Yahoo board formally rebuffs Microsoft's US$44.6 billion takeover bid
The Associated Press
Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) spurned Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ:MSFT) US$44.6 billion takeover bid as inadequate Monday, betting that it can elicit a higher offer from the world's largest software maker or find another way to deliver a comparable payoff to its shareholders.
The rebuff by the slumping Internet pioneer had been widely anticipated after word of Yahoo's intention was leaked during the weekend.
In its formal response, Yahoo said its board had concluded Microsoft's unsolicited offer "substantially undervalues" the Sunnyvale-based company.
Yahoo indicated it could be lured to the negotiating table if Microsoft ups the ante, without mentioning the price it has in mind.
"The board of directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders," Yahoo said in a statement.
Investors appeared confident that Microsoft wants Yahoo badly enough to raise the stakes. Yahoo shares rose 34 cents to $29.54 in Monday's morning trading while Microsoft shares fell 46 cents to $28.10.
If Microsoft doesn't raise its offer, Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang assured employees in a Monday e-mail that the company is poised to rebound on its own and become a "must buy" in the $45 billion online advertising market.
"We have accomplished a great deal in a very short time," wrote Yang, a company co-founder who promised things would get better after he became CEO eight months ago. "Yahoo is a faster-moving, better organized, more nimble company well on its way to transforming the experiences of its users, advertisers, publishers and developers."
Just two days before Microsoft made its bid, Yang had warned Yahoo faced "headwinds" that made it unlikely the company's performance would improve significantly until 2009.
Yahoo's stock price had dropped by more than 40 per cent in the three months leading to Microsoft's bid, valued at $31 per share when it was announced Feb. 1. The offer was 62 per cent above Yahoo's market value at the time.
Many analysts believe Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft will eventually raise its bid to $35 to $40 per share, sweetening the pot by $5 billion to $12 billion in an effort to negotiate an amicable sale.
Microsoft was prepared to pay at least $40 per share for Yahoo a year ago, according to a person familiar with the talks between the two companies a year ago. Yahoo wasn't interested then because it was confident in its own strategy, said the person, who didn't want to be identified because Microsoft's 2007 offer was never publicly disclosed.
But a higher bid now could hurt Microsoft's own stock price, which has been slipping amid concerns that a Yahoo takeover could be more trouble than its worth. Microsoft's market value has plunged by more than $40 billion, or 14 per cent, since the bid was made public.
Microsoft representatives didn't immediately respond to requests for comment Monday morning.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan predicted Yahoo's board will have little choice but to sell the company if Microsoft raises its bid to $35 or $36 per share. "Yahoo management has already exhausted the patience of its largest, longest-suffering shareholders," Rohan wrote in a Monday note.
If it doesn't want to pay more money, Microsoft could take its original bid directly to Yahoo's shareholders. Microsoft's management began preparing for that possibility last week by meeting with some of Yahoo's major shareholders to rally support for its offer.
In a more extreme tactic, Microsoft could try to override Yahoo's board by trying to oust the current directors later this year - a risky manoeuvre that would likely create hard feelings that would make it more difficult to cobble the two businesses together if a deal were consummated.
Yahoo also could fend off Microsoft by exercising an anti-takeover device, known as a "poison pill," that would issue more company shares to make a buyout too expensive to pull off.
Although its profits have been dwindling during the past two years, Yahoo still possesses one of the Internet's biggest audiences and most valuable franchises. Microsoft believes it can build on those assets to become a more formidable competitor to Google Inc., which now holds a commanding lead in the lucrative online search and advertising markets.
Yahoo has reportedly been exploring an advertising partnership with Google as one way to boost its profits and remain independent. The company also has been looking for other suitors that might be interested in countering Microsoft's bid, but so far no one has stepped forward.
By rejecting Microsoft's initial offer, Yahoo's board is running the risk that the company's stock will plunge below $20 per share again if its suitor decides to walk away.
That scenario would probably unleash a flood of shareholder lawsuits, intensifying the pressure on Yahoo's management team to deliver on a long-awaited turnaround that has been in the works for the past 18 months.
Monday, February 04, 2008
Microsoft says expects Yahoo to accept bid quickly
Reuters - Mon, Feb 04, 2008
Microsoft Corp said on Monday that its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo Inc was generous and it expects Yahoo's board and shareholders to agree to the buyout quickly.
"We trust the Yahoo board and the Yahoo shareholders will join with us quickly in deciding to move down an integrated path," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in an annual strategy meeting with analysts.
Microsoft's comments follow a weekend of maneuvering by Yahoo, which, according to sources familiar with Yahoo's strategy, is considering a business alliance with Google Inc to rebuff Microsoft's proposal. It has also received preliminary contacts from media, technology, telecommunications and financial companies, another source close to Yahoo said.
At the same meeting, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell also said the company may borrow money for the first time in its history to fund a portion of the 50-50 cash and stock offer for Yahoo.
"If you look at the cash component ... we could fund most of that through our cash holdings, but it's likely we're actually going to borrow for the first time," said Liddell. "It's going to be a mixture of the cash we have on hand plus debt."
Liddell said he expects Microsoft's revenue to grow at a double-digit percentage in the coming fiscal year starting in July despite a potential U.S. economic slowdown.
Microsoft also announced that its first major update to Windows Vista was released to manufacturing. Usually, large organizations wait for the first major update before deploying a new operating system.
Shares of Microsoft rose 5 cents to $30.50 in early Nasdaq trading, while Yahoo shares rose 44 cents to $28.82.
Reuters - Mon, Feb 04, 2008
Microsoft Corp said on Monday that its $44.6 billion unsolicited offer for Yahoo Inc was generous and it expects Yahoo's board and shareholders to agree to the buyout quickly.
"We trust the Yahoo board and the Yahoo shareholders will join with us quickly in deciding to move down an integrated path," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in an annual strategy meeting with analysts.
Microsoft's comments follow a weekend of maneuvering by Yahoo, which, according to sources familiar with Yahoo's strategy, is considering a business alliance with Google Inc to rebuff Microsoft's proposal. It has also received preliminary contacts from media, technology, telecommunications and financial companies, another source close to Yahoo said.
At the same meeting, Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell also said the company may borrow money for the first time in its history to fund a portion of the 50-50 cash and stock offer for Yahoo.
