Internet Search Engines

Sergey Brin lecture at UC Berkeley available on Google Video

2006-09-27T14:09:00.000-05:00

The University of California, Berkeley recently added lectures from university courses and conferences on Google Video. One of the featured lectures is one by Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. Here is a description of the lecture from Google Video:

Search Engines: Technology, Society, and Business. The World Wide Web brings much of the world's knowledge into the reach of nearly everyone with a computer and an internet connection. The availability of huge quantities of information at our fingertips is transforming government, business, and many other aspects of society. Topics include search advertising and auctions, search and privacy, search ranking, internationalization, anti-spam efforts, local search, peer-to-peer search, and search of blogs and online communities. The Instructor, Dr. Marti Hearst, is an associate professor in the School of Information at UC Berkeley, with an affiliate appointment in the Computer Science Division.

Terry Semel interview on Charlie Rose

2006-09-22T09:04:00.000-05:00


Terry Semel,CEO of Yahoo!, was interviewed on yesterday's Charlie Rose show. He was on the second segment running about 19 minutes from 25:09 to 43:56. It was a nice interview where he talked about Yahoo!'s recent earnings warning, Yahoo!'s general business strategy, and the internet in general.

More info on Google's Acquisition Strategy

2006-09-14T09:37:00.000-05:00

Today's Washington Post has a nice article about Google's acquisition strategy. It talks about how Google tries to quietly acquire small companies in the start-up phase rather than making large acquisitions like eBay and Yahoo! have done in the past.

It has a more complete list than an earlier post of mine.

Google's Acquisitions Since Going Public

Date Company Technology

2004
Oct. 27 Keyhole Mapping software
Oct. 30 Zipdash Traffic information to mobile phones
Dec. 15 Where2 Mapping software

2005
March 25 Urchin Software Advertising performance
May 12 Dodgeball.com Mobile social networking
July 20 Akwan Info. Technologies Search engine
Aug. 7 Android Mobile software
Sept. 15 Transformic Search engine

2006
Jan. 5 Reqwireless Mobile Web browsing
Jan. 17 dMarc Advertising
Feb. 14 Measure Map Blog statistics
March 10 Upstartle Web-based word processing
March 14 @Last Software 3D software for architects
April 10 Orion Search
Aug. 15 Neven Vision Facial recognition software

Gannett acquires Planet Discover

2006-05-15T09:16:00.000-05:00

Gannett announced today that it has acquired Planet Discover, a provider of local, integrated search and advertising technology. Planet Discover provides the search engine technology that powers several newspaper and tourism sites. They also provide a Cost per Click (CPC) advertising platform for websites. Rather than showing AdSense ads from Google, the website owner sells his own ads and has a direct relationship with the advertising client.

Rather than partner with Google, Yahoo!, Ask, or Microsoft, it's interesting how Gannett has chosen buy a search company and keep it in-house. While there is some benefit to owning your own search techonology and advertising base, it would seem that someone like Google would be able to provide much better quality search engine and more advertising revenue. By using a major ad platform like Google's AdWords, the Gannett websites would benefit from the auction based system where Google's very large advertising base bids up the advertising revenue. By using thier own advertising system, Gannett has to recruit all its own advertisers and hope they will sufficiently bid up the prices to reach Gannett's user base.

Terry Semel Speaks...

2006-05-13T12:45:00.000-05:00

The Yahoo! CEO was recently interviewed by The New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, and they have posted the video on their website. It is an excellent wide-ranging interview about Yahoo!, the internet, and search. The video lasts one hour.

A few highlights:

Early on, Terry Semel had dinner with Larry Page and Sergey Page and made a informal offer to buy Google.

Semel gave "impartial" advice to Microsoft that they should not start a search engine.

Semel talks about the controversy in China where Yahoo! gave user information to the Chinese government.

Google's Buying Spree Continues

2006-05-11T13:48:00.000-05:00

Google filed their first quarter 2006 10-Q yesterday. In Note 4 of the financial statements, they confirm that they closed on the dMarc Broadcasting acquisition. In addition they disclosed that they acquired four additional companies in the first quarter. They don't give any names though. This is in addition to the 15 companies they acquired in 2005. Any ideas?
During the three months ended March 31, 2006, we also acquired all of the voting interests of four other companies. One of these transactions was accounted for as a business combination. Because the remaining three transactions were with companies considered to be development stage enterprises, they were accounted for as asset purchases in accordance with EITF Issue No. 98-3,... The total purchase price of this business combination and these asset purchases was $79.2 million, which primarily consisted of cash payments of $75.7 million. In addition, we are obligated to make additional cash payments of up to $17.9 million if certain performance targets are met through March 2010.

Google Inc. By The Numbers

2006-04-01T21:24:00.000-06:00

The close of the first quarter provides a convenient time to look at some interesting financial numbers regarding Google Inc.

As of March 31, 2006:

Closing stock price: $390.00
Market capitalization: $119.1 Billion
Cash raised in latest stock offering: $2.06 Billion (before SEC fees and investment banking expenses)

Sergey Brin stock holdings: $12.315 Billion
Larry Page stock holdings: $12.511 Billion
Eric Schmidt stock holdings: $4.857 Billion

Not bad!

