to offering performance-based products and leveraging search. This acquisition gives SuperPages more range in what it can offer and how the company can implement it -- and brings that cost in house.

For more on this deal see my blog post.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:36 AM | Permalink

July 7, 2006

SuperPages For Sale

Verizon has formally filed with the SEC to sell its directory unit, which contains the print yellow pages and online yellow pages/local search businesses. A likely sale could bring as much as $15 billion. And because AT&T does not look like it's going to spin off its directory business, SuperPages could fetch a significant premium.

Verizon has been by far the most experimental and innovative of the US directory publishers to date, embracing PPC marketing and PPCall (including in the print directory). It has also sought to expand the product definition by integrating web search, Shopping.com, eBay listings, ratings and reviews and other content to broaden the utility and usage frequency of SuperPages.com.

Indeed, the company has sought to expand from the notion of a “yellow pages” site into something more like a local shopping portal. The company has also reconceived its role, vis-à-vis local businesses, from strictly a yellow pages publisher to a local marketing agency, which sells print and online yellow pages in addition to other products (including SEM).

Read a longer version of this post on my blog.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 7:29 PM | Permalink

SuperPages For Sale

Verizon has formally filed with the SEC to sell its directory unit, which contains the print yellow pages and online yellow pages/local search businesses. A likely sale could bring as much as $15 billion. And because AT&T does not look like it's going to spin off its directory business, SuperPages could fetch a significant premium.

Verizon has been by far the most experimental and innovative of the US directory publishers to date, embracing PPC marketing and PPCall (including in the print directory). It has also sought to expand the product definition by integrating web search, Shopping.com, eBay listings, ratings and reviews and other content to broaden the utility and usage frequency of SuperPages.com.

Indeed, the company has sought to expand from the notion of a “yellow pages” site into something more like a local shopping portal. The company has also reconceived its role, vis-à-vis local businesses, from strictly a yellow pages publisher to a local marketing agency, which sells print and online yellow pages in addition to other products (including SEM).

Read a longer version of this post on my blog.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:29 PM | Permalink

SuperPages For Sale

Verizon has formally filed with the SEC to sell its directory unit, which contains the print yellow pages and online yellow pages/local search businesses. A likely sale could bring as much as $15 billion. And because AT&T does not look like it's going to spin off its directory business, SuperPages could fetch a significant premium.

Verizon has been by far the most experimental and innovative of the US directory publishers to date, embracing PPC marketing and PPCall (including in the print directory). It has also sought to expand the product definition by integrating web search, Shopping.com, eBay listings, ratings and reviews and other content to broaden the utility and usage frequency of SuperPages.com.

Indeed, the company has sought to expand from the notion of a “yellow pages” site into something more like a local shopping portal. The company has also reconceived its role, vis-à-vis local businesses, from strictly a yellow pages publisher to a local marketing agency, which sells print and online yellow pages in addition to other products (including SEM).

Read a longer version of this post on my blog.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:29 PM | Permalink

SuperPages For Sale

Verizon has formally filed with the SEC to sell its directory unit, which contains the print yellow pages and online yellow pages/local search businesses. A likely sale could bring as much as $15 billion. And because AT&T does not look like it's going to spin off its directory business, SuperPages could fetch a significant premium.

Verizon has been by far the most experimental and innovative of the US directory publishers to date, embracing PPC marketing and PPCall (including in the print directory). It has also sought to expand the product definition by integrating web search, Shopping.com, eBay listings, ratings and reviews and other content to broaden the utility and usage frequency of SuperPages.com.

Indeed, the company has sought to expand from the notion of a “yellow pages” site into something more like a local shopping portal. The company has also reconceived its role, vis-à-vis local businesses, from strictly a yellow pages publisher to a local marketing agency, which sells print and online yellow pages in addition to other products (including SEM).

Read a longer version of this post on my blog.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:29 PM | Permalink

June 12, 2006

Reflecting On Direct Hit, The Google Rival

Perspective: The man who would be Sergey from News.com talks with Gary Culliss, formerly of Direct Hit, on cashing out of search early on. Google and Direct Hit came along at the same time (see Counting Clicks and Looking at Links from me in 1998). Ask Jeeves bought Direct Hit, making the original group involved with it a good chunk of money. But Direct Hit effectively died as a brand and a technology while Google....

I disagree with News.com that in 1998, Google was somehow lumped in with "non-household name" sites while Direct Hit was the shining hope. They both got a lot of attention, but Google very quickly surpassed Direct Hit as the wunderkind to watch. A little bit of history and reflection, in this Q&A.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:19 AM | Permalink

Reflecting On Direct Hit, The Google Rival

Perspective: The man who would be Sergey from News.com talks with Gary Culliss, formerly of Direct Hit, on cashing out of search early on. Google and Direct Hit came along at the same time (see Counting Clicks and Looking at Links from me in 1998). Ask Jeeves bought Direct Hit, making the original group involved with it a good chunk of money. But Direct Hit effectively died as a brand and a technology while Google....

I disagree with News.com that in 1998, Google was somehow lumped in with "non-household name" sites while Direct Hit was the shining hope. They both got a lot of attention, but Google very quickly surpassed Direct Hit as the wunderkind to watch. A little bit of history and reflection, in this Q&A.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:19 AM | Permalink

Reflecting On Direct Hit, The Google Rival

Perspective: The man who would be Sergey from News.com talks with Gary Culliss, formerly of Direct Hit, on cashing out of search early on. Google and Direct Hit came along at the same time (see Counting Clicks and Looking at Links from me in 1998). Ask Jeeves bought Direct Hit, making the original group involved with it a good chunk of money. But Direct Hit effectively died as a brand and a technology while Google....

I disagree with News.com that in 1998, Google was somehow lumped in with "non-household name" sites while Direct Hit was the shining hope. They both got a lot of attention, but Google very quickly surpassed Direct Hit as the wunderkind to watch. A little bit of history and reflection, in this Q&A.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:19 AM | Permalink

Reflecting On Direct Hit, The Google Rival

Perspective: The man who would be Sergey from News.com talks with Gary Culliss, formerly of Direct Hit, on cashing out of search early on. Google and Direct Hit came along at the same time (see Counting Clicks and Looking at Links from me in 1998). Ask Jeeves bought Direct Hit, making the original group involved with it a good chunk of money. But Direct Hit effectively died as a brand and a technology while Google....

I disagree with News.com that in 1998, Google was somehow lumped in with "non-household name" sites while Direct Hit was the shining hope. They both got a lot of attention, but Google very quickly surpassed Direct Hit as the wunderkind to watch. A little bit of history and reflection, in this Q&A.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:19 AM | Permalink

June 8, 2006

IceRocket Sale To Think Is Off (Update: Discussions Still Going)

That deal for Think Partnership to purchase blog search engine IceRocket? Andy Beal notes that it's off.

