Bigmouthmedia search engine news: europe

UK affiliate spending hotspots revealed for first time

Tue, 06 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Britain's first survey of affiliate spending on PPC campaigns has been published by bigmouthmedia.

Broken down to regional level, the research provides a fresh perspective on the affiliate map of the UK. Compiled using data from a comprehensive range of networks, the survey reveals that while London and the South East continue to dominate the marketplace, spending elsewhere is beginning to reach significant levels.

"It's very encouraging to see that Scottish affiliates drive 10% of the PPC spend when the 2007 Affiliate Census showed that just 6% of affiliates were based in Scotland. With so many of the affiliate networks based in the South you could be fooled into thinking that this is a London based industry but the spread throughout the UK shows that Affiliate Marketing is an industry where geography doesn't matter," said Fraser Edwards of www.affiliateblog.co.uk.

"Networks & merchants would do well to take note of the results of this survey and ensure they offer the same events and support to affiliates in the UK's regions as they do in London."

Conducted during the first quarter of 2008, the research shows that affiliate spend is fairly evenly spread across the country. While a gap exists between areas like Northern Ireland - where affiliates expend the lowest amount of money on PPC - and high-spending London, in other regions expenditure is now broadly comparable to the size of their local populations and economies.

The analysts behind the report point out that a low percentage of the overall spend does not necessarily equate to a lack of regional affiliate activity however. Instead of investing largely in PPC, many networks are now promoting their sites through search engine optimisation, email marketing or social media.

"It is notable that more than two thirds of all UK affiliate spend identified in the bigmouthmedia survey was from outside London and the South East. We see this as a reflection of the fact that whilst there is still a general London centricity in terms of the affiliate networks themselves, most of the investment and enterprise that is actually driving the process comes pretty well evenly distributed from all corners of the UK," said ClickAngel Director Ed Wilkinson.

View our complete UK affliates PPC spending survey here.

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Where do searchers go after leaving Ask UK?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:00:00 GMT

With the Microsoft-Yahoo-Google tangle dominating search headlines for the last two months, it's been a quiet time for Ask.

The exit of then CEO Jim Lanzone in January was followed by a change in direction from the search engine, which has aimed to concentrate on appealing to and retaining its most loyal followers.

However, recent research by comScore has revealed that Ask's new strategy might not be working as well as it hopes - at least in the UK. According to the figures, Google receives more traffic from users leaving Ask UK than eBay and Microsoft sites, its two closest rivals, combined. March's figures from comScore show that YouTube, Google Search, Blogger properties and Google Maps are highly ranked outgoing traffic sites.

ComScore's Media Metrix "outgoing traffic losses" report indicates the web properties that users browse after visiting Ask UK. The top outgoing traffic sites are dominated by search engines, social networks and portals.

1. Google Sites
2. eBay
3. Microsoft Sites
4. Ask Network
5. Yahoo! Sites
6. BBC Sites
7. Facebook
8. Bebo
9. Wikipedia Sites
10. Yellow Book Network

The combined top ten accounts for nearly 30% of Ask UK's outgoing traffic losses - and the outgoing top ten is a near mirror image of the incoming top ten.

1. Google Sites
2. Microsoft Sites
3. eBay
4. Ask Network
5. Yahoo! Sites
6. BBC Sites
7. AOL
8. Facebook
9. Virgin Media
10. Amazon Sites

ComScore's incoming and outgoing traffic rankings include traffic generated by click through activity, but also takes into account users entering new addresses in their browser bar or selecting bookmarks.

Ask's current CEO is Jim Safka, who also runs IAC's investment arm Primal Ventures. In March, bigmouthmedia reported on Ask's change of direction, through which it hopes to gain the patronage of women searching for information on entertainment and health.

At the time, Charlene Li - an analyst for Forrester Research - (perhaps prophetically) claimed: "It's a smart move. I still think Ask has great technology but it's just really hard to fight against Google."

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Online video viewing 'exploding' in UK

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:00:00 GMT

The online video market is seeing significant expansion in the UK.

This is according to research firm comScore, which has released statistics suggesting that marketers can now benefit from better advertising opportunities as a result of an increase in the number of people viewing online videos.

It said that 87 per cent of the total UK online population viewed a video over the internet in December, equivalent to nearly 28.7 million people.

Just over three million videos in total were viewed by these web users during the month, with each viewer watching about 108 clips on average.

Google sites were found to be the most popular among web users in all countries for online video viewing, with websites owned by the BBC, Microsoft and Yahoo! also proving to be among the most common sources of internet clips for UK web users.

Internationally, Canada saw the highest proportion of its online population view an online video in December, although the US had the highest number of unique viewers at nearly 124.4 million.

"Recent years have seen an explosion in online video viewing, not just in the US but globally, representing a robust online advertising opportunity for marketers," commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore.