"If you look at the cash component ... we could fund most of that through our cash holdings, but it's likely we're actually going to borrow for the first time," said Liddell. "It's going to be a mixture of the cash we have on hand plus debt."
Liddell said he expects Microsoft's revenue to grow at a double-digit percentage in the coming fiscal year starting in July despite a potential U.S. economic slowdown.
Microsoft also announced that its first major update to Windows Vista was released to manufacturing. Usually, large organizations wait for the first major update before deploying a new operating system.
Shares of Microsoft rose 5 cents to $30.50 in early Nasdaq trading, while Yahoo shares rose 44 cents to $28.82.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Microsoft and Yahoo! -- A $45 billion bet
Feb 1st 2008
From Economist.com
IT IS a potential deal that has been talked about for years, but has suddenly become a real possibility. On Friday February 1st Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, made a $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo!, an ailing internet giant. The proposed deal, which would transform the software and internet-services industries, values Yahoo! at $31 a share, a 62% premium over the closing price on Thursday.
In a letter to the board of Yahoo!, Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, referred to previous discussions between the two companies in 2006 and 2007 about a possible partnership or merger. At the time, Yahoo! was hopeful that Panama, a new system it had developed to place advertisements next to the results of internet searches, would improve its fortunes and help it to catch up with Google, the leader in both internet search and advertising. Panama failed to live up to expectations, however, prompting Yahoo!’s chief executive, Terry Semel, to resign in June 2007.
His place was taken by Jerry Yang, one of Yahoo!’s co-founders, who promised to put things right at the sprawling internet conglomerate. But Yahoo!’s latest results, released on January 30th, were disappointing, and its share price fell to a four-year low. Mr Yang said that the company faced “headwinds”, as Yahoo! announced plans to cut 1,000 jobs, some 7% of its workforce. Microsoft saw its chance. “While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing,” wrote Mr Ballmer.
Google is not mentioned anywhere in Mr Ballmer’s letter, but its increasing clout in the online-advertising market, as a result of its leadership in search, is what has motivated the deal. “Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition,” he wrote. Combining Yahoo!, the number two in search and advertising, with Microsoft, the number three, would provide a stronger competitor in an industry where scale provides a huge advantage.
Google currently handles 66% of searches on the internet in America, compared with 21% for Yahoo and a mere 7% for Microsoft (through MSN and its new search engine, live.com). Strikingly, over the past year both Microsoft and Yahoo have seen their share of searches decline while Google's has gained.
The more people use your search engine, the more advertisers you can attract; and the more advertisers you can attract, the more likely you are to be able to serve up relevant advertisements that people will actually click on. As Mr Ballmer puts it: “While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence.”
Microsoft is desperate to grab a bigger share of the online-advertising market because many of its software products are being challenged by free, advertising-supported services offered by Google. The company is also worried that Google’s dominance in search and advertising allows it to dictate terms to advertisers, and gives it an unfair advantage over its smaller rivals. This is a bit rich coming from Microsoft, a convicted monopolist in operating-system software, which has also been known to squeeze out smaller competitors, but its anger that it has had to endure years of scrutiny by regulators, while Google has been left alone, is genuine.
As well as creating a stronger rival to Google, the deal would also have other merits, Microsoft claims. The two companies could combine their research-and-development efforts into search, advertising and other areas; they could save money by consolidating the huge warehouses full of computers, known as “server farms”, that both firms operate; and they would be better placed to compete in new areas such as online video, social networking and online commerce. But it is clear that the real prize is greater clout in search and advertising.
Whatever Yahoo!’s management makes of the offer, the firm’s shareholders will be delighted at the news. Microsoft shareholders are likely to be less enthusiastic: integrating the two companies would be a mammoth task, and Microsoft has never made an acquisition on anything approaching this scale before. Some sceptics say that this is too much to pay for a troubled company, even if it is, by some measures, the world’s biggest internet firm. Microsoft says it is confident that regulators will approve the deal, which could be completed by the end of the year.
Feb 1st 2008
From Economist.com
IT IS a potential deal that has been talked about for years, but has suddenly become a real possibility. On Friday February 1st Microsoft, the world’s biggest software company, made a $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo!, an ailing internet giant. The proposed deal, which would transform the software and internet-services industries, values Yahoo! at $31 a share, a 62% premium over the closing price on Thursday.
In a letter to the board of Yahoo!, Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, referred to previous discussions between the two companies in 2006 and 2007 about a possible partnership or merger. At the time, Yahoo! was hopeful that Panama, a new system it had developed to place advertisements next to the results of internet searches, would improve its fortunes and help it to catch up with Google, the leader in both internet search and advertising. Panama failed to live up to expectations, however, prompting Yahoo!’s chief executive, Terry Semel, to resign in June 2007.
His place was taken by Jerry Yang, one of Yahoo!’s co-founders, who promised to put things right at the sprawling internet conglomerate. But Yahoo!’s latest results, released on January 30th, were disappointing, and its share price fell to a four-year low. Mr Yang said that the company faced “headwinds”, as Yahoo! announced plans to cut 1,000 jobs, some 7% of its workforce. Microsoft saw its chance. “While a commercial partnership may have made sense at one time, Microsoft believes that the only alternative now is the combination of Microsoft and Yahoo! that we are proposing,” wrote Mr Ballmer.
Google is not mentioned anywhere in Mr Ballmer’s letter, but its increasing clout in the online-advertising market, as a result of its leadership in search, is what has motivated the deal. “Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition,” he wrote. Combining Yahoo!, the number two in search and advertising, with Microsoft, the number three, would provide a stronger competitor in an industry where scale provides a huge advantage.
Google currently handles 66% of searches on the internet in America, compared with 21% for Yahoo and a mere 7% for Microsoft (through MSN and its new search engine, live.com). Strikingly, over the past year both Microsoft and Yahoo have seen their share of searches decline while Google's has gained.
The more people use your search engine, the more advertisers you can attract; and the more advertisers you can attract, the more likely you are to be able to serve up relevant advertisements that people will actually click on. As Mr Ballmer puts it: “While online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence.”