Postscript: Think has second thoughts about IceRocket from the Texas Startup Blog has a comment from IceRocket that discussions are still ongoing.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:16 AM | Permalink

IceRocket Sale To Think Is Off (Update: Discussions Still Going)

That deal for Think Partnership to purchase blog search engine IceRocket? Andy Beal notes that it's off.

Postscript: Think has second thoughts about IceRocket from the Texas Startup Blog has a comment from IceRocket that discussions are still ongoing.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:16 AM | Permalink

IceRocket Sale To Think Is Off (Update: Discussions Still Going)

That deal for Think Partnership to purchase blog search engine IceRocket? Andy Beal notes that it's off.

Postscript: Think has second thoughts about IceRocket from the Texas Startup Blog has a comment from IceRocket that discussions are still ongoing.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:16 AM | Permalink

IceRocket Sale To Think Is Off (Update: Discussions Still Going)

That deal for Think Partnership to purchase blog search engine IceRocket? Andy Beal notes that it's off.

Postscript: Think has second thoughts about IceRocket from the Texas Startup Blog has a comment from IceRocket that discussions are still ongoing.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:16 AM | Permalink

May 30, 2006

Marchex Acquires Local-Vertical Search Company Openlist

New York-based Openlist, a local, vertical search engine, was acquired by Marchex, which provides search and contextual marketing but also owns a network of thousands of "direct navigation" domains. Little-known Openlist was co-founded by former Jupiter analyst Matthew Berk as Local-i and has been around for roughly two years.

The deal is worth $13 million in cash and stock and Berk, among several others, now joins Marchex. One can think of Openlist as Citysearch built by aggregation. I think that Openlist is doing some of the most interesting work in Local right now; and the acquisition makes Marchex a potentially more formidable company in both local and vertical search.

You can read a more extensive post about the deal and the two companies on my blog.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 8:49 AM | Permalink

Marchex Acquires Local-Vertical Search Company Openlist

New York-based Openlist, a local, vertical search engine, was acquired by Marchex, which provides search and contextual marketing but also owns a network of thousands of "direct navigation" domains. Little-known Openlist was co-founded by former Jupiter analyst Matthew Berk as Local-i and has been around for roughly two years.

The deal is worth $13 million in cash and stock and Berk, among several others, now joins Marchex. One can think of Openlist as Citysearch built by aggregation. I think that Openlist is doing some of the most interesting work in Local right now; and the acquisition makes Marchex a potentially more formidable company in both local and vertical search.

You can read a more extensive post about the deal and the two companies on my blog.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:49 AM | Permalink

Marchex Acquires Local-Vertical Search Company Openlist

New York-based Openlist, a local, vertical search engine, was acquired by Marchex, which provides search and contextual marketing but also owns a network of thousands of "direct navigation" domains. Little-known Openlist was co-founded by former Jupiter analyst Matthew Berk as Local-i and has been around for roughly two years.

The deal is worth $13 million in cash and stock and Berk, among several others, now joins Marchex. One can think of Openlist as Citysearch built by aggregation. I think that Openlist is doing some of the most interesting work in Local right now; and the acquisition makes Marchex a potentially more formidable company in both local and vertical search.

You can read a more extensive post about the deal and the two companies on my blog.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:49 AM | Permalink

Marchex Acquires Local-Vertical Search Company Openlist

New York-based Openlist, a local, vertical search engine, was acquired by Marchex, which provides search and contextual marketing but also owns a network of thousands of "direct navigation" domains. Little-known Openlist was co-founded by former Jupiter analyst Matthew Berk as Local-i and has been around for roughly two years.

The deal is worth $13 million in cash and stock and Berk, among several others, now joins Marchex. One can think of Openlist as Citysearch built by aggregation. I think that Openlist is doing some of the most interesting work in Local right now; and the acquisition makes Marchex a potentially more formidable company in both local and vertical search.

You can read a more extensive post about the deal and the two companies on my blog.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 8:49 AM | Permalink

May 15, 2006

Planet Discover Acquisition a Potential 'Turning Point' for Newspapers

I spoke this morning with Terry Millard, CEO of local-search vendor Planet Discover. As has now been widely reported, the company was purchased last week for an undisclosed sum by Gannett, which is now the nation’s largest newspaper publisher in terms of number of publications and revenues.

Millard and his brother, who is the CTO, will stay on. Gannett intends to operate the company like PointRoll, as a separate entity. Planet Discover is behind “integrated search” at three Gannett publications and many more newspapers, as the industry tries to confront adoption of the Internet for lookups that used to be done exclusively in newspapers and yellow pages offline. (Newspapers have been dealing with the challenge to classifieds usage and revenues for several years.)

Millard told me that the acquisition and forthcoming investment will enable the company to pursue its long-term product roadmap and further build out the company's search-technology infrastructure.

Here are the results for a query on “home improvement” on Tuscon.com, which Planet Discover powers. The company is also behind McClatchy’s Triangle.com and South of Boston Media Group’s Wicked Local Search. And while the user experiences on these sites are imperfect, they are considerably better than what's available through most newspaper sites.

The general idea is: improve site search and the user experience and more usage will ultimately generate more revenues. I agree with that logic but local market fragmentation makes it somewhat more complex to realize than the “ipso facto” relationship I describe.

Gannett has said it will roll out Planet Discover’s search technology on all its local newspaper sites. And while newspapers have been getting into local search here and there in dribs and drabs, this development marks a turning point for the industry. Similarly, but in a different way, so does the earlier McClatchy-WebVisible deal to sell paid-search distribution to local newspaper advertisers.

Gannett's acquisition will force newspapers large and small to think about site search and their local search strategies more generally.

In addition to newspapers, there are many “constituencies” in local search vying for eyeballs as well as advertisers: yellow pages, search engines/portals, vertical sites, classified sites, local TV affiliates and local radio sites. Not all are executing of course. But this list illustrates how crowded this nascent market is becoming – also how fragmented.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of local sites that accept ads and many more places where consumers can search for local information online. Aside from the major search engines and some yellow pages sites, "local search" is a confusing proposition for everyone. In the aggregate it's a multi-billion dollar opportunity but realizing that opportunity is complicated and a long term proposition.

