Monday Links: The Sky Is Falling for Google?
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Written By Reprise Media | August 21, 2006 | Share This
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July’s comScore figures are in, and…can it be? Has Google actually lost share of the search market to arch rival Yahoo!? Blogs exploded with the apparent news, but Danny Sullivan helpfully stops by to calm…people…down. “Crisis for Google? Way, way too early to be saying stuff like that…I want to see several months of trending data from a particular player before I start issuing panic calls.” Sullivan also cautions that we’re only looking at one set of numbers - comScore’s - and that figures are often revised. In other words, deep breath…exhale…links:
It’s the blame game - let’s do Maureen! Given the uproar that resulted two weeks back when AOL published its users’ personal search data, we figured it couldn’t be long until a high mucky-muck over there stepped down or otherwise exited their employment. Enter Reuters; they say today that CTO Maureen Govern has resigned, quoting an “internal company memorandum” (either that, or she was fired, which is what the Wall Street Journal reported). Govern headed the division that accidentally loosed the search data, and it appears that two other research employees share her fate. Adding insult to injury, the Washington Post says that, according to the leaked data, “Google” is the most-queried term on AOL’s search engine.
We’re hip. We’re cool. We’re happenin’ fools. Speaking of the Washington Post, they’re trying to strut their new media stuff by cozying up to what MediaPost is calling “B- and C-” list bloggers. WaPo’s new Sponsored Blogroll experiment is a system whereby some kinds of blogs - they’re looking for low-profile “blogs that focus on Technology, Business, Health, Automotive and Travel topics” - will get linked on the washingtonpost.com homepage. Meanwhile, Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive will try to connect the chosen blogs with advertisers “who are looking for the next big, slightly-outside-the-mainstream idea.” Allbusiness, Bootsnall and Creative-Weblogging have already signed up as partners. One drawback? Let’s just say that unless we told you the “blogroll” is at the bottom of the right hand column of the Post’s website, you might not be lucky enough to trip over it.
The music is like, sacred, man We all know that some very big fish in the rock n’ roll ocean have been fighting tooth and nail to keep their songs out of online stores like iTunes, among them acts like Led Zeppelin, Garth Brooks and Radiohead. And while it can be argued that there are some legitimate reasons for artists to keep their music offline (lower profits, for one) this Wired piece reports a few excuses that sound utterly bogus. Says manager Ed “Punch” Andrews, who handles iTunes holdouts like Bob Seger and Kid Rock, “We’ve always thought certain artists put out albums that aren’t meant to be compilations with 50 other artists.” Uh, “Punch?” You’ve heard of “the radio,” right? No offense, but we bet waaaay more people have heard “Night Moves” during a classic rock block than sandwiched between a couple of filler tracks on an LP side. But even the most stubborn rockers appear to be softening their anti-iTunes stances. Metallica joined the iTunes fray only weeks ago, and Beatles tracks are said to be in the middle of remastering for online release - although admittedly we last heard that back in April.
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