Yahoo Search Drops, As Does Its Stock
Yahoo gave away 0.6 percent of US search engine market share in March 2007, with Google and Microsoft gaining at Yahoo’s expense by comScore’s numbers. Higher expenses in the first quarter led to shares of YHOO sinking after hours.
Google Drinks Tonic, Readies Presentations
Google added another piece to their Frankenstein-ish productivity suite by acquiring Tonic Systems for its technology, which will allow Google to add a PowerPoint competitor to its Docs & Spreadsheets product.
Ask.com Says It Knows Where Jesus Is
I have a sense of humor. But a lot of people don’t, not when it comes to Jesus. With that in mind, I think I’d be hesitant (nay, 10-foot-pole distanced) to launch an ad campaign with a Jesus joke in it. Ask.com, it would seem, is just brave enough to try.
Billboards and posters have begun appearing in major metropolitan areas (like New York and San Francisco – most likely because this is riskier in the red states) with the slogan:
UK Telecom Comes Down Against Traffic Shaping
It’s often considered lazy writing to start a piece with a quote, but I think that, in this case, it might be necessary.
Wikipedia calls traffic shaping “an attempt to control computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, low latency, and/or bandwidth.”
And now that you know that, know this: a major British telecom does not favor traffic shaping.
VoIP Gaining On Landlines
As broadband penetration continues to grow, so will other services such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and Internet protocol television (IPTV).
Writing For Online Readers Goes Against The Book
It pains me to suggest this, but we must ignore (one of) the teachings of Strunk and White. We must turn our backs on a number of other writing guides. And we must break our own habit of writing out numbers as words.
Instead, we should represent numbers with numerals – a recent eye-tracking study suggests that they’re much more likely to capture online readers’ interest.
Death Knell Chimes For Internet Radio
In March, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board approved a proposal by SoundExchange, working on behalf of the RIAA, which would implement a significant increase in royalty rates for streaming audio providers. Realizing that these rates would put them under, online radio stations banded together in one last desperate appeal to the CRB to reconsider the decision.
Unfortunately for Internet radio providers, and for music lovers around the world, the judges at the CRB denied the appeal headed up by NPR and joined by several online radio stations.
Microsoft Fine-Tunes Branding
Microsoft is making several subtle and smart moves to improve its inconsistent and unimaginative branding schemes:
Pick a Good Partner for New Media Projects
Okay, so I’m continuing with some thoughts here shaking out of my recent RFP posts….
Here’s the situation: you want to starting folding social media strategies, tactics and tools into your company’s PR program, but you’re not sure how exactly you want to approach things and because of that, you’re leaning toward bringing in some outside help. Maybe you’re thinking about a consultant or a small group of specialists or even a large services firm, the tough question is this:
AdWords Introduces Preferred Cost Bidding
AdWords introduced a new bidding option called "preferred cost bidding," an alternative to setting a maximum cost-per-click (CPC). In essence, for the advertiser with less time and/or fewer resources, the option puts AdWords management on Google’s shoulders.