Newspapers have long had the capacity (on paper) to “own” local search but have had trouble executing because of their internal cultures and reluctance to radically overhaul or otherwise experiment with newspaper sites. “Secondary brands” (e.g., YourHub.com, Sacramento.com, Readexpress.com) are emerging, which allow newspapers to experiment with different content, different functionality and navigation while still preserving the “sacrosanct” main newspaper site. Successful experiments can be incorporated into the main site. An alternative strategy is to have a local search destination, such as Triangle.com or Sacramento.com that pushes newspaper site content out through that single engine/portal.

Despite the furious competition between Google, Yahoo!, MSN and directories in local (and maps), no one yet owns the category. Newspapers and yellow pages publishers have a local sales channel, which provides an advantage in acquiring and retaining local advertisers. But search engines have considerably more traffic. Nobody has all the pieces of the local search puzzle. All of this makes for an interesting dance of business development and partnerships.

Judging from history, the newspaper industry would be something of a long shot to succeed in local search. But the future of newspapers depends increasingly on the Internet – a fact that newspapers now clearly understand. And they are becoming more serious by the day about it.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 1:57 PM | Permalink

Planet Discover Acquisition a Potential 'Turning Point' for Newspapers

I spoke this morning with Terry Millard, CEO of local-search vendor Planet Discover. As has now been widely reported, the company was purchased last week for an undisclosed sum by Gannett, which is now the nation’s largest newspaper publisher in terms of number of publications and revenues.

Millard and his brother, who is the CTO, will stay on. Gannett intends to operate the company like PointRoll, as a separate entity. Planet Discover is behind “integrated search” at three Gannett publications and many more newspapers, as the industry tries to confront adoption of the Internet for lookups that used to be done exclusively in newspapers and yellow pages offline. (Newspapers have been dealing with the challenge to classifieds usage and revenues for several years.)

Millard told me that the acquisition and forthcoming investment will enable the company to pursue its long-term product roadmap and further build out the company's search-technology infrastructure.

Here are the results for a query on “home improvement” on Tuscon.com, which Planet Discover powers. The company is also behind McClatchy’s Triangle.com and South of Boston Media Group’s Wicked Local Search. And while the user experiences on these sites are imperfect, they are considerably better than what's available through most newspaper sites.

The general idea is: improve site search and the user experience and more usage will ultimately generate more revenues. I agree with that logic but local market fragmentation makes it somewhat more complex to realize than the “ipso facto” relationship I describe.

Gannett has said it will roll out Planet Discover’s search technology on all its local newspaper sites. And while newspapers have been getting into local search here and there in dribs and drabs, this development marks a turning point for the industry. Similarly, but in a different way, so does the earlier McClatchy-WebVisible deal to sell paid-search distribution to local newspaper advertisers.

Gannett's acquisition will force newspapers large and small to think about site search and their local search strategies more generally.

In addition to newspapers, there are many “constituencies” in local search vying for eyeballs as well as advertisers: yellow pages, search engines/portals, vertical sites, classified sites, local TV affiliates and local radio sites. Not all are executing of course. But this list illustrates how crowded this nascent market is becoming – also how fragmented.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of local sites that accept ads and many more places where consumers can search for local information online. Aside from the major search engines and some yellow pages sites, "local search" is a confusing proposition for everyone. In the aggregate it's a multi-billion dollar opportunity but realizing that opportunity is complicated and a long term proposition.

Newspapers have long had the capacity (on paper) to “own” local search but have had trouble executing because of their internal cultures and reluctance to radically overhaul or otherwise experiment with newspaper sites. “Secondary brands” (e.g., YourHub.com, Sacramento.com, Readexpress.com) are emerging, which allow newspapers to experiment with different content, different functionality and navigation while still preserving the “sacrosanct” main newspaper site. Successful experiments can be incorporated into the main site. An alternative strategy is to have a local search destination, such as Triangle.com or Sacramento.com that pushes newspaper site content out through that single engine/portal.

Despite the furious competition between Google, Yahoo!, MSN and directories in local (and maps), no one yet owns the category. Newspapers and yellow pages publishers have a local sales channel, which provides an advantage in acquiring and retaining local advertisers. But search engines have considerably more traffic. Nobody has all the pieces of the local search puzzle. All of this makes for an interesting dance of business development and partnerships.

Judging from history, the newspaper industry would be something of a long shot to succeed in local search. But the future of newspapers depends increasingly on the Internet – a fact that newspapers now clearly understand. And they are becoming more serious by the day about it.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:57 PM | Permalink

Planet Discover Acquisition a Potential 'Turning Point' for Newspapers

I spoke this morning with Terry Millard, CEO of local-search vendor Planet Discover. As has now been widely reported, the company was purchased last week for an undisclosed sum by Gannett, which is now the nation’s largest newspaper publisher in terms of number of publications and revenues.

Millard and his brother, who is the CTO, will stay on. Gannett intends to operate the company like PointRoll, as a separate entity. Planet Discover is behind “integrated search” at three Gannett publications and many more newspapers, as the industry tries to confront adoption of the Internet for lookups that used to be done exclusively in newspapers and yellow pages offline. (Newspapers have been dealing with the challenge to classifieds usage and revenues for several years.)

Millard told me that the acquisition and forthcoming investment will enable the company to pursue its long-term product roadmap and further build out the company's search-technology infrastructure.

Here are the results for a query on “home improvement” on Tuscon.com, which Planet Discover powers. The company is also behind McClatchy’s Triangle.com and South of Boston Media Group’s Wicked Local Search. And while the user experiences on these sites are imperfect, they are considerably better than what's available through most newspaper sites.

The general idea is: improve site search and the user experience and more usage will ultimately generate more revenues. I agree with that logic but local market fragmentation makes it somewhat more complex to realize than the “ipso facto” relationship I describe.

Gannett has said it will roll out Planet Discover’s search technology on all its local newspaper sites. And while newspapers have been getting into local search here and there in dribs and drabs, this development marks a turning point for the industry. Similarly, but in a different way, so does the earlier McClatchy-WebVisible deal to sell paid-search distribution to local newspaper advertisers.

Gannett's acquisition will force newspapers large and small to think about site search and their local search strategies more generally.

In addition to newspapers, there are many “constituencies” in local search vying for eyeballs as well as advertisers: yellow pages, search engines/portals, vertical sites, classified sites, local TV affiliates and local radio sites. Not all are executing of course. But this list illustrates how crowded this nascent market is becoming – also how fragmented.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of local sites that accept ads and many more places where consumers can search for local information online. Aside from the major search engines and some yellow pages sites, "local search" is a confusing proposition for everyone. In the aggregate it's a multi-billion dollar opportunity but realizing that opportunity is complicated and a long term proposition.