A growing number of online properties are expanding into internet videos as their popularity increases, with Yahoo!-owned photo-sharing site Flickr most recently adding the capability to upload video clips for certain paying members and to view them for all registered users.

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Google loses Gmail trademark protection bid

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Internet giant Google has failed in its bid to gain Europe-wide trademark protection for its email service Gmail.

According to a ruling by the European Union (EU), the name is too similar to an existing trademark owned by German businessman Daniel Giersch.

Mr Giersch, who received his trademark in 2000, possesses a trademark for a slogan that includes the name G-mail.

The EU stated that there is "a likelihood of confusion" between the two trademarks and therefore people "will be misled into thinking that the marks indicate a shared commercial origin", Bloomberg reports.

It rejected Google's claim that there was no risk of confusion when looking at Mr Giersch's slogan as a whole.

The businessman has been involved in legal battles with Google ever since the search engine provider launched Gmail, its free web-based email service, in 2004.

He uses a German slogan, which can be translated as "G-mail and the mail really takes off", to promote his electronic mail delivery business.

Commenting on the issue, Greg Sterling, an analyst and principal founder of consulting and research firm Sterling Market Intelligence, stated: "I would expect [Google] to appeal until they have no more legal recourse.

"Ultimately, if they fail, they will have no other way but to create a separate brand."

The next step for Google will be an appeal to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.

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EU watchdog approves French funding of Quaero

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

The EU's competition watchdog approved 99 million euros of French state aid for the search engine project Quaero. The Quaero program was first announced in 2005 by French President Jacque Chirac and involves a consortium of 23 companies, including French technology moguls Thomson as well as a number of public research laboratories and institutions. But the project has not progressed significantly in the last few years due to a lack of funding: costs are estimated to run to 199 million euros in the first five years of the project.

The European Commission has announced satisfaction that the Quaero project "brings positive externalities for the community as a whole". EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said, "We are confident that the positive contribution the programme will make to European research will outweigh any distortion of competition caused by the aid."

However, the project has frequently been referred to as an attempt to challenge Google's dominance in the French search market. Quaero certainly seems to be a program with big plans, namely to develop a consumer search engine that will enable you to search through podcasts and radio and TV broadcasts using speech to text transcription and developing a way to make use of content in different languages.

Ever since the first announcement of the Quaero project there has been scepticism about the ability of a divergent collection of companies to implement a cohesive enough strategy to be considered a viable threat to Google. And two years, as we all know, is a long time in the fast moving world of search.

When the project was first announced, it was presented as a Franco-German attempt to compete with the US search engine giants. But it was back in 2006 that some of the German developers left the project to focus their attentions on a "complementary" search engine called Theseus, which had a German aid scheme approved by the Commission last year.

With Google's share of the French search market approaching 90% last summer, according to Alt Search Engines any competitor is going to find it a long, hard slog to provide any serious competition.

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EU says Google can buy DoubleClick

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

It has been a long, protracted affair but the European Commission has finally followed in the footsteps of its US counterparts - the U.S Federal Trade Commission - and granted approval to Google to conclude their $3.1 million deal for online advertising firm, DoubleClick. The European Commission, the 27-nation EU's antitrust authority in Brussels, said in a statement that the deal can go ahead without conditions, making the acquisition the largest in Google's nine-year history.

Google originally announced the purchase DoubleClick back in April 2007 to help bolster its sales of internet ads that include pictures and videos. However, the deal has been subject to intense grumblings and legal challenges before finally being granted approval by the FTC in December 2007 following an eight month review into possible antitrust violations. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission also performed a review of the proposed purchase before granting its approval in October 2007.

The EU rubber-stamp will come as a blow to Google's competitors, which include rivals Yahoo! Inc and Microsoft Corp, who both expressed grave concerns that the union between Google and DoubleClick would damage competition in the highly lucrative global online advertising market. However, the European Commission felt that the deal would not have a detrimental effect on consumers due to the presence of alternatives, while the new merger would lack the necessary firepower to marginalize Google's competitors.

Upon announcement of the proposed deal last April, Microsoft claimed that the acquisition would place over 80 per cent of the web advertising market into Google's hands. Google have argued that its text-based advertising system complements DoubleClick's graphical display ads, and also that both companies participate in different spheres of the advertising sales and delivery process; thus they were not competitors and not subject to antitrust allegations. Google generates revenue by selling text-based advertisements that appear next to search results, while DoubleClick allows for display ads, which include graphics or animation.

Microsoft bought DoubleClick rival, aQuantive Inc, for $6 billion in May 2007 but still trails Google in web search services. Last month, the software giant's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo! was rejected by the search engine pioneer, but a hostile takeover may still be on the cards as Microsoft tries to close the gap on its rival in Mountain View.

