Google experiments with map ads

Google is adding graphical advertisements to maps on its local search site, foreshadowing the use of its pop-up balloons for various types of information and activities, an analyst said Monday.

Greg Sterling, managing editor at The Kelsey Groupsaid Google representatives told him several weeks ago that the company plans to let businesses add advertisements and logos to the mapping balloons that appear on Google Local.
Continue reading

Google’s market lead widens

Google is increasing its lead over Yahoo and Microsoft in the U.S. Web search market while a rebranded Ask.com is inching up, according to the latest statistics from ComScore Networks.

Google’s domestic market share rose to 42.3 percent in February, up from 36.3 percent a year earlier, ComScore said.

Yahoo’s search market share in the United States fell to 27.6 percent from 31.1 percent a year ago, while Microsoft’s MSN fell to 13.5 percent from 16.3 percent and Time Warner’s America Online fell to 8 percent from 8.9 percent.

IAC Search & Media’s Ask.com, which unveiled a new brand and interface last month, rose to 6 percent from 5.3 percent.

Analysts predicted continued gains for Google and Ask.
Continue reading

SEO = PR (Again)

The Web 2.0 Awards: Well-executed link bait development (PR to you and me) courtesy of SEOMoz. Look, press releases! Comes complete with vacuous phrases like “the Web 2.0 Awards help define the emerging area known for fusing new technology and social expression, empowering users to do more with the Internet”.

Sure to get many Web 2.0 bunnies linking up as many probably weren’t on the web for the ye-olde running-a-web-awards-scheme-tactic the first time round. Very Web 1.0, I’m sure we all argree.

Will work well (for a little while) for Web 2.0, and other tech buzz topics. Less well for, say, selling loans 🙂

Google Leads Search Engine Choice in UK

WebSideStory reports that Google is way ahead of its competitors for most used search engine in the UK. Google processes three out of four searches in the UK. With Google accounting for 74.67% of the market, their competition is way behind. With Yahoo at 9.30%, MSN 5.46%, AOL 4.21%, Ask Jeeves 2.28%.

The test was conducted for the month of February, and showed that Google referred an average of 74.67% of all UK visitors to other sites on the web. Supposedly more people think of Google when they think search in the UK, even more than in the US.

WebSideStory used their HBX Analytics technology to provide real time information about the online visitors and customer behavior. HBX Analytics enables you to increase online sales, improve the return of your marketing activities, reduce customer support costs, monetize content and improve advertising sales.

Google Joins the Lobbying Herd

For a company that takes pride in being the quintessential outsider, Google is moving quickly into the ultimate insider’s game: lobbying.

Started less than a decade ago in a Stanford dorm room, Google has evolved into a multibillion-dollar business, its search engine ubiquitous on the Internet. Its sprawling growth, fueled by a public stock offering in August 2004 that created a market behemoth, has now thrust it into the glare of Washington.
Continue reading