Newspapers have long had the capacity (on paper) to “own” local search but have had trouble executing because of their internal cultures and reluctance to radically overhaul or otherwise experiment with newspaper sites. “Secondary brands” (e.g., YourHub.com, Sacramento.com, Readexpress.com) are emerging, which allow newspapers to experiment with different content, different functionality and navigation while still preserving the “sacrosanct” main newspaper site. Successful experiments can be incorporated into the main site. An alternative strategy is to have a local search destination, such as Triangle.com or Sacramento.com that pushes newspaper site content out through that single engine/portal.

Despite the furious competition between Google, Yahoo!, MSN and directories in local (and maps), no one yet owns the category. Newspapers and yellow pages publishers have a local sales channel, which provides an advantage in acquiring and retaining local advertisers. But search engines have considerably more traffic. Nobody has all the pieces of the local search puzzle. All of this makes for an interesting dance of business development and partnerships.

Judging from history, the newspaper industry would be something of a long shot to succeed in local search. But the future of newspapers depends increasingly on the Internet – a fact that newspapers now clearly understand. And they are becoming more serious by the day about it.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:57 PM | Permalink

Planet Discover Acquisition a Potential 'Turning Point' for Newspapers

I spoke this morning with Terry Millard, CEO of local-search vendor Planet Discover. As has now been widely reported, the company was purchased last week for an undisclosed sum by Gannett, which is now the nation’s largest newspaper publisher in terms of number of publications and revenues.

Millard and his brother, who is the CTO, will stay on. Gannett intends to operate the company like PointRoll, as a separate entity. Planet Discover is behind “integrated search” at three Gannett publications and many more newspapers, as the industry tries to confront adoption of the Internet for lookups that used to be done exclusively in newspapers and yellow pages offline. (Newspapers have been dealing with the challenge to classifieds usage and revenues for several years.)

Millard told me that the acquisition and forthcoming investment will enable the company to pursue its long-term product roadmap and further build out the company's search-technology infrastructure.

Here are the results for a query on “home improvement” on Tuscon.com, which Planet Discover powers. The company is also behind McClatchy’s Triangle.com and South of Boston Media Group’s Wicked Local Search. And while the user experiences on these sites are imperfect, they are considerably better than what's available through most newspaper sites.

The general idea is: improve site search and the user experience and more usage will ultimately generate more revenues. I agree with that logic but local market fragmentation makes it somewhat more complex to realize than the “ipso facto” relationship I describe.

Gannett has said it will roll out Planet Discover’s search technology on all its local newspaper sites. And while newspapers have been getting into local search here and there in dribs and drabs, this development marks a turning point for the industry. Similarly, but in a different way, so does the earlier McClatchy-WebVisible deal to sell paid-search distribution to local newspaper advertisers.

Gannett's acquisition will force newspapers large and small to think about site search and their local search strategies more generally.

In addition to newspapers, there are many “constituencies” in local search vying for eyeballs as well as advertisers: yellow pages, search engines/portals, vertical sites, classified sites, local TV affiliates and local radio sites. Not all are executing of course. But this list illustrates how crowded this nascent market is becoming – also how fragmented.

There are dozens, if not hundreds of local sites that accept ads and many more places where consumers can search for local information online. Aside from the major search engines and some yellow pages sites, "local search" is a confusing proposition for everyone. In the aggregate it's a multi-billion dollar opportunity but realizing that opportunity is complicated and a long term proposition.

Newspapers have long had the capacity (on paper) to “own” local search but have had trouble executing because of their internal cultures and reluctance to radically overhaul or otherwise experiment with newspaper sites. “Secondary brands” (e.g., YourHub.com, Sacramento.com, Readexpress.com) are emerging, which allow newspapers to experiment with different content, different functionality and navigation while still preserving the “sacrosanct” main newspaper site. Successful experiments can be incorporated into the main site. An alternative strategy is to have a local search destination, such as Triangle.com or Sacramento.com that pushes newspaper site content out through that single engine/portal.

Despite the furious competition between Google, Yahoo!, MSN and directories in local (and maps), no one yet owns the category. Newspapers and yellow pages publishers have a local sales channel, which provides an advantage in acquiring and retaining local advertisers. But search engines have considerably more traffic. Nobody has all the pieces of the local search puzzle. All of this makes for an interesting dance of business development and partnerships.

Judging from history, the newspaper industry would be something of a long shot to succeed in local search. But the future of newspapers depends increasingly on the Internet – a fact that newspapers now clearly understand. And they are becoming more serious by the day about it.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:57 PM | Permalink

April 19, 2006

Fox Interactive Media Invests In SimplyHired, Levinsohn To Join Board

The vertical search space continues to attract interest from major media companies. This morning, SimplyHired announced it raised $13.5m from Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and Foundation Capital.

FIM represents the interactive assets of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which made a splash last year by purchasing MySpace. In total, FIM properties reach aproximately 70 million unique visitors a month.

Ross Levinsohn, FIM’s president, will join the SimplyHired board of directors.

If you're looking for a primer on the job search market and SimplyHired, read my recent Q&A with SimplyHired's Phil Carpenter.

Posted by Brian Smith at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Fox Interactive Media Invests In SimplyHired, Levinsohn To Join Board

The vertical search space continues to attract interest from major media companies. This morning, SimplyHired announced it raised $13.5m from Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and Foundation Capital.

FIM represents the interactive assets of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which made a splash last year by purchasing MySpace. In total, FIM properties reach aproximately 70 million unique visitors a month.

Ross Levinsohn, FIM’s president, will join the SimplyHired board of directors.

If you're looking for a primer on the job search market and SimplyHired, read my recent Q&A with SimplyHired's Phil Carpenter.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Fox Interactive Media Invests In SimplyHired, Levinsohn To Join Board

The vertical search space continues to attract interest from major media companies. This morning, SimplyHired announced it raised $13.5m from Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and Foundation Capital.

FIM represents the interactive assets of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which made a splash last year by purchasing MySpace. In total, FIM properties reach aproximately 70 million unique visitors a month.

Ross Levinsohn, FIM’s president, will join the SimplyHired board of directors.

If you're looking for a primer on the job search market and SimplyHired, read my recent Q&A with SimplyHired's Phil Carpenter.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:30 PM | Permalink

Fox Interactive Media Invests In SimplyHired, Levinsohn To Join Board

The vertical search space continues to attract interest from major media companies. This morning, SimplyHired announced it raised $13.5m from Fox Interactive Media (FIM) and Foundation Capital.

FIM represents the interactive assets of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which made a splash last year by purchasing MySpace. In total, FIM properties reach aproximately 70 million unique visitors a month.

