Archive for January, 2010

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Digg Launches New Extensions for Firefox and Chrome

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Digg has launched new extensions for the Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome web browsers. “A month ago, we announced new capabilities that let developers create writable applications with the Digg API,” says Dig’s Chris Howard. “We decided to put this to work ourselves and update our original Firefox Extension and also create a new Google Chrome extension at the same time. In both cases, you can now Digg stories as you browse the web, without having to come back to the Digg site each time.”

The Chrome extension will include the Digg count for any URL. It will display to the right of the browser’s address bar, users can click it to see the title and comment count for that URL, as well as the button to “Digg” it.

There’s more to this with the Firefox extension. It improves upon the existing Firefox extension. Digg has moved the Digg count and button to the navigation bar so that the toolbar doesn’t have to open for users to Digg stories. The toolbar itself is smaller and added a keyboard shortcut functionality to make it easier to show and hide it. “This makes it really simple to check out the Digg story details for a URL and then close it when you’re done,” says Howard.

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Broadband Users Less Likely To Abandon Job Search

Tuesday, January 26th, 2010

Americans are taking advantage of the Internet even more now as they continue to actively search or jobs and less likely to drop out of the labor force than those without Internet access, according to a study done by the Phoenix Center.

According to the study, users are at least 50 percent less likely to give up searching for a job because of discouragement than those not using the Internet. “By connecting Americans to jobs and information about job opportunities, Internet usage feeds hope and encourages frustrated workers to keep on looking even when job prospects are dim,” according to Phoenix Center President Lawrence J. Spiwak. “These findings suggest that broadband connectivity can contribute to economic recovery.”

“Our study also shows the enormous potential benefit of community broadband centers for those who are not connected at home,” Spiwak adds. “While broadband use at home delivers significant benefits, shared facilities can be a valuable solution to connectivity gaps in unserved and underserved communities.”

The U.S. Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, who are responsible for the government’s monthly data on employment and unemployment, estimates adding, discourage workers,” as defined by the Bureau, who quit looking for a job as of December 2009, would boost the current U.S. jobless rates above the recent reported 10 percent level.

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Google Still Rules The Global Search Market

Monday, January 25th, 2010

The U.S. is still the largest search market worldwide, while Google is still in the commanding position in the global search market, according to comScore.

“The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president.

“Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behavior among Internet users that drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks. If you equate the advancement of search with the ability of humans to cultivate information, then the world is rapidly becoming a more knowledgeable ecosystem.”

The total global search market had more than 131 billion searches of people 15 or older in December 2009, which is a 46 percent increase in the past year. To break down the numbers, it represents more than 4 billion searches a day, 175 million per hour and 29 million per minute. The U.S. is the largest individual search marketing in the world with 22.7 billion searches, about 17 percent of searches globally.

Google sites were the top search property worldwide with 87.8 billion searches in December, 66.8 percent of the global search market. Google sites saw a 58 percent increase in search query volume over the past year. Yahoo sites ranked second globally with 9.4 billion searches, which is up 13 percent.

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Google Narrows Down Mobile Ad Targeting

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Google announced that the company would now make sure that ads linking up to mobile app would download automatically and appear only on devices that actually offer those apps. Also, these ads will display a “download” link as opposed to a URL.

“Simply include ‘itunes.apple.com/’ or ‘market.android.com/’ followed by the app name in the ad’s visible URL, and it will automatically display as ‘Download iPhone App’ or ‘Download Android App,’” says Katrina Kurnit of Google’s Inside AdWords crew.

Advertisers will have the option to select specific devices or carries for their ads in general.

“If you’ve chosen to show ads on iPhones and other mobile devices with full Internet browsers, you can now target specific mobile devices or carriers,” says Kurnit. “This feature makes it easier for you to reach the right users if you have a carrier- or device-specific message. This includes landing pages that have been optimized for a specific device, billing relationships with certain carriers, or mobile apps developed for a specific platform. For example, if you sell iPhone cases, you can use device targeting to ensure that users with Android phones won’t see your ads.”

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Kaboodle Adds Real-Time Product Search

Monday, January 25th, 2010

The online social shopping service Kaboodle announced today that it’s re-launching its Web site to improve its product-discovery search engine. The company has improved its end-user experience by offering real-time product search, which give customers the ability to see products that are the most popular based on user-set parameters, such as, items from a specific store, within a specific category, and related items.

Users can see a timeline around product discovery on Kaboodle, creating relevance, context, and value by knowing something is popular based on a particular time frame. This is the start of an ongoing initiative to create and improve Kaboodle’s real-time product search, which will leave to the rollout of more upgrades throughout the year.