Microsoft is desperate to grab a bigger share of the online-advertising market because many of its software products are being challenged by free, advertising-supported services offered by Google. The company is also worried that Google’s dominance in search and advertising allows it to dictate terms to advertisers, and gives it an unfair advantage over its smaller rivals. This is a bit rich coming from Microsoft, a convicted monopolist in operating-system software, which has also been known to squeeze out smaller competitors, but its anger that it has had to endure years of scrutiny by regulators, while Google has been left alone, is genuine.
As well as creating a stronger rival to Google, the deal would also have other merits, Microsoft claims. The two companies could combine their research-and-development efforts into search, advertising and other areas; they could save money by consolidating the huge warehouses full of computers, known as “server farms”, that both firms operate; and they would be better placed to compete in new areas such as online video, social networking and online commerce. But it is clear that the real prize is greater clout in search and advertising.
Whatever Yahoo!’s management makes of the offer, the firm’s shareholders will be delighted at the news. Microsoft shareholders are likely to be less enthusiastic: integrating the two companies would be a mammoth task, and Microsoft has never made an acquisition on anything approaching this scale before. Some sceptics say that this is too much to pay for a troubled company, even if it is, by some measures, the world’s biggest internet firm. Microsoft says it is confident that regulators will approve the deal, which could be completed by the end of the year.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Another big deal that will shore up our content provisions for the 'coming storm'......
Yahoo Signs Licensing Deal With Sony BMG
by Mark Walsh, Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007 7:00 AM ET
YAHOO HAS SIGNED A BROAD new licensing agreement with Sony BMG that allows consumers to add music and video content from the label and its artists to user-generated creations. The deal expands the catalog of music videos on Yahoo Music from Sony BMG, whose artists include Alicia Keys, Daughtry, Bruce Springsteen and Jennifer Lopez. It also allows the distribution of videos through a media player that users can access on other Yahoo properties and embed on third-party sites. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but they include a revenue-sharing agreement between Yahoo and Sony BMG on video advertising. The agreement marks the first time Yahoo has licensed content from a major record label in connection with user-generated videos. Sony BMG signed a similar licensing deal with Google last year, and struck another last month with social networking site MySpace. Under that deal, Sony will license music videos, select audio material and other content from its artist roster, and will make the content available on its artists' MySpace profile pages. The moves reflect a growing willingness by music companies to make their assets available online with fewer restrictions. A new report released by JupiterResearch on Tuesday says that while digital sales will make up one-third of the music market by 2012, the growth online won't offset the drop in CD sales. Piracy has been a chief concern of record labels and other traditional media companies heading online. Last month, a group of major media and Internet companies including Disney, NBC Universal, MySpace and Veto announced a set of guidelines calling for the use of filtering technologies and other steps to block the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in user-generated content online. Yahoo is not part of the coalition, but plans to introduce its own monitoring and filtering system for unauthorized content next year.
Yahoo Signs Licensing Deal With Sony BMG
by Mark Walsh, Wednesday, Nov 21, 2007 7:00 AM ET
YAHOO HAS SIGNED A BROAD new licensing agreement with Sony BMG that allows consumers to add music and video content from the label and its artists to user-generated creations. The deal expands the catalog of music videos on Yahoo Music from Sony BMG, whose artists include Alicia Keys, Daughtry, Bruce Springsteen and Jennifer Lopez. It also allows the distribution of videos through a media player that users can access on other Yahoo properties and embed on third-party sites. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but they include a revenue-sharing agreement between Yahoo and Sony BMG on video advertising. The agreement marks the first time Yahoo has licensed content from a major record label in connection with user-generated videos. Sony BMG signed a similar licensing deal with Google last year, and struck another last month with social networking site MySpace. Under that deal, Sony will license music videos, select audio material and other content from its artist roster, and will make the content available on its artists' MySpace profile pages. The moves reflect a growing willingness by music companies to make their assets available online with fewer restrictions. A new report released by JupiterResearch on Tuesday says that while digital sales will make up one-third of the music market by 2012, the growth online won't offset the drop in CD sales. Piracy has been a chief concern of record labels and other traditional media companies heading online. Last month, a group of major media and Internet companies including Disney, NBC Universal, MySpace and Veto announced a set of guidelines calling for the use of filtering technologies and other steps to block the unauthorized use of copyrighted material in user-generated content online. Yahoo is not part of the coalition, but plans to introduce its own monitoring and filtering system for unauthorized content next year.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Hi there,
Yahoo! is opening up our borders - this will certainly endear us to many content-heavy sites that seek traffic and good rapport with larger Portal-like sights that act as gateways for users searching for info. Kudos to Yahoo! for making the web world a smaller place.
Media Buyers Welcome More Open Yahoo
by Mark Walsh, Monday, Oct 29, 2007 6:45 AM ET
MEDIA BUYERS WELCOMED YAHOO'S STEP last week to open up its home page by adding outside links, but said the company should be moving even faster to bring down barriers. Last week, Yahoo began posting links to other news and content sites on the Featured section of its home page for the first time as part of an effort to open up the portal and make it the entry point for most Internet users. Most of the featured links still go to other Yahoo properties, such as Yahoo's news and travel sections. But after months of testing, the site has started linking to sources ranging from independent blogs to The Wall Street Journal to popular sites like Vanityfair.com and Salon.com. The move reflects Yahoo's broader strategy to turn the site into a more open platform to help compete with Google and newer social networking rivals such as Facebook and MySpace. In addition to adding external links, the movement includes inviting third-party developers to create new content and social applications for Yahoo. Executives at digital agencies generally applauded Yahoo's new open-door policy. "The walled-garden approach doesn't work," says Scott Symonds, executive media director at AKQA. "So creating easier exit and entry points and getting people to come back to Yahoo and not hold them there is a smart strategy." David Cohen, executive vice president, U.S. director of digital communications at Universal McCann, agrees. "Yahoo's willingness to open its home page to outside links is a clear acknowledgement of the trends we're seeing today," he says. "The days of the uber-destination that attempts to be all things to all people are quickly fading." In particular, they point to the rise of myriad Web 2.0 alternatives including blogs, social networking sites, and other forms of user-generated content. "I think Yahoo is a great publisher and a great place to put quality brands, but I want to make sure it's keeping up with the marketplace," says Symonds, whose firm's clients include Dell, Coca-Cola and Visa. Symonds believes Yahoo should be pushing even harder to adapt to the rapidly changing Web media landscape by offering more third-party applications on MyYahoo, among other steps. Ironically, Yahoo's new openness is a return to its roots, as the Web directory Jerry Yang and David Filo started in 1994 as graduate students at Stanford Business School. Under former CEO Terry Semel, Yahoo gradually became more of a destination as it focused on building up its own properties. Cohen suggested that the third-party links could help Yahoo as a defensive measure, if nothing else. "Yahoo's home page already gets such significant daily traffic, we don't expect a significant shift in volume, but it may help stem the rising popularity of second-tier content sites," he says. Mediasmith CEO David Smith likewise views the outside links as a small change, "but one that may herald bigger things down the road."
