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SEO: Why Microsites Are Weakening Your SEO Results – Dr. Naveel Builds Your Immunity
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Written By Dr. Naveel | July 16, 2008 | Share This
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Benjamin Franklin created the image you see on the left. Published in 1754 it was among the earliest political cartoons in
Lulu Hates Hulu
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Written By Sepideh Saremi | September 6, 2007 | Share This
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NBC/News Corp.’s new video site Hulu has been sued by online self-publishing company Lulu for “trademark infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices and for federal cyberpiracy,” according to a Lulu press release. Lulu’s offerings extend to video, which makes their legal action seem justified.
More important, the irony here is pretty irresistible. Mashable notes, “This latest lawsuit seems to reduce the Hulu project to a farce: after more than five months without a name, the name they do choose gets them slapped with a trademark suit.” Even more farcical? It means “cease” and “desist” in Swahili.
Googlephone a Reality, According to Sources
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Written By Drupad Sil | August 29, 2007 | Share This
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As announced by Ryan Block at Engadget, various ‘very trustworthy’ sources have confirmed a Google mobile device platform, or OS, to be revealed in the near future. The new Google offering, christened by various blogs as the ‘Gphone OS’, is expected to hit handhelds in 1Q 2008, if not earlier.
The new OS apparently began development after Google’s 2005 acquisition of Android, a mobile software company. The Android team is currently shopping around a Linux-based mobile device OS that provides a customizable system, ostensibly with great Google integration. Some people have put the announcement date as early as immediately after Labor Day, though at this point the major suspense is whether the online giant will be offering hardware developed in-house as well (most observers agree that no hardware will probably be offered). There have been many clues in recent months to suggest that Google was planning a big mobile move in the near future. From Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land:
“We’ve seen that they are bundling software on phones. We know they hired mobile phone operating system developers, so releasing something like that wouldn’t be too surprising. We know they want wireless bandwidth and are going after it in at least two different ways, which will likely involve two different types of devices. And they’re still working with the carriers, as well — through multiyear deals that aren’t going to just disappear. And did I mention that free WiFi thing they do in Mountain View?”
So what exactly can we expect in the near future? Details are understandably a little sketchy, but the common consensus on the web is that a launch will occur in Taiwan during Q1 2008. Google is supposedly checking out over twenty different HTC models and refining its final handset design. Users should expect a special version of Google Maps compatible with built-in GPS, as well as compatibility with GMail and Google Calendar. Google Talk will also become part of the phone, adding VoIP technology to whatever hardware Google selects. We carried a story on Google’s acquisition of GrandCentral back in June - ostensibly they’ve been working on this aspect of the gPhone.
Google and Apple have had a great working relationship, so why would Google look to launch a product that may threaten the iPhone? Well, most everyone agrees that the effort, products, and target audience for the two products are very different. From Michael Arrington at TechCrunch:
“Google’s effort is different than the iPhone. They look to be focused mostly on the OS and layering Google applications like Maps and Gmail on top of that, while simultaneously talking to device manufacturers about a number of devices. Apple, instead, took a much more holistic approach in creating the iPhone. Google’s product likely won’t appeal to the mainstream audience that the iPhone attracts…but it probably won’t have a $500 price tag, either.”
Jacqui Cheng at ars technica reaches the same conclusion through different reasoning:
“Unlike many others, we believe that when the gPhone (or gPhones, as the case may be) finally do come out, they won’t be facing Apple as a competitor. The iPhone occupies a mobile market that is far separate from what Google will be targeting with its series of lower-end, consumer-level devices. Google wants as many regular people using its mobile apps as possible, which won’t happen while confined to the iPhone, which is at the very top end of the mobile market. The two aren’t likely to compete in the same space… unless Apple decides to go for the lower-end mobile segment with its rumored iPhone nano.”
We’ll have to wait and see what exactly Google rolls out in the next couple weeks. Suffice to say, it’ll be huge news. Adding to the whirlwind are rumors that Yahoo has actually been developing a mobile device for longer than Google and may be considering an upcoming launch. It seems the next level of the portal wars has arrived.
Yahoo! Unveils Mail Updates as Service Moves Out of Beta
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Written By Drupad Sil | August 27, 2007 | Share This
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Yahoo! has moved the new interface for its mail service out of beta and made it the default interface for all new Yahoo mail accounts. The new interface, in public beta since September 2006, has several new features that will be rolled out this week, including intelligent shortcuts and SMS/text messaging for the U.S., India, Philippines, and Canada.