Google to be added to the S&P 500

2006-03-23T18:59:00.000-06:00

Standard & Poors just announced that Google (Ticker: GOOG) will be added to the S&P 500 after the market close Fri. March 31st. Google is already up 9% after the close today. Let the fireworks begin...

Google Acquires 15 Companies in 2005

2006-03-16T22:09:00.000-06:00

Google disclosed in today's 10-K filing that they acquired 15 companies in 2005. They "acquired all of the voting interests of nine companies and substantially all of the assets of six other companies."

I can only come up with a few of these companies:

1. Urchin Software - now Google Analytics
2. Dodgeball
3. Akwan Information Technologies
4. Reqwireless
5. Android.com

Anyone know the rest?

Google Inadvertently Releases Financial Projections

2006-03-07T18:42:00.000-06:00

Google filed an interesting 8-K today. After Google's Analyst Day on March 2, Google meant to post the slides for that day's presentations on the investor relations section of its website. Unfortunately for Google, they also posted some comments prepared in early fourth quarter 2005 which were not meant for public consumption. They quickly removed the information from the website, but now in the interest of fairness (and not wanting to be sued), they're releasing the information via a SEC 8-K filing. Here's the scoop:

“Our ads business for the moment is healthy and growing and we’re on a strong trajectory

• projected to grow from $6bn this year to $9.5bn next year based purely on trends in traffic and monetization growth.

But strong competitors are attempting to aggregate traffic

• AdSense margins will be squeezed in 2006 and beyond”;

“To really get down to brass tacks, we’re going to: Execute well on our core ads projects to help us exceed the $9.5bn target (and backfill any AdSense partner loss) and drive advertiser satisfaction”; and
“In terms of estimating [stock-based compensation] charges for 2006, there are two things to consider:

• The amount of the charge related to awards issued prior to 2006 AND the new awards that are issued throughout 2006

• The first part, the amount related to grants prior to 2006, is $342 mm”

The statements regarding $9.5 billion in 2006 ad revenue and AdSense margins were not speaker notes prepared for the Analyst Day presentation, and were inadvertently included in the Analyst Day slides. These statements were instead speaker notes prepared early in the fourth quarter of 2005 for an internal product strategy presentation. These notes were not created for financial planning purposes, and should not be regarded as financial guidance. Consistent with past practice, Google is not providing revenue guidance. In addition, the statement with respect to AdSense margins does not reflect Google’s current expectations.

The statements regarding stock-based compensation were also inadvertently included in the Analyst Day slides. However, the statement regarding the stock-based compensation charge of $342 million, which relates to stock awards granted to employees and directors prior to 2006, is a materially accurate reflection of Google’s current expectations.

Google lures the CEO of A9

2006-02-07T21:53:00.000-06:00

Google has scored another coup. Udi Manber, the former head of A9, Amazon.com's search engine subsidiary, has jumped ship to join Google. Amazon.com has put a lot of effort into improving its search capabilities for use within its own retail sites and as an external search engine. We'll see if this is just a bump in the road or a major stumble.

Microsoft and Google Continue Search Battle on PC Desktops

2006-02-07T08:13:00.000-06:00

The front page of today's Wall Street Journal has a nice article about how Google and Microsoft are battling for space on PC desktops. The article starts by talking about Google trying to get its products preinstalled on PCs, but buried in the article is behind the scenes wrangling about setting the default search engine on a user's PC.

Quoting the WSJ,

After months of back and forth, Microsoft backed down on some, but not all of the debates. Mr. Hachamovitch recently demonstrated the latest test version of Explorer. The built-in search box features options such as "Get Search Providers" and "Change Search Defaults" that enable users to select search engines from AOL, Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN and Yahoo. "Our overriding principle from the get-go is 'respect user choice,'" he says. "There's no desire to do anything other than that."

Microsoft was a stickler on one matter that irked Google. Anyone who upgrades to Microsoft's new browser out this year will automatically inherit their old browser's default search options. In the old browser, that barely mattered, because it didn't include an easy-to-find, built-in box linking to a search engine. The new version does, and that is a problem for Google, which is set as the default for only a tiny fraction of computer users. By contrast, Google handled 46% of U.S. search queries in November, according to research firm Nielsen/NetRatings.
Google wanted Microsoft to ask consumers directly which search service they wanted as a default when upgrading from older versions of Explorer -- a change Microsoft felt was intrusive. Google also wanted to know if users had already selected it as the default search provider in Explorer. "We looked at that as a major privacy violation," Mr. Hachamovitch says.
In December, for these and other reasons, Google refused to sign an agreement with Microsoft relating to the new browser's search capabilities. Microsoft left Google off the list of alternative
search services. A month later, Microsoft notified Google it would be included
on the list with or without a signed agreement, according to people familiar with the matter. Microsoft says after a review of its legal position, it realized it could include Google without a formal pact.

Google Fourth Quarter 2005 Earnings Call Transcript Posted

2006-02-02T09:13:00.000-06:00

Seeking Alpha has a full transcript of Tuesday's analyst conference call discussing Google's 4th Quarter 2005 earnings.