Ross Levinsohn, FIM’s president, will join the SimplyHired board of directors.

If you're looking for a primer on the job search market and SimplyHired, read my recent Q&A with SimplyHired's Phil Carpenter.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 12:30 PM | Permalink

April 14, 2006

MSN Windows Live Search Getting Answers Service; May Partner Or Acquire Eurekster

Via Threadwatch, Microsoft Gets Social from BusinessWeek has news that Microsoft may be buying or partnering with Eurekster to bring social search features to its MSN Window Live Search service. An question answering service is also coming.

What's MSN Windows Live Search, by the way? Since Microsoft doesn't seem to know if we're supposed to use Windows Live Search (launched last month) or MSN Search (launched in 1998), MSN Windows Live Search is my name for covering both bases at once. Personally, I like how it preserves the MSN brand while adding yet another word to the search service's name. It rolls off the tongue. I'm going to go MSNWindowsLiveSearch someone or something right now.

BusinessWeek confuses the forthcoming Q&A tool with social search. Those are two completely different types of search features/services, of which Q&A is the least important. In fact, it just reeks of another "me too" move that's not going to budge MSN Windows Live Search's usage among searchers.

I mean, LookSmart Live never took off after being launched in 1999. Neither did Ask's Answer Point, which came out in 2000. Google Answers, which was kicked off in 2002 the same week Answer Point closed only generated 0.01 percent of Google visits in November. Yahoo Answers was launched only in December, so perhaps it will grow. But it probably won't. Wondir is still going, but it's hardly had the growth and notice of some social sites like YouTube.

Real social/personalized search coming to MSNWLS is much more important, because it really is something I expect will take us into that next generational jump. Eurekster certainly has plenty of experience in the space, having ushered in the current round of social search attention since it launched back in 2004.

Here are some key stories from me on social and personalized search, if you really want to come up to speed on changes:

• Direct Hit Debuts Personalized Search  
• Eurekster Launches Personalized Social Search  
• Search Personalization: A Marketer's Perspective  
• Google Relaunches Personal Search - This Time, It Really Is Personal  
• Yahoo My Web: An eBay For Knowledge

FYI, this will be MSN's second time around with a social search feature. In 1999, they carried Direct Hit results, which was a rudimentary form of social search based on tracking aggregate clicks. Direct Hit results were dropped sometime before 2002.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 10:10 AM | Permalink

MSN Windows Live Search Getting Answers Service; May Partner Or Acquire Eurekster

Via Threadwatch, Microsoft Gets Social from BusinessWeek has news that Microsoft may be buying or partnering with Eurekster to bring social search features to its MSN Window Live Search service. An question answering service is also coming.

What's MSN Windows Live Search, by the way? Since Microsoft doesn't seem to know if we're supposed to use Windows Live Search (launched last month) or MSN Search (launched in 1998), MSN Windows Live Search is my name for covering both bases at once. Personally, I like how it preserves the MSN brand while adding yet another word to the search service's name. It rolls off the tongue. I'm going to go MSNWindowsLiveSearch someone or something right now.

BusinessWeek confuses the forthcoming Q&A tool with social search. Those are two completely different types of search features/services, of which Q&A is the least important. In fact, it just reeks of another "me too" move that's not going to budge MSN Windows Live Search's usage among searchers.

I mean, LookSmart Live never took off after being launched in 1999. Neither did Ask's Answer Point, which came out in 2000. Google Answers, which was kicked off in 2002 the same week Answer Point closed only generated 0.01 percent of Google visits in November. Yahoo Answers was launched only in December, so perhaps it will grow. But it probably won't. Wondir is still going, but it's hardly had the growth and notice of some social sites like YouTube.

Real social/personalized search coming to MSNWLS is much more important, because it really is something I expect will take us into that next generational jump. Eurekster certainly has plenty of experience in the space, having ushered in the current round of social search attention since it launched back in 2004.

Here are some key stories from me on social and personalized search, if you really want to come up to speed on changes:

• Direct Hit Debuts Personalized Search  
• Eurekster Launches Personalized Social Search  
• Search Personalization: A Marketer's Perspective  
• Google Relaunches Personal Search - This Time, It Really Is Personal  
• Yahoo My Web: An eBay For Knowledge

FYI, this will be MSN's second time around with a social search feature. In 1999, they carried Direct Hit results, which was a rudimentary form of social search based on tracking aggregate clicks. Direct Hit results were dropped sometime before 2002.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:10 AM | Permalink

MSN Windows Live Search Getting Answers Service; May Partner Or Acquire Eurekster

Via Threadwatch, Microsoft Gets Social from BusinessWeek has news that Microsoft may be buying or partnering with Eurekster to bring social search features to its MSN Window Live Search service. An question answering service is also coming.

What's MSN Windows Live Search, by the way? Since Microsoft doesn't seem to know if we're supposed to use Windows Live Search (launched last month) or MSN Search (launched in 1998), MSN Windows Live Search is my name for covering both bases at once. Personally, I like how it preserves the MSN brand while adding yet another word to the search service's name. It rolls off the tongue. I'm going to go MSNWindowsLiveSearch someone or something right now.

BusinessWeek confuses the forthcoming Q&A tool with social search. Those are two completely different types of search features/services, of which Q&A is the least important. In fact, it just reeks of another "me too" move that's not going to budge MSN Windows Live Search's usage among searchers.

I mean, LookSmart Live never took off after being launched in 1999. Neither did Ask's Answer Point, which came out in 2000. Google Answers, which was kicked off in 2002 the same week Answer Point closed only generated 0.01 percent of Google visits in November. Yahoo Answers was launched only in December, so perhaps it will grow. But it probably won't. Wondir is still going, but it's hardly had the growth and notice of some social sites like YouTube.

Real social/personalized search coming to MSNWLS is much more important, because it really is something I expect will take us into that next generational jump. Eurekster certainly has plenty of experience in the space, having ushered in the current round of social search attention since it launched back in 2004.

Here are some key stories from me on social and personalized search, if you really want to come up to speed on changes:

• Direct Hit Debuts Personalized Search  
• Eurekster Launches Personalized Social Search  
• Search Personalization: A Marketer's Perspective  
• Google Relaunches Personal Search - This Time, It Really Is Personal  
• Yahoo My Web: An eBay For Knowledge

FYI, this will be MSN's second time around with a social search feature. In 1999, they carried Direct Hit results, which was a rudimentary form of social search based on tracking aggregate clicks. Direct Hit results were dropped sometime before 2002.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:10 AM | Permalink

MSN Windows Live Search Getting Answers Service; May Partner Or Acquire Eurekster

Via Threadwatch, Microsoft Gets Social from BusinessWeek has news that Microsoft may be buying or partnering with Eurekster to bring social search features to its MSN Window Live Search service. An question answering service is also coming.