The new interface is said to be a product of Yahoo!’s 2004 acquisition of Ajax frontrunner Oddpost, with many of the features (and GMail’s) based on ideas first put forth by the small webmail service. Out of the new features, being able to send text messages from a free e-mail account is generating the most buzz. Yahoo! Mail is the first free e-mail service to offer this feature. When coupled with the fact that users will not need to navigate away from their mail webpage to access these text messages and instant messages, it becomes clear that Yahoo! is looking to expand its web service into a real social communication tool.
Another neat interface feature is the service’s smart detection of addresses, appointments, and dates in the body of e-mails. When recognized by the mail server and moused over by the user, maps and directions can be offered within the mail interface, or an option to add the appointment to one’s Yahoo! Calendar is made, greatly increasing convenience. Users can drag and drop messages into folders, open multiple message windows, preview message content, and perform actions via keyboard shortcuts. If all this is too different, users will still have the option of utilizing Yahoo! Mail’s classic version.
The interface change is expected to appeal to an audience that is used to the functionality and features of Google’s GMail, for example. Domestically, Yahoo! is dominant with 83 million users as of July, while worldwide it is neck and neck with MSN’s Hotmail. So how does the new interface stack up to GMail? Michael Arrington at TechCrunch performs the comparison:
“In our comparisons GMail always comes out on top, although the main reason is tagging of messages and the fact that GMail gives free forwarding and POP access to the account. Yahoo still charges $20/year for forwarding or POP access. For users who still like their desktop mail clients, POP access is an important feature. Yahoo says they are considering making it a free option, but they have a lot of paying mail customers. If they make too many features free, they jeopardize that revenue stream. Offering unlimited free storage really pushed the limits, so I don’t expect them to move more features from paid to free any time soon.”
With Yahoo! Mail having been a cornerstone of Yahoo!’s services since its debut, the addition of a new interface and new features is no doubt welcome for users and a relief for the company. We’ll have to see how it stacks up to MSN and GMail, not to mention smaller clients like Orgoo, but this is a big step in the right direction for the web giant.
Business.com Sold for $345M to R.H. Donnelley
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Written By Emily Koh | July 26, 2007 | Share This
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We reported earlier last month that Business.com was up for sale, and it looks like someone’s finally bitten: the business search engine and directory was sold for $345 million to R.H. Donnelley, the yellow pages and local search firm.
From the press release:
“With this transaction RH. Donnelley takes another significant step forward in the online local commercial search marketplace,” said David C. Swanson, chairman and CEO of R.H. Donnelley Corporation. “Upon closing, we will immediately gain a profitable business-to-business vertical that is widely recognized as one of the leaders in the market. We will also gain technology and talent that will accelerate our capabilities with DexKnows.com and other aspects of our digital strategy.”
The deal states that R.H. Donnelley will pay the $345 million in cash and the rest in deferred purchase consideration. PaidContent reports that they beat out several notable competitors in a heated auction, including IAC, Dow Jones, the New York Times and News Corp.
Under the terms of the deal, Business.com’s CEO Jake Winebaum will become the president of R.H. Donnelley’s interactive operations and will oversee its online properties, including DexKnows.com, LocalLaunch, Business.com, Work.com and the Business.com Ad network.
R.H. Donnelley is a directory and online local comercial search company that publishes yellow and white pages for AT&T, Dex and Embarq, among others. They have been making gains into online advertising recently, having re-launched its online local search site, DexKnows.com, last month.
Google, Yahoo Looking to Acquire Rediff.com?
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Written By Emily Koh | July 16, 2007 | Share This
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The Hindustan Times reports today that Google and Yahoo are looking to snap up Rediff.com, India’s third-largest web portal providing news, information, communication, entertainment and shopping services. The potential deal is being valued at close to $1 billion.
At this point, it’s nothing more than an unsubstantiated rumor, with Hindustan Times relying on “investment banking sources,” and Ajit Balakrishnan, Rediff.com’s founder and CEO, came out with a statement saying that the news as “completely untrue,” according to AlooTechie. Speculation of a takeover has been in the works, however, with investment journal Barrons having suggested the same thing earlier this month. Rediff’s stock on NASDAQ also saw a sharp increase last week after launching a website allowing consumers to upload user-generated content for free.
India’s growing global and economic value has everyone trying to gain a foothold there, and acquiring Rediff.com would be a significant move to further penetrate the Indian search market. Other possible players looking into the Rediff deal are rumored to be AOL and MSN, but Mashable thinks that “with a reach in nearly every form of Internet-based communication and entertainment as well as consumer commerce services, Yahoo seems to be the company that would have the most direct interest, though Google’s plans to dominate in as many areas as possible would also hint at its interest in taking over Rediff.”