Yahoo! is opening up our borders - this will certainly endear us to many content-heavy sites that seek traffic and good rapport with larger Portal-like sights that act as gateways for users searching for info. Kudos to Yahoo! for making the web world a smaller place.
Media Buyers Welcome More Open Yahoo
by Mark Walsh, Monday, Oct 29, 2007 6:45 AM ET
MEDIA BUYERS WELCOMED YAHOO'S STEP last week to open up its home page by adding outside links, but said the company should be moving even faster to bring down barriers. Last week, Yahoo began posting links to other news and content sites on the Featured section of its home page for the first time as part of an effort to open up the portal and make it the entry point for most Internet users. Most of the featured links still go to other Yahoo properties, such as Yahoo's news and travel sections. But after months of testing, the site has started linking to sources ranging from independent blogs to The Wall Street Journal to popular sites like Vanityfair.com and Salon.com. The move reflects Yahoo's broader strategy to turn the site into a more open platform to help compete with Google and newer social networking rivals such as Facebook and MySpace. In addition to adding external links, the movement includes inviting third-party developers to create new content and social applications for Yahoo. Executives at digital agencies generally applauded Yahoo's new open-door policy. "The walled-garden approach doesn't work," says Scott Symonds, executive media director at AKQA. "So creating easier exit and entry points and getting people to come back to Yahoo and not hold them there is a smart strategy." David Cohen, executive vice president, U.S. director of digital communications at Universal McCann, agrees. "Yahoo's willingness to open its home page to outside links is a clear acknowledgement of the trends we're seeing today," he says. "The days of the uber-destination that attempts to be all things to all people are quickly fading." In particular, they point to the rise of myriad Web 2.0 alternatives including blogs, social networking sites, and other forms of user-generated content. "I think Yahoo is a great publisher and a great place to put quality brands, but I want to make sure it's keeping up with the marketplace," says Symonds, whose firm's clients include Dell, Coca-Cola and Visa. Symonds believes Yahoo should be pushing even harder to adapt to the rapidly changing Web media landscape by offering more third-party applications on MyYahoo, among other steps. Ironically, Yahoo's new openness is a return to its roots, as the Web directory Jerry Yang and David Filo started in 1994 as graduate students at Stanford Business School. Under former CEO Terry Semel, Yahoo gradually became more of a destination as it focused on building up its own properties. Cohen suggested that the third-party links could help Yahoo as a defensive measure, if nothing else. "Yahoo's home page already gets such significant daily traffic, we don't expect a significant shift in volume, but it may help stem the rising popularity of second-tier content sites," he says. Mediasmith CEO David Smith likewise views the outside links as a small change, "but one that may herald bigger things down the road."
Monday, September 24, 2007
Here we go again: will they or will they not be able to complete the DoubleClick deal and is it worth the negative publicity?
Only time will tell....
The Google Monopoly
Financial Times
"Don't be Evil." You knew that motto would come back to haunt any company with enormous growth aspirations like Google. Evil--or something approaching it--is exactly what Microsoft and AT&T worry about in Google's bid to acquire the display advertising giant DoubleClick. The prospect of marrying cookies to search data is just a little too scary, they say--mostly for Google's competitors, which would be at the Web giant's mercy when it comes to establishing online advertising rates.Google was interested in buying DoubleClick in 2005, but backed out. It "decried the use of cookies," which involves collecting user surf data to aid the relevancy of display ads, "as invasive," deeming the practice "evil." But now that Google has agreed to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, pending government approval, it says it's found new ways of using cookies to lessen their impact on privacy.However, even without the DoubleClick deal, Google often receives black marks in the privacy department. The company's moves into new fields like satellite mapping and email mean that it collects far more than just search data from users. Rivals say Google is to the ad market what Microsoft has been to software: a monopoly. Nevertheless, co-founder Larry Page, who coined the "Don't be Evil" phrase, sounds nonplussed: "As you get more powerful, it's natural for people to think this way."
Only time will tell....
The Google Monopoly
Financial Times
"Don't be Evil." You knew that motto would come back to haunt any company with enormous growth aspirations like Google. Evil--or something approaching it--is exactly what Microsoft and AT&T worry about in Google's bid to acquire the display advertising giant DoubleClick. The prospect of marrying cookies to search data is just a little too scary, they say--mostly for Google's competitors, which would be at the Web giant's mercy when it comes to establishing online advertising rates.Google was interested in buying DoubleClick in 2005, but backed out. It "decried the use of cookies," which involves collecting user surf data to aid the relevancy of display ads, "as invasive," deeming the practice "evil." But now that Google has agreed to buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, pending government approval, it says it's found new ways of using cookies to lessen their impact on privacy.However, even without the DoubleClick deal, Google often receives black marks in the privacy department. The company's moves into new fields like satellite mapping and email mean that it collects far more than just search data from users. Rivals say Google is to the ad market what Microsoft has been to software: a monopoly. Nevertheless, co-founder Larry Page, who coined the "Don't be Evil" phrase, sounds nonplussed: "As you get more powerful, it's natural for people to think this way."