What's MSN Windows Live Search, by the way? Since Microsoft doesn't seem to know if we're supposed to use Windows Live Search (launched last month) or MSN Search (launched in 1998), MSN Windows Live Search is my name for covering both bases at once. Personally, I like how it preserves the MSN brand while adding yet another word to the search service's name. It rolls off the tongue. I'm going to go MSNWindowsLiveSearch someone or something right now.

BusinessWeek confuses the forthcoming Q&A tool with social search. Those are two completely different types of search features/services, of which Q&A is the least important. In fact, it just reeks of another "me too" move that's not going to budge MSN Windows Live Search's usage among searchers.

I mean, LookSmart Live never took off after being launched in 1999. Neither did Ask's Answer Point, which came out in 2000. Google Answers, which was kicked off in 2002 the same week Answer Point closed only generated 0.01 percent of Google visits in November. Yahoo Answers was launched only in December, so perhaps it will grow. But it probably won't. Wondir is still going, but it's hardly had the growth and notice of some social sites like YouTube.

Real social/personalized search coming to MSNWLS is much more important, because it really is something I expect will take us into that next generational jump. Eurekster certainly has plenty of experience in the space, having ushered in the current round of social search attention since it launched back in 2004.

Here are some key stories from me on social and personalized search, if you really want to come up to speed on changes:

• Direct Hit Debuts Personalized Search  
• Eurekster Launches Personalized Social Search  
• Search Personalization: A Marketer's Perspective  
• Google Relaunches Personal Search - This Time, It Really Is Personal  
• Yahoo My Web: An eBay For Knowledge

FYI, this will be MSN's second time around with a social search feature. In 1999, they carried Direct Hit results, which was a rudimentary form of social search based on tracking aggregate clicks. Direct Hit results were dropped sometime before 2002.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:10 AM | Permalink

Cuban's IceRocket Sold To Think Partnership

Cuban Sells Blog Search Engine from Red Herring covers marketing firm Think Partnership planning to purchase the IceRocket blog search engine, which is coowned by billionaire Mark Cuban. Terms aren't disclosed, but Cuban won't be making another billion off of this, safe to say. Red Herring estimates Think has about $20 million available, if this is a cash deal. Think seems to be hoping the purchase will help it spread its affiliate marketing work out further, perhaps to help form a new blog advertising network. Press release is here.

Posted by Danny Sullivan at 7:16 AM | Permalink

Cuban's IceRocket Sold To Think Partnership

Cuban Sells Blog Search Engine from Red Herring covers marketing firm Think Partnership planning to purchase the IceRocket blog search engine, which is coowned by billionaire Mark Cuban. Terms aren't disclosed, but Cuban won't be making another billion off of this, safe to say. Red Herring estimates Think has about $20 million available, if this is a cash deal. Think seems to be hoping the purchase will help it spread its affiliate marketing work out further, perhaps to help form a new blog advertising network. Press release is here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:16 AM | Permalink

Cuban's IceRocket Sold To Think Partnership

Cuban Sells Blog Search Engine from Red Herring covers marketing firm Think Partnership planning to purchase the IceRocket blog search engine, which is coowned by billionaire Mark Cuban. Terms aren't disclosed, but Cuban won't be making another billion off of this, safe to say. Red Herring estimates Think has about $20 million available, if this is a cash deal. Think seems to be hoping the purchase will help it spread its affiliate marketing work out further, perhaps to help form a new blog advertising network. Press release is here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:16 AM | Permalink

Cuban's IceRocket Sold To Think Partnership

Cuban Sells Blog Search Engine from Red Herring covers marketing firm Think Partnership planning to purchase the IceRocket blog search engine, which is coowned by billionaire Mark Cuban. Terms aren't disclosed, but Cuban won't be making another billion off of this, safe to say. Red Herring estimates Think has about $20 million available, if this is a cash deal. Think seems to be hoping the purchase will help it spread its affiliate marketing work out further, perhaps to help form a new blog advertising network. Press release is here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 7:16 AM | Permalink

March 17, 2006

Alibaba.com Uses $750M of the $1B (USD) Yahoo Paid

Alibaba.com, which acquired Yahoo China, used $750 million of the $1 billion dollars Yahoo injected into Alibaba.com as part of the acquisition. This has given Yahoo a 40%, majority, ownership in Alibaba.com. We learned this from Jack Ma Keynote Address today in China. The coverage at my blog says that Jack Ma said something to the affect of, "the truth is $750 million out of the $1 billion given to Alibaba was either spent or reinvested." You can read Forbes.com thoughts on this here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 10:38 AM | Permalink

Alibaba.com Uses $750M of the $1B (USD) Yahoo Paid

Alibaba.com, which acquired Yahoo China, used $750 million of the $1 billion dollars Yahoo injected into Alibaba.com as part of the acquisition. This has given Yahoo a 40%, majority, ownership in Alibaba.com. We learned this from Jack Ma Keynote Address today in China. The coverage at my blog says that Jack Ma said something to the affect of, "the truth is $750 million out of the $1 billion given to Alibaba was either spent or reinvested." You can read Forbes.com thoughts on this here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:38 AM | Permalink

Alibaba.com Uses $750M of the $1B (USD) Yahoo Paid

Alibaba.com, which acquired Yahoo China, used $750 million of the $1 billion dollars Yahoo injected into Alibaba.com as part of the acquisition. This has given Yahoo a 40%, majority, ownership in Alibaba.com. We learned this from Jack Ma Keynote Address today in China. The coverage at my blog says that Jack Ma said something to the affect of, "the truth is $750 million out of the $1 billion given to Alibaba was either spent or reinvested." You can read Forbes.com thoughts on this here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:38 AM | Permalink

Alibaba.com Uses $750M of the $1B (USD) Yahoo Paid

Alibaba.com, which acquired Yahoo China, used $750 million of the $1 billion dollars Yahoo injected into Alibaba.com as part of the acquisition. This has given Yahoo a 40%, majority, ownership in Alibaba.com. We learned this from Jack Ma Keynote Address today in China. The coverage at my blog says that Jack Ma said something to the affect of, "the truth is $750 million out of the $1 billion given to Alibaba was either spent or reinvested." You can read Forbes.com thoughts on this here.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 10:38 AM | Permalink

January 18, 2006

Mobile Search: Gannett Invests in 4INFO; Upsnap.com Acquires XSVoice, Now Offering Streaming Audio on Your Phone or Device

Two more mobile search items to report today.

