Carving Out Markets

 
 
By Peter Galli  |  Posted 2007-07-17 Email Print this article Print
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


According to James Speer, general manager of Search Marketing at New York-based IAC Advertising Solutions, the integration with Office Live will "make it easy for marketers to extend their pay-per-click ad campaigns to Ask.com and our syndication network." In related search engine news, ComScore released June search share data July 16 that showed that Microsoft has gained ground against Google and Yahoo. As Microsoft Watch reports, Microsoft was the only search provider to gain market share from May to June. Three of the top five search vendors—Google, Time Warner and Yahoo—together lost 2.9 percent market share, with Microsoft apparently snatching share from them, gaining 2.9 percent month over month. Click here to read about Microsofts recent update to Live Meeting.
While Microsoft is talking to other search engines and advertising networks that are a good fit as places for its customers to place their ads, there is nothing specific to announce on that front at this time, Cetinok said.
"This is a journey and our vision is not going to be delivered with all the proof-points on Day One. Additional search engines and business listings will be added to this tool over time," he said. Search marketing has emerged as a $15.8 billion global industry and experts predict it will grow to $44.5 billion over the next five years, he said. A report by investment bank and institutional securities firm Piper Jaffray, titled "The User Revolution: The New Advertising Ecosystem and the Rise of the Internet as a Mass Medium," found that search is the second most commonly used application on the Web, with some 550 million searches taking place every day in the United States alone. Local search, which accounted for some 15 percent of total online ad spending, is also growing as more businesses look to target their ads to a specific region. "Local search results are very important to small businesses, so Ask.com and Microsoft are complementary partners in this regard," Cetinok said. How closely is Microsoft modeling its Windows Live search offering on Googles search service? Click here to read more. Search ads are text-based ads displayed on a search results page that look very similar to search results displayed in the main body of the page, but are labeled as advertisements. Advertisers are charged only when their ads are clicked. AdManager facilitates this pay-per-click advertising process for small businesses. While Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., has "formidable" competitors in the search ad space, "We are currently uniquely positioned to be a true one-stop-shop providing all of these services to small businesses under a single umbrella," Cetinok said. Cetinok said Office Live would be taking a similar one-stop-shop approach with its upcoming Commerce solution, which would allow customer products to be listed for sale on other marketplaces like eBay. Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on enterprise search technology.


 
 
 
 
Peter Galli has been a financial/technology reporter for 12 years at leading publications in South Africa, the UK and the US. He has been Investment Editor of South Africa's Business Day Newspaper, the sister publication of the Financial Times of London.

He was also Group Financial Communications Manager for First National Bank, the second largest banking group in South Africa before moving on to become Executive News Editor of Business Report, the largest daily financial newspaper in South Africa, owned by the global Independent Newspapers group.

He was responsible for a national reporting team of 20 based in four bureaus. He also edited and contributed to its weekly technology page, and launched a financial and technology radio service supplying daily news bulletins to the national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which were then distributed to some 50 radio stations across the country.

He was then transferred to San Francisco as Business Report's U.S. Correspondent to cover Silicon Valley, trade and finance between the US, Europe and emerging markets like South Africa. After serving that role for more than two years, he joined eWeek as a Senior Editor, covering software platforms in August 2000.

He has comprehensively covered Microsoft and its Windows and .Net platforms, as well as the many legal challenges it has faced. He has also focused on Sun Microsystems and its Solaris operating environment, Java and Unix offerings. He covers developments in the open source community, particularly around the Linux kernel and the effects it will have on the enterprise.

He has written extensively about new products for the Linux and Unix platforms, the development of open standards and critically looked at the potential Linux has to offer an alternative operating system and platform to Windows, .Net and Unix-based solutions like Solaris.

His interviews with senior industry executives include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Linus Torvalds, the original developer of the Linux operating system, Sun CEO Scot McNealy, and Bill Zeitler, a senior vice president at IBM.

For numerous examples of his writing you can search under his name at the eWEEK Website at www.eweek.com.

 
 
 
 
 
Manage your Newsletters: Login   Register My Newsletters























 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rocket Fuel