Business.com for sale; could fetch up to $400M
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Written By Emily Koh | June 22, 2007 | Share This
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Business.com, a Santa Monica, California-based search engine and directory used by businesses
to find products and services, is now up for sale, and is expected to rake in anywhere from $300 million to $400 million, according to insiders.
Entrepreneurs Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton originally purchased Business.com back in 1995 for $7.5 million, making it not just the highest price paid for a domain name at the time, but turning the two into the laughingstock of the community for having forked over so much money for a URL.
It’s come a long way since then, however: Business.com received more than $77.5 million in venture capital from Benchmark Capital, Cahners Business Information, Financial Times Group, Industryclick, Institutional Venture Partners, and McGraw-Hill, according to socalTECH.com. Its EBITDA for 2007 was about $15 million, and its online traffic grew by 50% in the first quarter of 2007 compared to last year.
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan of WatchMojo.com points out that it’s not just an URL up for sale, it’s an actual business:
After all, indeed when Business.com (the URL) was bought for $7.5M, the joke was that the site would not generate $75.M in its lifetime to pay back for the purchase. Then again, the URL was bought at the tail-end of the first boom, which was subsequently followed by a period of anemic ad revenues and lukewarm digital prospects.
But because of that, search advertising took off, and with it did the value of generic URLs… Business.com became a beneficiary both of direct navigation traffic and revenue but also built up its directory and pay-per-click business. It even raised $10M in financing. One would have thought: more madness!
The WSJ notes that media companies like Dow Jones & Co. and The New York Times are expected to be eyeing the sale with much interest. …What, no bid from Rupert Murdoch?
Google Offers Domain Name Registration
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Written By Kate Zimmermann | December 15, 2006 | Share This
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I’m completely unsurprised to report that Google is now offering domain name registration through Google’s Apps for Your Domain. Partnered with GoDaddy and eNom, Google users can spend $10 for a 1 year private domain registration. Currently, .com, .net,.org, .biz, and .info are the only domains available - but more to come. It looks like GoDaddy and eNom, two of the most popular domain registrars, will be handling the back-end work — though Google is technically an accredited registrar (and has been, for about 2 years).
Google Apps for your Domain is already a pretty cool service, and domain registration is like icing on the cake. Most importantly, this makes Google a one-stop-shop for website creation, optimization and monetization. Superior integration of online services is arguably what gives Google its competitive edge. The integration of Adwords/Adsense into all search services makes it possible for Google to vastly underprice competitors in any online market - even GoDaddy can’t beat $10 for a private domain registration. As I’ve written before, this is yet another example of the impending ‘Economics of Abundance‘ that is fueling 2.0 internet growth. From Chris Anderson’s post:
“When the elements that make up a business are sufficiently abundant as to approach free, companies appropriately should view their businesses differently than when resources were scarce (the Economy of Scarcity). They should use those resources with abandon, without concern for waste. That is the overriding attitude of the Economy of Abundance — don’t do one thing, do it all; don’t sell one piece of content, sell it all; don’t store one piece of data, store it all. The Economy of Abundance is about doing everything and throwing away the stuff that doesn’t work. In the Economy of Abundance you can have it all”
The domain name market has already been picked thin by ten years of domainers grabbing ‘all the good names’. By making domains a resource that can be acquired in even greater abundance, will this cause a second rush for names? Better yet - will it popularize some of the less-used endings like .info, .biz, etc?
Google Gets Into Hosting
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Written By Reprise Media | July 28, 2006 | Share This
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Code heads now have an online project-hosting alternative to SourceForge.net, and it’s got Google written all over it. Announced yesterday at the O’Reilly Open Source CONference (OSCON), the excitingly named Google Code Project Hosting is live. Surprisingly, it isn’t in beta, although the FAQ says that it “may not have all features you want or need for your project” yet.
The service can handle project sizes up to 100 megs - open source only, please - and requires a Google account (although no authentication is necessary if you just want to search and browse code). It’s already hosting a number of projects.
The early feedback seems very cautiously optimistic. TechCrunch’s Marshall Kirkpatrick writes that Google is generally perceived to be more reliable than SourceForge, which is “believed to experience too much down time and emphasize enterprise users at the expense of others.” He cautions that “the whole thing looks far less user-friendly than SourceForge,” but that it may not matter as much to techies. Interesting theory…