PubSub and Rollyo profiled in the Wall Street Journal

2006-02-02T08:50:00.000-06:00

Walt Mossberg reviews PubSub and Rollyo in the Personal Technology column of today's Wall Street Journal. These two smaller search engines got a favorable review in the column. It is available online here (subscription required).

From their respective websites:

PubSub is a matching service that instantly notifies you when new content is created that matches your subscription. Using a proprietary Matching Engine, PubSub is able to read millions of data sources on your behalf and notify you instantly whenever a match is made.
With Rollyo, you can easily create your own custom search engines, and explore and save those created by others. Rollyo puts the power of Yahoo! Search in your hands, by giving you the tools to create your own personal search engines - with no programming required. All you have to do is pick the sites you want to search, and we'll create a custom search engine for you.

Google Financial Data

2006-01-31T16:14:00.000-06:00

Google has a nice table with financial data updated through 2005 in the Investor Relations section of its website.

Google Reports Fourth Quarter 2005 Earnings

2006-01-31T15:25:00.000-06:00

Google just reported fourth quarter 2005 earnings. You can read the earnings release here. There is also a PDF version available

Gross revenues slightly beat consensus at $1.919 billion compared to a Reuters consensus of $1.917 billion. Revenues ex Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC) matched consensus at $1.29 billion versus a First Call consensus of $1.29 billion.

GAAP net income was $372 million or $1.22 per share on a diluted basis.

VoIP Inc. (VOII) signs an agreement with Google

2006-01-30T13:50:00.000-06:00

Not really search related, but Google news nevertheless. VoIP Inc. (Ticker:VOII) filed an 8-K with the SEC disclosing that it has signed an agreement to provide Voice over IP (VoIP) services to Google.

From the 8-K,

On September 1, 2005, [VoIP Inc.]'s VoiceOne Communications subsidiary entered into a Master Service Agreement with Google Inc. to supply Voice-over-Internet Protocol ("VOIP") services. The agreement contemplated a period of trial usage to determine compatibility. During October 2005 a series of purchase orders were issued for the interconnection of production of VOIP traffic, and Registrant has now effectuated a direct peering relationship with Google for the transport of such services at multiple locations. Registrant anticipates that material sales of its services will commence during 2006. No material revenues were realized by Registrant under the Agreement during the year ended December 31, 2005.

Microsoft reports lower search revenue in the latest quarter

2006-01-27T11:43:00.000-06:00

Buried in the 10-Q that Microsoft filed yesterday is some information on how their search business is doing. Bottom line: Not well.

Microsoft doesn't disclose exactly how money they got from search, but it's clear that search revenue declined year over year. While search volume went up, revenue per search went down dramatically. They attribute the decline to the ramp up of MSN adCenter and lower revenue from text ads from Yahoo! Search Marketing. The transition from Yahoo! to MSN adCenter is going to cause some short term pain.

From Microsoft's 10-Q for the period ending 12/31/05:

Advertising revenue increased $40 million or 12% in the second quarter and $100 million or 16% in the first half of fiscal year 2006 due primarily to growth in display advertising on our portals, channels, email, and messaging services. Display revenue showed over 20% growth in both the three and six months ended December 31, 2005. Search revenue was impacted by an estimated 20% and 17% reduction in Revenue per Search (RPS) during the three and six months ended December 31, 2005. This reduction in RPS resulted from the ramp-up of MSN adCenter and lower than expected performance from partner driven search advertising prices, which was partially offset by low to mid-double digit growth in search volume in the second quarter and the first half of fiscal year 2006.
MSN expects increased growth in our display advertising revenue as the portals, channels, and communications services continue to expand globally and the overall Internet advertising industry continues to expand. However, we expect our overall advertising growth to continue to be tempered by the launch and ramp-up of MSN adCenter and the related pressure on our search advertising prices.

Bear Stearns' speculation on Google Tunes

2006-01-27T11:35:00.000-06:00

John Battelle has posted a PDF version of a short Bear Stearns analyst report dated Jan 26, 2006 on his blog. In the report, Bear Stearns Analyst Robert Peck speculates that Google is in the midst of building a music store to compete with Apple's iTunes.

Yahoo! Giving Up?

2006-01-23T11:15:00.000-06:00

Some quotes from a Bloomberg article today...

``We don't think it's reasonable to assume we're going to gain a lot of share from Google,'' Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. ``It's not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our marketshare.''
``It kind of makes you wonder about how serious they are about search,'' said Danny Sullivan, editor of London-based SearchEngineWatch.com, which tracks the search industry. ``It really ought to be their goal'' to be No. 1, he said. ``Whether it's realistic or not.''
``We have held our own and we should gain revenue share in the industry as we roll out these new initiatives,'' Decker said in the telephone interview after the company reported earnings last week. ``Our goal has been to hold our share and to be a leading, if not the leading, total marketing platform, which would include both brand and search.''

Competition for Google in South Korea

2006-01-20T08:14:00.000-06:00

This week's BusinessWeek has an article about a South Korean search engine company called NHN. NHN accounted for nearly 40% of online ad revenue in 2005 compared to Google's 2% share of search-related ad revenue. NHN's stock price had a bigger percentage gain in 2005 than Google's.

If you know Korean, try out the search engine at http://www.naver.com.

