Microsoft, Yahoo may finally embrace with search, advertising deal
Update: Such a deal has just been announced.
Yahoo and Microsoft are close to a search and advertising deal that would finally bring them together in a fight against Google’s dominance, according to the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo would use Microsoft’s Bing search engine for its properties and handle sales for some text ads in search results. The deal would deliver the pair 30 percent of the search market against Google’s 65 percent.
For Microsoft, the agreement… Continue Reading
LightPole’s software mobilizes web sites and adds geo-context
Putting “geo-context” into information is a hot topic these days on the mobile web.
The phrase means making data more useful by putting geographic context behind it, like listing all of the wireless Internet hot spots nearest you on a map on the phone. Adding geo-context to the mobile web is what LightPole, a start-up that launches today, is banking its business on. LightPole says it can take just about any web site and turn it into… Continue Reading
Roundup: Jajah attacks Skype, Nokia-Navteq, YouTube’s Adsense, Yahoo’s lag
Here’s the latest action:
–Jajah goes after Skype’s turf on eBay
–Nokia buys Navteq, what does Google do?
–YouTube intros Adsense
–Yahoo lags on universal search
–Viacom backs DRM
–Technorati’s new CEO
–Costs of a start-up
Jajah tries to exploit Skype dissatisfaction, releases button for eBay — Now that eBay has admitted the Skype acquisition didn’t pan out as expected, and that the Skype co-founder Zennstrom has left earlier than the desired retention date of 2008-2009, eBay is probably pretty fed up with the… Continue Reading
Yahoo to acquire advertising company, BlueLithium, for $300M
Yahoo, the media portal that is under pressure to catch up with Google, has agreed to acquire BlueLithium, an online advertising company, for $300 million in cash.
Here’s the statement.
BlueLithium, based in San Jose, Calif, but with offices around the globe, is a large, fast-growing online global ad network. It’s just the latest company to be gobbled up by Yahoo and its competitors Google and Microsoft, as the three seek to attain size in an industry… Continue Reading
Sedo, and the Boobtube.com problem
Sedo, the world’s largest domain name auctioneer, sold a popular URL, Boobtube.com, for $41,688 last week, but then turned around and canceled the sale because the seller didn’t really own it.
This auction had lasted more than two weeks, and was frenetic.
The cancellation raises prickly questions about the nascent domain name exchanges, which are handling several hundred million dollars of trades. Are they trustworthy? Are they open to market manipulation?
This might be pardonable if it were… Continue Reading
Yahoo just needs to fix one thing: Monetization
Everyone seems to be chapping Yahoo’s hide these days, including even Yahoo itself — or at least one very audible Jerry Maguire over there. However while many large companies could benefit from more focus and cost-cutting, neither issue is really at the core of the company’s problems. Yahoo is still #1 in both users and page views, and will remain a leading internet property for the foreseeable future. And though some critics contend Yahoo is spread… Continue Reading
Googlogy, and how to avoid the Google Juggernaut
It used to be de rigueur in Silicon Valley to stay out of the way of Microsoft’s product road map • even areas Microsoft hinted they might pursue. Nowadays, venture folks more commonly ask, “What are you going to do about Google?”
The reality of the marketplace is that unless a startup builds a huge community, Google pays only around $50 million for a company (if you’re lucky) and then only if they want to… Continue Reading