This is the beginning of an ongoing initiative to create and improve Kaboodle’s real-time product search and will lead to the rollout of more upgrades throughout the year.

“Our enhanced product discovery engine provides an even richer, more relevant and more personalized shopping experience for our users, making it easy for shoppers to find the great products added by our fast growing community in a very simple way,” said Manish Chandra, CEO and co-founder of Kaboodle.

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YAHOO! Terms and Conditions Change

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

On February 16, 2010, YAHOO!’s advertiser Master Terms and Conditions and Program Terms will be modified to reflect recent changes to their products and services. Please review the new version here as you continue to use YAHOO! advertising products on and after it changes on February 16th.

You can also view the current Master Terms and Conditions and Programs Terms, which will stay in effect until February 15th here. The new modified version will be found at that same URL.

The changes made to the Mater Terms and Conditions and Program Terms include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

  • Removal of some Programs that have been discontinued
  • Addition of two new Programs
  • Liberalization of cancellation rights in the Display Advertising Program Terms
  • Clarification of data usage rights

Please note that certain Program Terms within the new Master Terms and Conditions will not apply to you if you have not enrolled in those Programs.

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Google’s Stock Falls Despite Strong Numbers

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Google’s latest earnings report came out and the search giant is doing well during the fourth quarter of 2009. The only thing is, many people were hoping, or even wanting, it to do better because the stick has taken a plunge in after-hours trading.

Now here’s the good news. Google generated $4.95 billion in net revenue, topping a consensus estimate of $4.92 billion. The company reported $6.79 in terms of earnings per share, even though they were estimated to hit closer to $6.50.

Eric Schmidt thinks the company is right on track. “Google had a strong fourth quarter, with 17% year over year revenue growth,” he said in a statement. “Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year. As we enter 2010, we remain hugely optimistic about the Internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider web.”

Anyone who bought Google’s stock just before the closing of the market and earnings report coming in came out has lost a good amount of money; Google’s stock is down 4.33 percent in after-hours trading at the moment.

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Mozilla Says New Firefox 20% Faster Than Last Version

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

Mozilla has launched the latest version of its popular Firefox web browser, version 3.6. They say the new version is 20 percent faster than the previous version for web searching. The new features include:

  • Personas: Personalize the look of your Firefox by selecting new themes called Personas in a single click and without a restart
  • Plugin Updater: To keep you safe from potential security vulnerabilities, Firefox will now detect out of date plugins
  • Stability improvements: Firefox 3.6 significantly decreased crashes caused by third party software – all without sacrificing our extensibility in any way
  • Form Complete: When filling out an online form, Firefox suggests information for fields based on your common answers in similar field
  • Performance: Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time
  • Open Video and Audio: With the world’s best implementation of HTML 5 audio and video support, now video can be displayed full screen and supports poster frames

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Click Fraud Rate Spikes 25% In Q4

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

The average for attempted pay per click fraud rate has increased from 18.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009 to 25.7 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Anchor Intelligence. The jump in pay per click fraud rate in Q4 happened because of more activity by click fraudsters wanting to take advantage of the increase in holiday ad spend online. The spread of botnets, which is used for automating traffic and coordinating click fraud activity, spiked late in the quarter.

“As botnets become more flexible and resilient, click fraud will be increasingly difficult to identify without a collaborative and systematic, network-based approach,” said Ken Miller, CEO of Anchor Intelligence.

“By releasing this report, we hope to provide a barometer by which the industry can assess the level of threats to online advertising while also conveying the importance of advertising with ad networks and search engines that partner with third-parties to certify their traffic quality.”

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Initiatives to Strengthen YAHOO!’s Search Marketing Marketplace

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

YAHOO! has launch product enhancements designed to give you more transparency into the performances of the traffic you receive. Hoping to strengthen the YAHOO! Search marketing marketplace. This tool will help make it easier to manage campaigns.

Network Distribution
This feature lets you set up campaigns or ad groups targeting YAHOO! Search, YAHOO! Partners or both. While campaign objectives will determine the best use of this, its best that advertisers target the Entire Network to maximize traffic volume while retaining the ability to bid p or down on YAHOO! Partners. For the best control and optimization, duplicate key campaigns with one targeting YAHOO! Search and the other targeting YAHOO! Partners.

Import Campaigns
Import Campaigns is designed to help you easily and efficiently convert your campaign data from Google AdWords into YAHOO! Search Marketing formats. Just download the third-party file and import it from your computer into Sponsored Search interface. Once the import is done, you’ll be able to view any errors and pause the campaigns for review.

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