Yahoo Chief Predicts Problems For Google

Carol Bartz, the head of Yahoo! has suggested Google faces ‘a problem’ if it does not diversify its business. In an interview with the BBC, Ms Bartz claimed that Google’s problem is they are only known for search.

Yahoo! has an audience of more than 200 million according to analysts Nielson, and is one of the largest sites in the world yet Ms Bartz reveals only half of it is used for search. They compete with Google in the search market, who according to Comscore currently hold 65% of the US market compared to Yahoo!’s 17%.

But Ms Bartz has hit out claiming search is 99.9% of Google’s business and they must find other avenues to explore. Yahoo! own more than 70 websites and services but has been criticised for not making use of acquisitions and growing too large.

UK Mobile Advertising Is Booming

The latest report from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) shows that mobile business is thriving. The IAB Mobile Adspend Survey for 2009, shows expenditure on mobile phone advertising soared by 32% year on year resulting in a total spend of £37.6 million.

Entertainment and media, as well as telecoms brands were revealed as the biggest mobile advertisers. Paid-for search and display formats exceeded advertising spend expectations with mobile search growing by more than a third year on year to reach a total spend of £20.2 million. Mobile display expenditure reached a total ad spend of £17.4 million, up 24%.

Behind the growth in display was a 26% increase year on year, in expenditure on banners and text links, bringing the total ad spend to £14.6 million. The mobile advertising sector is looking very healthy indeed, despite an overall contraction in the advertising sector in 2009.

Facebook Embeds Itself Further Into The World Wide Web

Facebook announced yesterday a new set of social plug-ins which will extend Facebook’s influence and presence on the web. This could propel it to new heights of social networking as it plans to turn the web into a social platform.

The new social plug-ins will allow users to browse the web while interlinking with Facebook, effectively taking their friends with them as they browse. A Facebook user will be able to personalise the things they see; photos, music, stories, by clicking a ‘like’ button. This will then share the content with friends on Facebook.

The service will only be available on third party sites that have partnered with Facebook; so far, 30 partners have signed up, including several UK brands such as LoveFilm and Sky.

Google Launch New Advertising Feature For Local Business Market

Google is to tap into the local merchant market by opening up a new advertising feature to local businesses. Google’s former site for local business owners, the ‘Local Business Center’ has now been re-named ‘Google Places’.

Google Places is a site where local businesses can advertise and make use of a host of new features developed to encourage small and medium-sized businesses to use Google more often. Google Places was originally launched last September and allows people to make more informed decisions about where to go, by providing information from the best sources on the web. This data is made up of reviews, photos and essential facts about local restaurants, businesses, shops, parks, hotels, etc.

Google Places will continue to offer the same tools as before, as well as some new features. The move simply marks Google’s commitment to provide local business owners with the chance to better connect with consumers and manage their Google presence online.

Companies Invest More Money In Advertising

More businesses are raising advertising budgets instead of cutting back according to the latest Bellwether survey which monitors the advertising industry. For the first time in two and a half years, companies are feeling optimistic about advertising and as a result more companies are spending more on advertising than they had originally planned.

The survey which has been released today shows 21 per cent of companies have raised their advertising budget, in comparison with 16 per cent that have made cut-backs. Of all the companies asked, 42 per cent said they felt optimistic about their companies’ financial prospects while 20 per cent were less optimistic.

The report also shows that internet marketing spend grew for a third quarter in a row, which follows the latest bi-annual report from the Internet Advertising Bureau which stated that internet advertising expenditure grew by 4.2 per cent between 2008 and 2009.

Social media advertising, faster broadband and more internet users have all been linked with the increase in online advertising spend.

Twitter Succumbs To Social Media Marketing Demand and Allows Ads

Social networking site Twitter is the latest website to succumb to the demand for social media advertising. The popular site is now allowing advertisements in the form of ‘promoted tweets.’

The ‘promoted tweets’ can be used by advertisers to reach Twitter’s 25 million users, as they appear at the top of search lists when users type in keywords. These tweets will be labelled as ‘promoted’ but in future Twitter plan to allow advertisements on their homepage when users log in. These will be tailored to that user’s specific interests determined by the activity on their account.

This will be the first time since Twitter’s launch two and a half years ago, that the site has been able to make any money. Initially Twitter was set up as a blogging site where users can ‘tweet’ their activity throughout their daily lives.

Google Rank Websites Using Load Speed

Google is starting to rank websites in search results by taking into account the speed in which the site takes to load. The changes have been made due to web users preferring sites which load quickly.

This could spark a wave of panic as webmasters take to website optimisation to prevent losing their positions in Google’s search results. However Matt Cutts from Google is urging people not to worry as the changes will affect less than 1 per cent of search results.

Google will continue to place more weight on factors like relevancy, reputation, topicality etc when ranking web pages. You may wish to use website optimisation tools to help improve the speed of your site, just to be sure you won’t be affected by the changes.

For more information, view Matt’s video where he talks about the relevancy of site speed.

Improve SEO through Social Media Sites

If you’re struggling to get yourself or your business noticed in search engine results then social media sites could be the saviour you’ve been waiting for. The Yahoo! Advertising Blog backs up the importance of organisations getting involved with social media, as it can drastically improve your visibility in search engine results.

By signing up for accounts and creating profiles on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, you could enhance your search engine optimisation strategy and find yourself high up in search results. It’s cost effective (actually it’s free!) and relatively easy to sign up to these sites. The more sites you’re signed up to, the more results relating to your name or business will appear.

In order to maintain visibility however, it may not be as simple as signing up to certain sites- to get the most out of your account and improve SEO, profiles and accounts should be maintained and updated regularly. Britain currently has the highest number of people in the world logging onto Facebook and Twitter via mobile phones.

Google and Nintendo Launch Search Engine Game

It’s undeniable that the popularity of playing games on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter is really taking off, so could this be the reason Google have teamed up with Nintendo to launch a game based around a search engine?!

Disappointing for some (or maybe not), the game called ‘And-Kensaku’ will only be available in Japan and is being designed for the Wii console. Players will battle it out to generate the most search engine results by guessing the most popular web search terms.

Launching on April 29th, the game is based on Google’s search engine and can be played offline with 10,000 pre-stored words and phrases, or online to compete in additional challenges.