A joint press release from mobile search provider 4INFO (a service I blog about and also use very regularly) and media giant Gannett (USA Today is one of their properties) informs us that Gannett is making a minority investment in 4INFO and also entering into a marketing and distribution agreement with them.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Collaboration between the companies will begin with USA TODAY and be introduced to other Gannett newspaper and broadcast operations, including Captivate Network. This will include promotion of 4INFO’s mobile real-time information such as sports scores and weather within relevant sections of USA TODAY.

Congrats to the 4INFO team. Could today's announcement be the beginning of a time where we see other large media organizations getting more involved in the mobile search space? We will be watching.

Next, UpSnap, another mobile search company has acquired XSVoice, a mobile entertainment company. The news release focuses on how XSVoice will now allow UpSnap users to receive streaming audio (music, news, sports, etc.) via their mobile phone or device. The UpSnap home page today includes links to how to access this streaming audio content like this rock music "station."

If I'm not mistaken, UpSnap is leveraging an XSVoice service called the Mobile Broadcast Network (MBN) to power this new feature. MBN has been around for some time (and now shows that is part of UpSnap). I've used it several times in the past and the audio quality can vary from ok (spoken word, news, etc.) to poor. Of course, various conditions including bandwidth issues, weather, and the quality of your speaker or headset can go a long way in determining the audio quality. I'm looking forward to taking another look at this audio service and seeing what develops. Cool idea.

You can learn more about MBN here. In a nutshell, MBN and now UpSnap allows the user to have audio content delivered by simply dialing a US phone number. The service works on both mobile phones as well as landline phones. Example: To access a station playing ambient music, + Dial: 1-615-727-9201 + Login (Registration, web-based, is free) + Enter the station code for Ambient, 1760 + That's it. Music should begin playing immediately.

Of course, make sure your phone (whatever type it is) offer lots of long-distance minutes (assuming your outside of the 615 area code). Otherwise, this could start costing. The content itself is free.

Web access to the content directory is now available either via UpSnap or on your mobile web browser. Check this page for info.

The biggest question I have about the audio content is that with some mobile phone providers now allowing people to download and/or purchase and play MP3's, iTunes, and even listen to satellite radio, will the audio quality that's now available suffice in the long run? I think the service might have a brighter future focusing on non-music content like interviews, news, and sports. Streaming podcasts anyone? Of course, many Smartphones have offered MP3 players for years. For example, using my Treo and some software for the Palm (Pocket-Tunes), I cannot only play any MP3's but also stream LIVE any station offers an MP3 stream. For example, most Shoutcast stations and feeds are in MP3 format.

Posted by Gary Price at 1:36 PM | Permalink

Mobile Search: Gannett Invests in 4INFO; Upsnap.com Acquires XSVoice, Now Offering Streaming Audio on Your Phone or Device

Two more mobile search items to report today.

A joint press release from mobile search provider 4INFO (a service I blog about and also use very regularly) and media giant Gannett (USA Today is one of their properties) informs us that Gannett is making a minority investment in 4INFO and also entering into a marketing and distribution agreement with them.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Collaboration between the companies will begin with USA TODAY and be introduced to other Gannett newspaper and broadcast operations, including Captivate Network. This will include promotion of 4INFO’s mobile real-time information such as sports scores and weather within relevant sections of USA TODAY.

Congrats to the 4INFO team. Could today's announcement be the beginning of a time where we see other large media organizations getting more involved in the mobile search space? We will be watching.

Next, UpSnap, another mobile search company has acquired XSVoice, a mobile entertainment company. The news release focuses on how XSVoice will now allow UpSnap users to receive streaming audio (music, news, sports, etc.) via their mobile phone or device. The UpSnap home page today includes links to how to access this streaming audio content like this rock music "station."

If I'm not mistaken, UpSnap is leveraging an XSVoice service called the Mobile Broadcast Network (MBN) to power this new feature. MBN has been around for some time (and now shows that is part of UpSnap). I've used it several times in the past and the audio quality can vary from ok (spoken word, news, etc.) to poor. Of course, various conditions including bandwidth issues, weather, and the quality of your speaker or headset can go a long way in determining the audio quality. I'm looking forward to taking another look at this audio service and seeing what develops. Cool idea.

You can learn more about MBN here. In a nutshell, MBN and now UpSnap allows the user to have audio content delivered by simply dialing a US phone number. The service works on both mobile phones as well as landline phones. Example: To access a station playing ambient music, + Dial: 1-615-727-9201 + Login (Registration, web-based, is free) + Enter the station code for Ambient, 1760 + That's it. Music should begin playing immediately.

Of course, make sure your phone (whatever type it is) offer lots of long-distance minutes (assuming your outside of the 615 area code). Otherwise, this could start costing. The content itself is free.

Web access to the content directory is now available either via UpSnap or on your mobile web browser. Check this page for info.

The biggest question I have about the audio content is that with some mobile phone providers now allowing people to download and/or purchase and play MP3's, iTunes, and even listen to satellite radio, will the audio quality that's now available suffice in the long run? I think the service might have a brighter future focusing on non-music content like interviews, news, and sports. Streaming podcasts anyone? Of course, many Smartphones have offered MP3 players for years. For example, using my Treo and some software for the Palm (Pocket-Tunes), I cannot only play any MP3's but also stream LIVE any station offers an MP3 stream. For example, most Shoutcast stations and feeds are in MP3 format.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:36 PM | Permalink

Mobile Search: Gannett Invests in 4INFO; Upsnap.com Acquires XSVoice, Now Offering Streaming Audio on Your Phone or Device

Two more mobile search items to report today.

A joint press release from mobile search provider 4INFO (a service I blog about and also use very regularly) and media giant Gannett (USA Today is one of their properties) informs us that Gannett is making a minority investment in 4INFO and also entering into a marketing and distribution agreement with them.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Collaboration between the companies will begin with USA TODAY and be introduced to other Gannett newspaper and broadcast operations, including Captivate Network. This will include promotion of 4INFO’s mobile real-time information such as sports scores and weather within relevant sections of USA TODAY.

Congrats to the 4INFO team. Could today's announcement be the beginning of a time where we see other large media organizations getting more involved in the mobile search space? We will be watching.

Next, UpSnap, another mobile search company has acquired XSVoice, a mobile entertainment company. The news release focuses on how XSVoice will now allow UpSnap users to receive streaming audio (music, news, sports, etc.) via their mobile phone or device. The UpSnap home page today includes links to how to access this streaming audio content like this rock music "station."