Many of Google's competitors may have hoped that the European Commission and the FTC would veto any deal. But now with the deal rubberstamped, the last regulatory hurdle facing Google has been cleared and the blockbuster deal can now, at last, be finalised.

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Bebo to offer ITV videos

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

ITV's online arm ITV.com has announced the signing of a deal with social networking website Bebo to distribute its television shows for free.

By joining Bebo's Open Media platform the broadcaster will allow some 40 million Bebo users to gain free and open access to a variety of programmes over the internet.

ITV.com will create a member profile on the site, through which a number of media channels will be hosted.

Each channel will be dedicated to a specific show, allowing Bebo users to receive updates on new content by becoming a "fan" of the channel in question. Members will also be able to engage with content such as blogs, galleries and message boards for each show.

The videos will be powered by ITV.com's Brightcove player and will see US show Gossip Girl become the first programme to be distributed via Bebo as well as through ITV2.

"We are delighted to be working with ITV channels to join the Bebo Open Media platform offering their audience access to some of our best and most relevant content," commented Annelies Van den Belt of ITV.com.

"This is a targeted move to promote specific ITV2 shows to the Bebo audience whilst ultimately driving traffic to ITV.com to watch more."

Other firms that have created profiles on Bebo through Open Media include Yahoo! and SpikeTV.
Bebo launched an open application platform in December last year, enabling third party developers to make use of its programming interface to create applications for the website.

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Google 'may bring TV Ads service to UK'

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Google may bring its TV Ads programme to the UK market, a manager with the company has revealed.

Mario Queiroz, the man in charge of Google's product management operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has said that the search engine provider would look at opportunities in the British TV market if trials in the US are successful, the Guardian reports.

Google TV Ads, which is currently being tested in the US, is built on the same basic software as AdWords, the system advertisers use to buy keyword search advertisements on Google and affiliated sites.

Although Google does not produce the TV commercials itself, it has created a network of video production firms that can help new TV advertisers.

The service takes information from set-top boxes and calculates how many people are watching which ads.

According to Google, the application allows organisations to "deliver better, more relevant ads to the viewers [they] care about".

It adds: "Our platform offers better measurement, more accountability and greater optimisation which will enable you to advertise more efficiently and effectively."

If Google did bring its TV Ads service to the UK, the move would represent its first entry into offline advertising in Europe, the Guardian states.

The search engine provider is already working in the offline field of newspapers in the US, running a service which involves working with newspaper groups and local advertisers to help small to medium-sized enterprises place adverts in publications.

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Microsoft fined record €899 million ($1.4 billion) by EU

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

European Union (EU) regulators have fined Microsoft a record €899 million ($1.4 billion) for failing to comply with an antitrust order issued in 2004.

The European commission (EC) dealt the financial penalty - which is the largest ever imposed on a single company by the EU - because the software and internet firm did not fulfil demands that it share vital parts of its software with rival businesses.

Four years ago, Microsoft was fined €497 million after an investigation found that it had behaved in an anti-competitive manner.

Then in 2006, the company was hit with another financial sanction - this time totalling €280.5 million - after it failed to comply with the EC's ruling that it provide some of the code used in its Windows software package to rivals to enable them to develop their own software that works with it.

Commenting on the case, competition commissioner Neelie Kroes stated: "I hope that today's decision closes a dark chapter in Microsoft's record of non-compliance with the commission's March 2004 decision.

"Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an antitrust decision."

Meanwhile, responding to its sentencing, Microsoft stated that the fine concerns "past issues that have been resolved".

Last month, EU regulators began unrelated investigations into whether Microsoft is using its market dominance in spreadsheets and word processing to impede rivals, Bloomberg reports.

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Google generates $2.53bn in UK advertising sales

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Google has reported that it generated advertising sales of $2.53 billion in the UK last year.

The figure, which represents year-on-year growth of 45 per cent compared to 2006, is down from the growth rate of 80 per cent announced in last year's earnings report.

In a US regulatory filing, it was also revealed that the search engine provider's UK sales represented 15 per cent of its total sales for 2007, down slightly from 16 per cent in 2006.

Additionally, Google reported spending $3.1 billion on the acquisition of internet advertising firm DoubleClick and $909.6 million on other purchases during 2007.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Google had been widely tipped by experts to become the biggest single advertising income generator in the UK, overtaking ITV1.

However, on the back of the recent filing, analysts now anticipate that the internet giant will have to wait another year to achieve this milestone.

The publication cites figures provided by media investment management firm Group M which suggest that ITV1 will make in the region of $2.56 billion for 2007.

It goes on to state: "Year-on-year growth of 45 per cent in 2007 is still a dizzying achievement and even if Google fails to top ITV1 in 2007, it is certain to steam past the UK's leading commercial TV channel this year."

ITV1 is set to unveil its full-year figures next month.

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