Friday, September 21, 2007
Hi there,
As Yahoo! and all other engines make changes to ad quality, partner quality et al, users are slowly getting to grips with what this means to their listing management and overall understanding of the business - this is but 1 opinion from someone on the SEM side looking in:
Will Yahoo Deliver Something New With Its Ad Quality Filtering?
by Hansel Merchor, Friday, September 21, 2007
IN THE EVER-EVOLVING WORLD OF search engine marketing, staying idle can be deadly. The ongoing cycle of updating and re-launching is something that all the engines seem to accept as the price of doing business and that search marketers, who must respond to all these updates, know all too well as their daily routine. As someone who has been immersed in the SEM world for the better part of the last two years, I confess that it is hard - sometimes nearly impossible -- to keep up with the ever-increasing number of new tools, updates, implementations, and so-called "improvements'" from the leading search engines. On an almost weekly basis, we are all inundated with e-mails proclaiming the virtues of new features from Google, MSN, Yahoo and the newly dynamic Jeeve-less Ask.com. All the engines are striving to create the ultimate user experience and to provide more relevant results at a fairer cost. I am charged with reporting back on these updates to my clients and colleagues, so I have the obligation to read these daily emails and notices. Those changes that do hold some promise of improved utility or enhanced functionality, I implement accordingly. However, I usually see no benefit whatsoever. The truth is that many of these changes have little to no effect on the performance of my campaigns, and, in many cases, seem to be made simply to justify the engines' existing structures, costs, faults, and quirks. On some occasions, unfortunately, these changes even seem to affect the campaigns in a negative way. On several instances, I have rushed to capitalize on a new search engine feature or update, resulting in sudden improvements to metrics and giving me that exhilarating feeling of "Wow ... look what a little change can do for this campaign." In almost all cases, however, this exhilaration quickly fades to the realization that, "Oh no ... these numbers are totally not right. I gotta call my (insert search engine) rep." As happens so frequently, last week I received an e-mail from Yahoo regarding its Ad Quality Filtering feature. According to the missive, this change is designed to "improve result relevance for users by increasing thresholds." As we know, these "thresholds" are determined by quality score, click rate and bid. If all goes as planned, these changes will impact campaigns as follows: -- Reducing low-quality competition: To this I say: Good, finally after all this time will we stop seeing those stomach turning ads publicizing dirty diapers or some other inane combination of random keywords? Or Amazon.com advertising "Sweatshops"? Or ShopLocal.com advertising "Slave Deals"? Or Target's "Slave Online"? Will all these go too? -- Accounts with lower quality may receive less volume: Does that mean a new account or one with a quality score that is still recovering from some past event will suffer a decline in traffic? Will irrelevant traffic finally vanish into cyberspace so that I can get a true sense of the real volume available for my campaigns? For a small campaign promoting a single product/service, it is often so difficult to develop a respectable number of high-relevance keywords. Where will the result of all that effort go? And hasn't this been happening already anyway? - Ads may no longer display for certain terms: No surprise from Yahoo here. I've seen this happening since I started working in SEM. Sometimes, a quick call to my rep is the simplest and fastest solution. To finish, Yahoo will be pushing for keyword insertion in copy -- I knew this was coming before I read the e-mail, though. The last 10 times I contacted my rep about poor performance for a particular category, he suggested I use this tool. In those instances, I actually did follow his recommendations, and the results were, hmmm... let's call them indecisive. And aren't those "sweatshops" and "slave" ads the result of keyword insertion anyway? Looking over the benefits of the new Yahoo tool made me realize that there is really nothing new about these changes. The benefits Yahoo's Quality Filtering feature is designed to deliver are benefits that most of the engines claim to have had in their system for a long time now. Given that the rules of SEM and the capabilities of search engines are continually evolving, they are all working to catch up to the others' supposed innovations. Yahoo is just matching the updates of the other engines. And as engines continue to improve their platforms, we can only hope that once, sometime in the future, they'll get it right and provide us with meaningful improvements.
As Yahoo! and all other engines make changes to ad quality, partner quality et al, users are slowly getting to grips with what this means to their listing management and overall understanding of the business - this is but 1 opinion from someone on the SEM side looking in:
Will Yahoo Deliver Something New With Its Ad Quality Filtering?
by Hansel Merchor, Friday, September 21, 2007
IN THE EVER-EVOLVING WORLD OF search engine marketing, staying idle can be deadly. The ongoing cycle of updating and re-launching is something that all the engines seem to accept as the price of doing business and that search marketers, who must respond to all these updates, know all too well as their daily routine. As someone who has been immersed in the SEM world for the better part of the last two years, I confess that it is hard - sometimes nearly impossible -- to keep up with the ever-increasing number of new tools, updates, implementations, and so-called "improvements'" from the leading search engines. On an almost weekly basis, we are all inundated with e-mails proclaiming the virtues of new features from Google, MSN, Yahoo and the newly dynamic Jeeve-less Ask.com. All the engines are striving to create the ultimate user experience and to provide more relevant results at a fairer cost. I am charged with reporting back on these updates to my clients and colleagues, so I have the obligation to read these daily emails and notices. Those changes that do hold some promise of improved utility or enhanced functionality, I implement accordingly. However, I usually see no benefit whatsoever. The truth is that many of these changes have little to no effect on the performance of my campaigns, and, in many cases, seem to be made simply to justify the engines' existing structures, costs, faults, and quirks. On some occasions, unfortunately, these changes even seem to affect the campaigns in a negative way. On several instances, I have rushed to capitalize on a new search engine feature or update, resulting in sudden improvements to metrics and giving me that exhilarating feeling of "Wow ... look what a little change can do for this campaign." In almost all cases, however, this exhilaration quickly fades to the realization that, "Oh no ... these numbers are totally not right. I gotta call my (insert search engine) rep." As happens so frequently, last week I received an e-mail from Yahoo regarding its Ad Quality Filtering feature. According to the missive, this change is designed to "improve result relevance for users by increasing thresholds." As we know, these "thresholds" are determined by quality score, click rate and bid. If all goes as planned, these changes will impact campaigns as follows: -- Reducing low-quality competition: To this I say: Good, finally after all this time will we stop seeing those stomach turning ads publicizing dirty diapers or some other inane combination of random keywords? Or Amazon.com advertising "Sweatshops"? Or ShopLocal.com advertising "Slave Deals"? Or Target's "Slave Online"? Will all these go too? -- Accounts with lower quality