If I'm not mistaken, UpSnap is leveraging an XSVoice service called the Mobile Broadcast Network (MBN) to power this new feature. MBN has been around for some time (and now shows that is part of UpSnap). I've used it several times in the past and the audio quality can vary from ok (spoken word, news, etc.) to poor. Of course, various conditions including bandwidth issues, weather, and the quality of your speaker or headset can go a long way in determining the audio quality. I'm looking forward to taking another look at this audio service and seeing what develops. Cool idea.

You can learn more about MBN here. In a nutshell, MBN and now UpSnap allows the user to have audio content delivered by simply dialing a US phone number. The service works on both mobile phones as well as landline phones. Example: To access a station playing ambient music, + Dial: 1-615-727-9201 + Login (Registration, web-based, is free) + Enter the station code for Ambient, 1760 + That's it. Music should begin playing immediately.

Of course, make sure your phone (whatever type it is) offer lots of long-distance minutes (assuming your outside of the 615 area code). Otherwise, this could start costing. The content itself is free.

Web access to the content directory is now available either via UpSnap or on your mobile web browser. Check this page for info.

The biggest question I have about the audio content is that with some mobile phone providers now allowing people to download and/or purchase and play MP3's, iTunes, and even listen to satellite radio, will the audio quality that's now available suffice in the long run? I think the service might have a brighter future focusing on non-music content like interviews, news, and sports. Streaming podcasts anyone? Of course, many Smartphones have offered MP3 players for years. For example, using my Treo and some software for the Palm (Pocket-Tunes), I cannot only play any MP3's but also stream LIVE any station offers an MP3 stream. For example, most Shoutcast stations and feeds are in MP3 format.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:36 PM | Permalink

Mobile Search: Gannett Invests in 4INFO; Upsnap.com Acquires XSVoice, Now Offering Streaming Audio on Your Phone or Device

Two more mobile search items to report today.

A joint press release from mobile search provider 4INFO (a service I blog about and also use very regularly) and media giant Gannett (USA Today is one of their properties) informs us that Gannett is making a minority investment in 4INFO and also entering into a marketing and distribution agreement with them.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Collaboration between the companies will begin with USA TODAY and be introduced to other Gannett newspaper and broadcast operations, including Captivate Network. This will include promotion of 4INFO’s mobile real-time information such as sports scores and weather within relevant sections of USA TODAY.

Congrats to the 4INFO team. Could today's announcement be the beginning of a time where we see other large media organizations getting more involved in the mobile search space? We will be watching.

Next, UpSnap, another mobile search company has acquired XSVoice, a mobile entertainment company. The news release focuses on how XSVoice will now allow UpSnap users to receive streaming audio (music, news, sports, etc.) via their mobile phone or device. The UpSnap home page today includes links to how to access this streaming audio content like this rock music "station."

If I'm not mistaken, UpSnap is leveraging an XSVoice service called the Mobile Broadcast Network (MBN) to power this new feature. MBN has been around for some time (and now shows that is part of UpSnap). I've used it several times in the past and the audio quality can vary from ok (spoken word, news, etc.) to poor. Of course, various conditions including bandwidth issues, weather, and the quality of your speaker or headset can go a long way in determining the audio quality. I'm looking forward to taking another look at this audio service and seeing what develops. Cool idea.

You can learn more about MBN here. In a nutshell, MBN and now UpSnap allows the user to have audio content delivered by simply dialing a US phone number. The service works on both mobile phones as well as landline phones. Example: To access a station playing ambient music, + Dial: 1-615-727-9201 + Login (Registration, web-based, is free) + Enter the station code for Ambient, 1760 + That's it. Music should begin playing immediately.

Of course, make sure your phone (whatever type it is) offer lots of long-distance minutes (assuming your outside of the 615 area code). Otherwise, this could start costing. The content itself is free.

Web access to the content directory is now available either via UpSnap or on your mobile web browser. Check this page for info.

The biggest question I have about the audio content is that with some mobile phone providers now allowing people to download and/or purchase and play MP3's, iTunes, and even listen to satellite radio, will the audio quality that's now available suffice in the long run? I think the service might have a brighter future focusing on non-music content like interviews, news, and sports. Streaming podcasts anyone? Of course, many Smartphones have offered MP3 players for years. For example, using my Treo and some software for the Palm (Pocket-Tunes), I cannot only play any MP3's but also stream LIVE any station offers an MP3 stream. For example, most Shoutcast stations and feeds are in MP3 format.

Posted by Kevin Heisler at 1:36 PM | Permalink

January 10, 2006

AOL Acquires Truveo Video Search and Crawling Technology For Undisclosed Sum

News from AOL this morning that they've acquired video search engine and video crawling technology, Truveo, for an undisclosed sum. The deal was formally signed on December 21st and is being made public today.

Truveo first went launched in beta last summer and we blogged about it here. Truveo technology crawls the open web for video files using a technology they developed called "visual crawling."

From the Truveo site: For video to be searchable, it is also necessary to collect meaningful text metadata to associate with each video file. Of course, we rely on standard techniques, such as mining closed-caption transcripts and importing RSS feeds. The vast majority of video on the web, however, does not have any closed-caption or RSS metadata available...Whenever our visual crawlers find a new video on the web, they can also "visually" examine the context of the surrounding web application. In most cases, this examination reveals a bounty of rich and detailed metadata related to every video.

A quick search using Truveo's advanced search interface last night found up content from numerous sources including Reuters, CNN, BBC News, Fox Sports, and MSNBC.

So, as of today AOL owns both Truveo and Singingfish multimedia search sites and their crawling technology. Seattle-based Singingfish was acquired by AOL in 2003 and still maintains a standalone site along with a presence on the AOL Video Search site. It will be worth watching how AOL uses each technology.

According to AOL, look for the Truveo technology to begin appearing on AOL Video in the next few months.

As I've pointed out before, AOL continues to develop into a major player in the video/multimedia search scene. 2005 was a big year for AOL Video Search that included:

• The launch of the new AOL Video Search site. It's an impressive site. I posted this overview on the day it launched.
• Announced several new content partners including Reuters, MTV, and iFilm.
• Had success streaming live and offering archived versions of musical performances from Live 8
• Began beta testing AOL Hi-Q™ that allows high quality (in terms of file size) video files to be downloaded while your computer is idle.

Finally, a few weeks ago we learned that video search is a part of the new Google/AOL deal. The announcement says that both companies will collaborate in, "video search and showcasing AOL's premium video service within Google Video." What this means is still to be determined. Where will AOL video results appear on Google Video results pages? How many results will be shown? Will they be separated into their own section or merged with Google results? Will both companies eventually negotiate together for new content? As they say, especially in the world of video, stay tuned.