Yahoo! 4Q2005 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

2006-01-18T12:57:00.000-06:00

Seeking Alpha has a full transcript of last night's analyst conference call discussing Yahoo!'s 4th Quarter 2005 earnings.

MSN Search Adds 1 Million Facts

2006-01-18T08:20:00.000-06:00

MSN Search's Weblog announced yesterday that their search engine has added about one million facts to their database. MSN Search will now give you direct answers to topics such as baseball stats, football stats, weather facts, names of world government officials, and holiday information.

Thomas Weisel Partner's Internet Monthly

2006-01-17T21:21:00.000-06:00

John Battelle has posted a PDF version of Tomas Weisel Partner's Internet Monthly on his blog. This is a 65 page report covering internet trends.

Google to Acquire dMarc Broadcasting

2006-01-17T08:16:00.000-06:00

From the press release:

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 17, 2006--Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG - News) today announced it has agreed to acquire dMarc Broadcasting, Inc., a Newport Beach, Calif.-based digital solutions provider for the radio broadcast industry.
dMarc connects advertisers directly to radio stations through its automated advertising platform. The platform simplifies the sales process, scheduling, delivery and reporting of radio advertising, enabling advertisers to more efficiently purchase and track their campaigns. For broadcasters, dMarc's technology automatically schedules and places advertising, helping to increase revenue and decrease the costs associated with processing advertisements.
In the future, Google plans to integrate dMarc technology into the Google AdWords platform, creating a new radio ad distribution channel for Google advertisers.
"Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted, measurable advertising to other forms of media," said Tim Armstrong, vice president of Advertising Sales, Google. "We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google's expansive network of advertisers with dMarc's talented team and innovative radio advertising technology. We look forward to working together to continue to grow and improve the ecosystem of the radio industry."
"We are excited to be joining one of the most innovative companies in the world," said Chad Steelberg, CEO of dMarc Broadcasting, Inc. "We are bringing together complementary visions of
simplicity, efficiency, and accountability to the radio advertising process."
dMarc customers will not experience any interruption in service. For more information on dMarc Broadcasting, please visit www.dmarc.net.
Transaction and Financial Information
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Google will acquire all of the outstanding equity interests in dMarc, a privately held company, for total up-front consideration of $102 million in cash. In addition, Google will be obligated to make additional contingent cash payments from time to time if certain product integration, net revenue and advertising inventory targets are met over the next three years. The maximum amount of potential contingent payments is $1.136 billion over the next three years. Since these contingent payments are based on the achievement of performance targets, actual payments may be substantially lower. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. Google anticipates that the acquisition will close in the first quarter 2006. Substantially all of the payments will be accounted for as part of the purchase price for the transaction.

Larry Page in the spotlight

2006-01-14T10:16:00.000-06:00

There is a nice article about Larry Page and Google in this week's Economist magazine titled St. Lawrence of Google.

You can also view or read a transcript of Larry Page's keynote address of the 2006 CES at a new addition to the Press section of Google website called Google Podium. You can find transcripts and webcasts of many presentation from Google employees at Google Podium. Hopefully, they will keep this up to date with every public presentation from Google.

Yahoo! to Announce Fourth Quarter Earnings on Jan 17th

2006-01-13T08:17:00.000-06:00

Yahoo! will announce 4Q 2005 financial results on Tuesday, January 17, 2006 after the stock market closes. The earnings conference call will be at 5:00 PM ET/2:00 PM PT.

A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed at http://yhoo.client.shareholder.com/earnings.cfm.

Google begins to monetize Google Maps

2006-01-12T15:50:00.000-06:00

Google has quietly introduced Sponsored Links within Google Maps. If you do a search for hotels in New York on Google Local, you will see some results with blue balloons that are paid results as opposed to organic.

This seems to be in a testing phase because these links aren't widespread on Google Maps, and Google hasn't publicly told advertisers how to pay for placement on Google Maps.

This was first reported by David Galbraith.

Google Upgrades the Mini

2006-01-12T15:21:00.000-06:00

Today is the one year anniversary of the Google Mini, a hardware product from Google which enables organizations to search their internal network. The original Google Mini can index up to 100,000 documents and costs $2,995. Today Google has introduced a version that can index 200,000 documents for $5,995 and version that can index 300,000 documents for $8,995. Previously, customers had to spend $30,000 for the full Google Search Appliance, if they needed searching capacity beyond 100,000 documents.

Apparently the Google Mini is selling well, from Forbes.com:

"The Mini has been a success beyond what we could have imagined," said Rajen Sheph, product manager of Google's enterprise division. "Thousands of customers have already deployed it and it has a kind of appeal that we wouldn't have anticipated."

Google Local now available on Blackberry devices

2006-01-12T08:02:00.000-06:00

Blackberry and Google announced this morning that Google Local is now available on the Blackberry wireless platform.

Google Local for mobile enables BlackBerry users to view maps and satellite imagery, find local businesses and get driving directions on their BlackBerry handsets. Google Local for mobile provides draggable maps, directions and imagery, as well as a "click to call" feature. Google Local for mobile will store any addresses you have typed in or used for directions for quick and access to previous locations. The satellite imagery viewing of Google Local for mobile allows users to zoom in on an image for a closer look at the terrain, zoom out for a grander perspective, or move the map in any direction. This interactive satellite view gives you a chance to explore and evaluate your locations in far greater detail.