may receive less volume: Does that mean a new account or one with a quality score that is still recovering from some past event will suffer a decline in traffic? Will irrelevant traffic finally vanish into cyberspace so that I can get a true sense of the real volume available for my campaigns? For a small campaign promoting a single product/service, it is often so difficult to develop a respectable number of high-relevance keywords. Where will the result of all that effort go? And hasn't this been happening already anyway? - Ads may no longer display for certain terms: No surprise from Yahoo here. I've seen this happening since I started working in SEM. Sometimes, a quick call to my rep is the simplest and fastest solution. To finish, Yahoo will be pushing for keyword insertion in copy -- I knew this was coming before I read the e-mail, though. The last 10 times I contacted my rep about poor performance for a particular category, he suggested I use this tool. In those instances, I actually did follow his recommendations, and the results were, hmmm... let's call them indecisive. And aren't those "sweatshops" and "slave" ads the result of keyword insertion anyway? Looking over the benefits of the new Yahoo tool made me realize that there is really nothing new about these changes. The benefits Yahoo's Quality Filtering feature is designed to deliver are benefits that most of the engines claim to have had in their system for a long time now. Given that the rules of SEM and the capabilities of search engines are continually evolving, they are all working to catch up to the others' supposed innovations. Yahoo is just matching the updates of the other engines. And as engines continue to improve their platforms, we can only hope that once, sometime in the future, they'll get it right and provide us with meaningful improvements.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Here's another deal that will surely help increase reach and marketshare for my old buddies in the UK:
Yahoo, Bebo Cut An Ad Deal
by Laurie Petersen, Wednesday, Sep 12, 2007
YAHOO UK & IRELAND TODAY announced an exclusive strategic partnership with social networking site Bebo. The agreement covers the sale and serving of display advertising, integration of Yahoo Answers and a toolbar for users to manage their Bebo activities. Under the agreement, Yahoo will sell the majority of Bebo's display advertising in the U.K. and Ireland, reaching an estimated 11.6 million users. Bebo has a membership of more than 38 million worldwide, and ranks as the U.K.'s second-most engaging site after Google. The majority of members fall within the 13- to-24-year-old age group. According to the UK's Internet Advertising Bureau, the U.K. online advertising market leads the world for share of advertising spend online with 11.4%, compared to a global average of 5.8%. "The partnership with Yahoo enables us to focus on custom sponsorship campaigns and groundbreaking original productions with the knowledge that our display advertising is handled by a partner that guarantees the highest quality ad for each user interaction," said Joanna Shields, Bebo's president, international. Among Bebo's original entertainment properties are the online drama "Kate Modern" and the recently announced "Sofia's Diary." This is Yahoo's first such agreement with a social networking site. The two companies' combined audience consumes more than 11.7 billion pages views per month and represents 75% of the U.K. Internet user population, according to the statement announcing the partnership. Yahoo Answers will be integrated into Bebo's site, allowing users to ask and answer questions posed by other users within the Bebo community and beyond. Yahoo and Bebo have also announced the development of a new Bebo Toolbar enabling Bebo users to monitor their social network even when they are not on the Bebo site. The average Bebo user spends 38 minutes on the site each day they log on, according to the company. Yahoo began providing search on Bebo in May this year in a previous deal. The new initiatives will begin to roll out during the fourth quarter. "This exclusive partnership is the next step of our ongoing strategy to build the largest and most effective online advertising network," said Toby Coppel, managing director, Yahoo Europe.
Yahoo, Bebo Cut An Ad Deal
by Laurie Petersen, Wednesday, Sep 12, 2007
YAHOO UK & IRELAND TODAY announced an exclusive strategic partnership with social networking site Bebo. The agreement covers the sale and serving of display advertising, integration of Yahoo Answers and a toolbar for users to manage their Bebo activities. Under the agreement, Yahoo will sell the majority of Bebo's display advertising in the U.K. and Ireland, reaching an estimated 11.6 million users. Bebo has a membership of more than 38 million worldwide, and ranks as the U.K.'s second-most engaging site after Google. The majority of members fall within the 13- to-24-year-old age group. According to the UK's Internet Advertising Bureau, the U.K. online advertising market leads the world for share of advertising spend online with 11.4%, compared to a global average of 5.8%. "The partnership with Yahoo enables us to focus on custom sponsorship campaigns and groundbreaking original productions with the knowledge that our display advertising is handled by a partner that guarantees the highest quality ad for each user interaction," said Joanna Shields, Bebo's president, international. Among Bebo's original entertainment properties are the online drama "Kate Modern" and the recently announced "Sofia's Diary." This is Yahoo's first such agreement with a social networking site. The two companies' combined audience consumes more than 11.7 billion pages views per month and represents 75% of the U.K. Internet user population, according to the statement announcing the partnership. Yahoo Answers will be integrated into Bebo's site, allowing users to ask and answer questions posed by other users within the Bebo community and beyond. Yahoo and Bebo have also announced the development of a new Bebo Toolbar enabling Bebo users to monitor their social network even when they are not on the Bebo site. The average Bebo user spends 38 minutes on the site each day they log on, according to the company. Yahoo began providing search on Bebo in May this year in a previous deal. The new initiatives will begin to roll out during the fourth quarter. "This exclusive partnership is the next step of our ongoing strategy to build the largest and most effective online advertising network," said Toby Coppel, managing director, Yahoo Europe.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Hi there,
September/back to school time here in Toronto but the M&A wheels are continually turning at Yahoo! with news of another important aquisition that will certainly position us, along with our ownership of Right Media, extremely well when it comes to Ad Distribution services. Read on.....
Yahoo makes another online ad buy
Yahoo Inc. is buying online advertising network BlueLithium for US$300 million in cash, building upon an expansion aimed at ending a financial malaise that has ravaged the Internet pioneer’s stock price.
The deal announced late Tuesday marks the latest step in Yahoo’s attempt to regain some of the ground that it has lost during the past three years to Google Inc., whose Internet-leading search engine propels the most lucrative online ad network.
As part of its comeback efforts, Yahoo recently spent nearly $700 million to buy a major online ad exchange, Right Media Inc., and upgraded its system for distributing ad links tied to search requests. The Sunnyvale-based company also has extended its reach by agreeing to deliver ads to more partners, including the websites of Internet auctioneer eBay Inc., cable provider Comcast Corp. and hundreds of daily newspapers.
Yahoo is betting it can boost its recently sagging profits by offering more ways for Internet advertisers to connect with consumers shopping for products and services online.
Besides operating a large ad network, BlueLithium provides tracking technology, known as “behavioural targeting,” that identifies web surfers with particular interests so the ads they see will be more interesting to them. For instance, a person who had been looking up information about home loans would be more likely to see ads about mortgages.
A long list of major advertisers, including General Motors, already rely on BlueLithium, according to Yahoo.
Both Google and Microsoft Corp. also are trying to supplement their advertising services through acquisitions. Microsoft last month completed a $6 billion takeover of aQuantive Inc., while Google hopes to buy DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion if it can gain approval of federal antitrust regulators.
Yahoo expects to complete the BlueLithium deal before the end of the year.
Privately-held BlueLithium says it became profitable three months after its 2004 inception. The San Jose-based company has about 135 employees scattered in 10 offices in the United States and Europe.
–Associated Press
September/back to school time here in Toronto but the M&A wheels are continually turning at Yahoo! with news of another important aquisition that will certainly position us, along with our ownership of Right Media, extremely well when it comes to Ad Distribution services. Read on.....
Yahoo makes another online ad buy
Yahoo Inc. is buying online advertising network BlueLithium for US$300 million in cash, building upon an expansion aimed at ending a financial malaise that has ravaged the Internet pioneer’s stock price.
The deal announced late Tuesday marks the latest step in Yahoo’s attempt to regain some of the ground that it has lost during the past three years to Google Inc., whose Internet-leading search engine propels the most lucrative online ad network.
As part of its comeback efforts, Yahoo recently spent nearly $700 million to buy a major online ad exchange, Right Media Inc., and upgraded its system for distributing ad links tied to search requests. The Sunnyvale-based company also has extended its reach by agreeing to deliver ads to more partners, including the websites of Internet auctioneer eBay Inc., cable provider Comcast Corp. and hundreds of daily newspapers.
Yahoo is betting it can boost its recently sagging profits by offering more ways for Internet advertisers to connect with consumers shopping for products and services online.
Besides operating a large ad network, BlueLithium provides tracking technology, known as “behavioural targeting,” that identifies web surfers with particular interests so the ads they see will be more interesting to them. For instance, a person who had been looking up information about home loans would be more likely to see ads about mortgages.
A long list of major advertisers, including General Motors, already rely on BlueLithium, according to Yahoo.
Both Google and Microsoft Corp. also are trying to supplement their advertising services through acquisitions. Microsoft last month completed a $6 billion takeover of aQuantive Inc., while Google hopes to buy DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion if it can gain approval of federal antitrust regulators.
Yahoo expects to complete the BlueLithium deal before the end of the year.
Privately-held BlueLithium says it became profitable three months after its 2004 inception. The San Jose-based company has about 135 employees scattered in 10 offices in the United States and Europe.
–Associated Press
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Hi again,
After a brief hiatus of give or take 1 month, the buying continues; Ad Networks seem to be the way forward for the large publishers, MSN did not want to be left out......
Jul. 26, 2007 at 4:32pm, by Greg Sterling
Microsoft Buys Ad Exchange AdECN
Microsoft announced that it will purchase AdECN, an online ad exchange that competes with Yahoo!'s RightMedia and, presumably, the forthcoming DoubleClick exchange. Assuming that the deal goes through and Google's acquisition of DoubleClick isn't blocked by regulators, all the major search engines will have extended graphical ad distribution through so-called exchanges. This is obviously about building out more distribution and reach for Microsoft advertisers. I spoke to Microsoft and Bill Urschel, CEO of AdECN since writing the post above. Microsoft's Joe Doran, General Manager, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, said that AdECN will remain independent and not become part of a proprietary Microsoft ad network. In that regard Microsoft is positioning itself here as a kind of anti-Google, which it argues is attempting to build a monopolistic ad network. Instead Microsoft is stressing openness, transparency and neutrality as values that it will adhere to going forward in owning the exchange. (The inventory bought and sold is display advertising.)For some the puzzling thing will be the fact that Microsoft, though it will get the revenues of the company, is reportedly not going to be getting any special treatment or advantage out of the acquisition. Bill Urschel will remain at the helm and not being moved to Redmond. He said that Microsoft is committed to the principles of neutrality and transparency that he argues are the hallmarks of a true ad exchange as opposed to what might be called a meta-network (which is what Urschel argues RightMedia truly is). To some degree this debate is about semantics and to some degree about principle. But why did Microsoft "buy the loaf" when it could have gotten more modestly priced slices like all the others members of the AdECN exchange? In other words, Microsoft will merely be another member of the exchange. The contention here is that by buying AdECN Microsoft is taking it away from another potential buyer that might have turned it into much more of a parochial, proprietary network. Doran said that they hope to grow AdECN substantially as a true exchange. Whether Microsoft is able to realize AdECN's promise in that regard of course will be determined later. But the company's "hands off' attitude, if it holds, is probably a wise approach.
After a brief hiatus of give or take 1 month, the buying continues; Ad Networks seem to be the way forward for the large publishers, MSN did not want to be left out......
Jul. 26, 2007 at 4:32pm, by Greg Sterling
Microsoft Buys Ad Exchange AdECN
Microsoft announced that it will purchase AdECN, an online ad exchange that competes with Yahoo!'s RightMedia and, presumably, the forthcoming DoubleClick exchange. Assuming that the deal goes through and Google's acquisition of DoubleClick isn't blocked by regulators, all the major search engines will have extended graphical ad distribution through so-called exchanges. This is obviously about building out more distribution and reach for Microsoft advertisers. I spoke to Microsoft and Bill Urschel, CEO of AdECN since writing the post above. Microsoft's Joe Doran, General Manager, Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions, said that AdECN will remain independent and not become part of a proprietary Microsoft ad network. In that regard Microsoft is positioning itself here as a kind of anti-Google, which it argues is attempting to build a monopolistic ad network. Instead Microsoft is stressing openness, transparency and neutrality as values that it will adhere to going forward in owning the exchange. (The inventory bought and sold is display advertising.)For some the puzzling thing will be the fact that Microsoft, though it will get the revenues of the company, is reportedly not going to be getting any special treatment or advantage out of the acquisition. Bill Urschel will remain at the helm and not being moved to Redmond. He said that Microsoft is committed to the principles of neutrality and transparency that he argues are the hallmarks of a true ad exchange as opposed to what might be called a meta-network (which is what Urschel argues RightMedia truly is). To some degree this debate is about semantics and to some degree about principle. But why did Microsoft "buy the loaf" when it could have gotten more modestly priced slices like all the others members of the AdECN exchange? In other words, Microsoft will merely be another member of the exchange. The contention here is that by buying AdECN Microsoft is taking it away from another potential buyer that might have turned it into much more of a parochial, proprietary network. Doran said that they hope to grow AdECN substantially as a true exchange. Whether Microsoft is able to realize AdECN's promise in that regard of course will be determined later. But the company's "hands off' attitude, if it holds, is probably a wise approach.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Hi all,
Yesterday morning, Y! Canada, particularly the Sales division, had a Trade Marketing breakfast at the King Eddy Hotel in downtown Toronto.