Google Local for mobile is available for download for free at www.google.com/glm.

Also announced was that Google Talk will be available for Blackberry this spring.

Google to Announce Fourth Quarter Earnings on Jan. 31

2006-01-11T08:35:00.000-06:00

Google will announce 4Q 2005 financial results on Tuesday, January 31, 2006 after the stock market closes. The earnings conference call will be at 4:30 PM ET/1:30 PM PT.

A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed at http://investor.google.com/webcast.

Google Earth for Macintosh now available

2006-01-10T15:48:00.000-06:00

Google Earth is now available for the the Mac. Download it here.

On a related note, the PC version of Google Earth is now officially out of beta.

Google Video Store now open for business

2006-01-10T11:11:00.000-06:00

Google's new Video Store is now open for business. Users can now download paid content by paying via credit card.

Check out Google's Official Blog for a full list of paid content providers.

Time Warner gets $300 million Google promotional credits

2006-01-10T11:04:00.000-06:00

From Reuters, Time Warner has publicly acknowledged that it's getting $300 million in advertising credits as part of Google's deal to purchase a 5% stake in AOL.

AOL still has to participate in Google's AdWords auction system to show its ads, but now they get $300 million in free money. This should make it more expensive for existing Google advertisers, as they now have to compete with this "new money" in the system.

AOL Acquires Truveo

2006-01-10T08:48:00.000-06:00

AOL announced this morning that it acquired Truveo on Dec. 22, 2005. Truveo is a video search engine company. AOL will integrate Truveo into its existing video search offerings.

Google acquires Reqwireless

2006-01-08T21:43:00.000-06:00

Via Search Engine Watch, Google has acquired Reqwireless, a Canadian wireless software company. While the acquisition was made this past summer, it was only recently disclosed by Google. The National Post has an article about it, Waterloo gets Googled.

This is yet another step into the world of wireless software following Google's acquisition of Android.com.

Google enters a new line of business

2006-01-08T21:14:00.000-06:00

With Friday's announcement of the Google Video Store and Google Pack, Google officially entered a new line of business: distribution of digital content. While these two new products may seem very dissimilar, the thing they have in common is that they both involve the distribution of digital content. The Google Video Store connects video content owners with consumers, while Google Pack is a mechanism for software to be installed on Windows PCs.

Right now, 99% of Google's revenue comes advertising. The other 1% comes from selling hardware (such as the Google Search Appliance), software (such as Google Earth), and miscellaneous service fees. Once the Google Video Store goes live, Google will now get a distribution fee for connecting digital content providers to end users. Google Video has the potential to be a powerful gatekeeper for the distribution of video content. The initial split of revenue will reportedly be about 70/30 with 70% going to the content owner. Also, the content owner will ability to set their own price. This large split and pricing flexibility give a strong incentive for owners to make their content available on Google Video. Google will gladly take 30% of something rather than 100% of nothing. Especially if that 30% grows very large.

Although Google Pack is free to the end user, it too involves distribution. The foundation of Google Pack is Google Updater. This makes it easy for the user to download, install, and keep up to date a suite of software products. Going forward Google can simply add a new program to the suite on their server, and every user of Google Updater will have a copy downloaded to their computer.

We'll see how big this new business will be...

Google unveils Google Pack

2006-01-07T14:07:00.000-06:00

Google officially announced the release of Google Pack Friday evening at CES. Google Pack is a collection of useful, free software from Google and select third parties. It is essentially a installer program which gives the user a single interface to download and keep up to date a collection of software.
The primary benefit to Google is that it is efficient distribution mechanism to get its software on Windows PCs. Now when Google releases a new program or an update, Google Pack will ensure that users get the new program or update. The real benefit will be felt when PC manufacturers start preinstalling Google Pack on new PCs. Imagine getting a brand new PC and easily installing the whole suite of Google products.

You can download Google Pack at http://pack.google.com.

Read more about the reasoning behind Google Pack from the Official Google Blog.

Google and AOL disclose more details of their alliance

2005-12-23T14:53:00.000-06:00

Time Warner disclosed some details regarding the recent agreement between Google and AOL.

Quoting from today's SEC Filing...

On December 20, 2005, Time Warner Inc. ("Time Warner") and America Online, Inc. ("AOL") entered into a letter agreement (the "Agreement") with Google Inc. ("Google" and, together with Time Warner and AOL, the "Parties"), pursuant to which the Parties agreed to consummate the transactions described in the Agreement. The Parties also agreed to negotiate and enter into definitive agreements, which are expected to be signed in the first calendar quarter of 2006, related to such transactions. The Parties have also agreed upon a binding expedited arbitration procedure, which should be completed during the first quarter of 2006, to resolve any disagreements between the Parties that would otherwise prevent the entering into of definitive agreements during the first quarter of 2006. The Agreement provides that, in the event the Parties do not enter into definitive agreements to consummate certain of the transactions described in the Agreement by February 18, 2006, the commercial transactions will take effect pursuant to the terms described in the Agreement. The material terms of the Agreement are as follows: Investment by Google in AOL (the "AOL Investment")

o Investment. In exchange for $1 billion, Google will acquire a 5% equity interest in AOL through an investment in a limited ---liability company ("HoldCo") that will own all of the outstanding equity interests in AOL.

o Registration Rights - HoldCo will grant Google certain registration rights as follows:

Beginning on July 1, 2008, Google will have certain rights to require HoldCo to register the HoldCo interests held by Google for sale in a public offering. If Google exercises this right, Time Warner will have the right to purchase Google's interests for cash or shares of Time Warner stock based on an appraised fair market value of Google's equity interest in HoldCo in lieu of conducting an initial public offering.
Google will have certain piggyback registration rights that it may exercise in respect of an initial public offering or follow-on offering initiated by HoldCo either before or after July 1, 2008, subject to certain underwriter cutback provisions.

o Consent Rights. HoldCo will agree not to take certain actions without the prior consent of Google, including amendments to the HoldCo operating agreement (if such amendments would be adverse to Google) and entering into certain interested party transactions between HoldCo and AOL and affiliates of Time Warner.

o Sale of HoldCo or AOL Assets. In the event of a sale of all or substantially all of the assets of HoldCo or AOL, Time Warner would cause the distribution to Google of its pro rata portion of such sale.

o Pre-emptive Rights. Google will have a pre-emptive right to purchase its pro rata portion of any new issuance of equity capital by HoldCo or AOL.

o Transfer Provisions. Google may not transfer its equity interest in HoldCo except under limited circumstances. Time Warner is permitted to transfer its interests in HoldCo or AOL. Under certain circumstances involving the transfer or issuance of HoldCo equity interests or the transfer of AOL equity interests by Time Warner, Google can elect to have Time Warner or HoldCo purchase Google's equity interest in HoldCo at an appraised fair market value. Google will also have the right to tag along on sales by Time Warner of HoldCo interests, and Time Warner may require Google to sell its interests in certain circumstances.

Commercial Transactions

The other transactions described in the Agreement are of a commercial nature, and the terms of the agreements and amendments are five years from the date of the Agreement.

Web Search Services and Sponsored Links -- AOL and Google have agreed to extend the term of their current multi-country web search services agreement and their current U.S. text-based advertising services agreement. AOL Europe and Google have also committed to maintain their European text-based advertising agreement for the same term, and AOL Europe has the ability to further extend the term for two additional years. AOL has agreed that Google will be its exclusive provider of the services provided under these agreements, subject to certain limitations. Although the U.S. text-based advertising services agreement is now subject to certain revenue guarantees from Google to AOL that apply given certain conditions, Google does not expect the net economics under these agreements to be materially different compared to that which would have otherwise resulted under the existing agreements.

AOL Marketplace -- In addition to the text-based advertising sold by Google that is distributed through its sponsored links syndication network (including AOL), Google has agreed to enable AOL to sell text-based advertising for distribution on the AOL properties. Google's revenue share from such advertising sold by AOL for AOL properties is roughly equivalent to the revenue share retained by it under the text-based advertising agreement for AOL
properties.

Display Advertising -- Google has agreed to grant AOL certain information rights related to its network of display advertising space and the right to sell display advertising into that network.

Promotion -- Google has agreed to provide AOL with advertising credits and other promotional opportunities for AOL content consistent with Google principles. Google will also fund marketing efforts with third-party media outlets to promote agreed-upon AOL properties, events or initiatives that will be sponsored by Google.

Content Availability -- Google has agreed to assist AOL and Time Warner in understanding Google's published and/or publicly available tools for improving the accessibility of a web site's content to Google's web crawlers.

Instant Messaging -- Google and AOL have agreed to develop the ability for users of AOL's Instant Messenger service and Google Talk to interact with both services from both the AOL Instant Messenger client and the Google Talk client, which will require a user to register a Google Talk user name with the AOL Instant Messenger Service in order to access it.

Google and AOL make it official

2005-12-20T19:44:00.000-06:00

Late Tuesday, Google and AOL finally officially announced their strategic alliance. Google is going to pay $1 billion for a 5% stake in AOL. AOL is also going to get marketing credits on Google advertising network. Media reports estimate that the marketing credits will be worth approximately $300 million. Lastly, the other significant news is that the two companies are going to work together to make Google Talk and AOL Instant Messenger communicate together.

Google Founders' Wealth Grows by Over $2.4 Billion in One Day

2005-10-21T15:44:00.000-05:00

Google's stock price went up $36.70 or 12.1% today to close at $339.90 in response to a strong earnings report after the close last night. So what does this mean to Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin? The value of Page's stock holdings went up $1.241 billion and Brin's stock holdings rose $1.232 billion. Not bad for a day's work!

As of 10/18/05, Larry Page owns 33,804,785 shares of Google which are now worth $11,490,246,420.

As of 10/5/05, Sergey Brin owns 33,576,435 shares of Google which are now worth $11,412,630,260.

Google Buys Android.com

2005-08-19T15:00:00.000-05:00

BusinessWeek reports that Google's latest acquisition is Android.com. Android apparently makes software for cell phones. BusinessWeek quotes a 2003 interview where co-founder Andy Rubin states "there was tremendous potential in developing smarter mobile devices that are more aware of its owner's location and preferences."

It will be interesting to see how Android.com fits in with Dodgeball, which is another recent acquisition from May 2005. Dodgeball operates a mobile social networking services where users can use SMS on their cell phones to find where there friends are hanging out.

T-Mobile to use Google as default home page

2005-07-06T12:02:00.000-05:00

T-Mobile announced that Google will soon be the starting point to surf the Web for their European cell phone customers.

Microsoft unveils MSN adCenter

2005-03-16T08:01:00.000-06:00

Microsoft released some details about its paid search product today. Quoting from its press release:

MSN to Preview Prototype Advertising Platform
At the summit MSN also will unveil Microsoft's next-generation online advertising platform, MSN adCenter, built on Microsoft® technology that will help advertisers get higher returns by understanding and connecting to their desired audience throughout the MSN network. Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Information Services & Merchant Platform division, will demonstrate the first component of MSN adCenter, a new prototype of an MSN paid-search solution for which a pilot program will begin within the next six months in Singapore and France to gather customer feedback.

Within the MSN adCenter platform, the new MSN paid-search solution will be tightly integrated with other future capabilities to give advertisers a one- stop shop from which to plan, execute and adjust their online campaigns. The new MSN paid-search solution will provide keyword buyers with in-depth audience intelligence including geographic location, gender, age group,
lifestyle segment and time of day. As a result, advertisers should be able to plan more strategic advertising investments and achieve higher click-to-buy conversion rates among consumers. MSN remains committed to working with Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture) and will continue to collaborate with it to offer high-quality search listings to advertisers.

It's a start...

Microsoft to enter the paid search market

2005-03-14T16:19:00.000-06:00

Bloomberg News is reporting that Microsoft plans to announce the launch of a paid search product later this week. MSN Search currently shows ads from Overture (which is owned by Yahoo!) next to its search listings. While this generates revenue for Microsoft, they share it with Overture.

It has been long anticipated that Microsoft will launch its own paid search products so they can keep 100% of the revenue that advertisers pay to show ads triggered by keywords.

Stay tuned to find out more later this week...

Google adds weather

2005-03-07T08:59:00.000-06:00

You can now get a weather report from Google. Simply type "weather" followed by a city and state or a zip code. Also, you can send the same search as a text message to 46645 (GOOG on most cell phones), and Google will send back a text message with the current weather forecast.

More info here.

CS First Boston Raises Google Price Target

2004-11-10T08:45:00.000-06:00

CS First Boston raised its price target for Google (GOOG) this morning from $177 to $225. Since Google is a high growth company, they say 'valuation is very sensitive to small changes in the growth rate and model assumptions.'

They do note the second Google lock up expires Nov. 18th. 39 million shares are available for sale on that date. There may be some volatility in the stock price around Nov. 17th.

Google is default start page for Firefox 1.0

2004-11-10T08:33:00.000-06:00

Mozilla released version 1.0 of Firefox, the open source competitor of Internet Explorer, yesterday. The default start page for the browser is a customized version of the Google home page. This should drive some incremental search traffic for Google.

Microsoft to introduce new search engine

2004-11-10T08:17:00.000-06:00

The New York Times reports that Microsoft will introduce its new search engine tomorrow (Nov. 17th.) This is a long awaited competitor to Yahoo! and Google.

The Wall Street Journal reports that according to a Yahoo! spokeswoman, Overture's (a subsidiary of Yahoo!) contract to provide sponsored search ads is unaffected by this search preview. Undoubtedly that will change eventually. Even if Microsoft captures more search business, they will still be sharing the revenue with Yahoo! as long as Overture continues to be the ad provider. Microsoft will have to sell its own ads to get a return on the investment its making in improving its search engine.

Google wins AOL Europe's sponsored search business

2004-10-19T21:18:00.000-05:00

AOL Europe announced this morning that Google (GOOG) will provide sponsored search results across their online properties in Europe. Google already provides natural search results for AOL Europe. They will displace Overture (owned by Yahoo! (YHOO ) ) as AOL Europe's paid search provider. Google already provides natural and paid search results for AOL in the U.S.

This is a relatively big win for Google as Overture had this contract since January 2002. Lehman Brother's analyst Douglas Anmuth estimates this will reduce Yahoo!'s net revenue about $20-30 million in 2005 and increase Google's net revenue by $12-16 million in 2005. The reason for the difference is because Google probably agreed to share a greater percentage of the paid search revenue to gain the business. Google shares about 80% of it's AdSense revenue with its partners based on Google's financial reports.

Google will report earnings after the close of the market on Thurs. Oct 21st.

Read the AOL Europe press release here.

Google Desktop Search: Initial Thoughts

2004-10-14T13:27:00.000-05:00

It looks like Google Desktop is going to be the next killer app. Google really beat Microsoft to the punch.

I just installed it on my PC a few hours ago. It installs very quickly and smoothly. The first thing it does is create an index of all your files and emails on your PC. This takes a few hours, but it does it in the background, and you can still use your computer in the meantime.

Once it's installed, any search you do at google.com will also include search results from your PC. Beyond ordinary text files, the search includes Word files, Excel files, PowerPoint presentations, and even Outlook emails.

As an example, one search I did came up with an email as the best match. I just clicked on the link and my email shows up in my browser immediately. No more hunting through Outlook to find that email you wrote last year. There is also a reply link which will start up Outlook to compose a reply.

I highly recommend that you install this program!

Get it at http://desktop.google.com.

Google Launches Desktop Search

2004-10-14T09:08:00.000-05:00

Google today launched a beta version of a new, free program called Google Desktop Search. This application integrates search to allow a user to search virtually everything on their PC and on the web at the same time. This is a feature which Microsoft has said will be included in the next version on Windows.

Download the program at http://desktop.google.com.

Read the press release here.

Yahoo! Reports 3rd Quarter Earnings

2004-10-12T18:12:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! reported that earnings for the three months ending Sept. 30th were $253 million or $0.17 per share. This compares to $65 million or $0.05 cents per share in 3Q 2003. Revenues were $907 million ($655 million after excluding Traffic Acquistion Costs (TAC) i.e. money paid to affiliate site which show pay per click ads). Revenue (excluding TAC) was an 84% increase over third quarter 2003.

A large part of this quarter's earnings was a gain from selling Google (GOOG) shares in its IPO. Yahoo! sold 2.317 million shares at $82.6161 netting them $191.4 million. After accounting for the original cost of the investment and tax benefits associated with old capital losses Yahoo! had on their books, this sale contributed $129 million to this quarter's earnings. Excluding this gain, third quarter earnings were $124 million or $0.09 cents per share. Still a nice increase of 90% over the same period last year.

As of Sept. 30, 2004, Yahoo! still held 5.882 million shares of Google worth $762.28 million.

See the complete press release here.

3rd Quarter Earnings Announcement Dates for Search Engine Companies

2004-10-11T09:45:00.000-05:00

Here are 3rd quarter earnings announcement dates for search engine (and related) companies:

October 12: Yahoo! - YHOO (After the market)
October 21: Google - GOOG (After the market)
October 21: Amazon.com - AMZN (After the market)
October 27: Ask Jeeves - ASKJ (After the market)

Search Engine Watch launchs a blog

2004-10-09T14:26:00.000-05:00

Search Engine Watch recently launched its own blog to communicate their latest news about search engines. It looks to be a great way to find the latest news in this area.

Related links:

Search Engine Watch Blog

Google SMS now available in beta version

2004-10-08T17:33:00.000-05:00

Now you can use your cell phone to search Google via text messaging. Send a text message to 46645 (GOOG on a phone keypad.), and in a few seconds Google will send a text message back with your search results.

Find out more at http://www.google.com/sms.

Google expands search to include printed books with Google Print

2004-10-08T17:29:00.000-05:00

While still in beta, Google is now publicly soliciting publishers to submit their books to Google so they can be scanned and included in Google. Now when you use Google to search the internet, Google will also search printed books for matches. If a match results, you can actually read pages out of the book.

Google is trying to entice publishers to send in their books by offering to share revenue generated on the book page with the publishers. Also, publishers are able to place a link on the page directing the user directly to a publishers website to purchase the book.

Find out more at http://www.google.com/print.

Publishers can sign up for the program at https://www.google.com/publisher.

Amazon officially launches version 1.0 of it's search engine A9.com

2004-09-15T08:06:00.000-05:00

Check out the press release here.

Or try it out here.

WSJ.com starts showing paid ads from Overture

2004-02-29T22:41:00.000-06:00

The online edition of the Wall Street Journal has now started to show paid contextual ads from Overture at the bottom of some articles. Google and Overture have been competing to sign up new online properties to show contextual ads.

CBS MarketWatch has a couple articles about AOL's attitude toward search.

2004-02-28T16:23:00.000-06:00

Would AOL drop Google?

AOL: 'Search is just a feature'

These articles make it seem that AOL is losing users becuase doing Google searches leads them to websites that aren't owned by Time Warner (AOL's parent company). They would do better to own an algorithmic search engine and keep them on AOL properties. I think that this argument is flawed. Even if AOL has its own search engine, unless it gives the best search results, people will go elsewhere. Regardless of who owns the search engine, it must give good results, and that may be non-AOL sites.

Yahoo! finally replaces Google as the search engine powering Yahoo! Search with Inktomi

2004-02-18T15:22:00.000-06:00

Yahoo! announced this morning that Google will no longer be the underlying algorithmic search engine powering search on the Yahoo! site. Yahoo! Search will now be powered by Inktomi which it bought in 2002. This makes a lot of sense for Yahoo! as Google is a major competitor for Yahoo!.

Related links:

Yahoo! Introduces More Comprehensive And Relevant Search Experience with New Yahoo! Search Technology

Yahoo dumps Google search technology

Yahoo! Search

2004-02-13T21:21:00.000-06:00

An article about Search from the March 2004 issue of MIT Technology Review called Search Beyond Google. This article mentions some interesting competitors to Google:

Nutch - an open-source search engine

Mooter.com - an Australian based search engine

Dipsie.com - a company that launched in Summer 2003 and plans on releasing their search engine in 2004.