For the most part, the event was well received by the agency and direct advertising folks that were invited to learn about the growth potential of online and how to strategize new goals in this burgeoning sector - I believe the following summation article by one of the attendees (with some direct quotes from Y! Canada's Director of Marketing) puts it all in context:
Yahoo execs pitch "four-pillar marketing"
by Jesse Kohl
Sales and marketing execs from Yahoo's Canadian and US offices pitched "four-pillar marketing" to media and advertising strategists in Toronto yesterday. Put simply, the four pillars are content, personalization, community and search - and Canadians are already familiar with them, Yahoo Canada marketing director Hunter Madsen tells MiC.
Madsen told the crowd that recent comScore research shows Canadians already take a four-pillar approach to media use - for 41 hours per month, compared to 24 hours per month in the US. More and more of that time is spent in digital communities, photo sharing and interactive entertainment environments.
"Canadians are using the media this way, and it means marketers can do what we call four-pillar marketing," Madsen explains. "Marketers need to make sure that their programs are active in all of the four dimensions and that they're thinking about how to use the content and the communities and the search activity and the personalization - making that relevant to the brand as well as the user."
Each of the four pillars is based on a core of digital data that helps define the modern consumer through user profiling, and four-pillar marketing builds campaigns with careful consideration of all categories.
"You've got the digital base of user profile information," says Madsen. "Then you put marketing program elements for community, content, search and personalization. And all of that builds up to a strategy for driving people up the pyramid, from just being part of the mass audience to being the engaged people ready to purchase, and finally to being - some of them - raving fans and passionate advocates."
Execs from Yahoo's Sunnyvale, California, HQ - including VP sales central region Charlie Thomas, sales and media research director Theresa LaMontagne and Engage! senior director David Kopp - highlighted case studies of several US campaigns that went beyond the banner in a bid to strengthen the argument for new approaches to marketing in the digital media landscape.
Madsen gave a Canadian example of digital media thinking with four-pillar potential. The Canadian Tourism Commission asked Yahoo Canada to build an online community to give Canadians a forum for expressing what they love about their country. In the future, this project could be used in tourism campaigns tied to other such communities created by, for example, Yahoo! France.
Thomas, VP sales for Yahoo's central region in the US, told the crowd that the most powerful advertising, historically, has always been a direct reflection of the most powerful medium - and today that medium is interactive, so a common language is needed.
"The hard trend of technology and demographics would indicate that when you have four pillars, it's not going to go back to one," he said. "It may become eight. Maybe another pillar should be entertainment. You can improvise with it. But this gives you a foundation and a common language to operate with.
"Standards are going to get raised really fast, starting this year and heading into 2008, around audiences and engagement," Thomas added. "Once you start buying big numbers of the kinds of audiences you can get in this audience pyramid, it's not going to feel so good to spend more money to reach an audience that's less engaged.
"This is a competitive idea: Who can customize the best audiences? Anybody can buy an audience, but how do you create the best audience - so your advertising is creating assets as it goes, not just performing an advertising function?"
Yesterday morning, Y! Canada, particularly the Sales division, had a Trade Marketing breakfast at the King Eddy Hotel in downtown Toronto.
For the most part, the event was well received by the agency and direct advertising folks that were invited to learn about the growth potential of online and how to strategize new goals in this burgeoning sector - I believe the following summation article by one of the attendees (with some direct quotes from Y! Canada's Director of Marketing) puts it all in context:
Yahoo execs pitch "four-pillar marketing"
by Jesse Kohl
Sales and marketing execs from Yahoo's Canadian and US offices pitched "four-pillar marketing" to media and advertising strategists in Toronto yesterday. Put simply, the four pillars are content, personalization, community and search - and Canadians are already familiar with them, Yahoo Canada marketing director Hunter Madsen tells MiC.
Madsen told the crowd that recent comScore research shows Canadians already take a four-pillar approach to media use - for 41 hours per month, compared to 24 hours per month in the US. More and more of that time is spent in digital communities, photo sharing and interactive entertainment environments.
"Canadians are using the media this way, and it means marketers can do what we call four-pillar marketing," Madsen explains. "Marketers need to make sure that their programs are active in all of the four dimensions and that they're thinking about how to use the content and the communities and the search activity and the personalization - making that relevant to the brand as well as the user."
Each of the four pillars is based on a core of digital data that helps define the modern consumer through user profiling, and four-pillar marketing builds campaigns with careful consideration of all categories.
"You've got the digital base of user profile information," says Madsen. "Then you put marketing program elements for community, content, search and personalization. And all of that builds up to a strategy for driving people up the pyramid, from just being part of the mass audience to being the engaged people ready to purchase, and finally to being - some of them - raving fans and passionate advocates."
Execs from Yahoo's Sunnyvale, California, HQ - including VP sales central region Charlie Thomas, sales and media research director Theresa LaMontagne and Engage! senior director David Kopp - highlighted case studies of several US campaigns that went beyond the banner in a bid to strengthen the argument for new approaches to marketing in the digital media landscape.
Madsen gave a Canadian example of digital media thinking with four-pillar potential. The Canadian Tourism Commission asked Yahoo Canada to build an online community to give Canadians a forum for expressing what they love about their country. In the future, this project could be used in tourism campaigns tied to other such communities created by, for example, Yahoo! France.
Thomas, VP sales for Yahoo's central region in the US, told the crowd that the most powerful advertising, historically, has always been a direct reflection of the most powerful medium - and today that medium is interactive, so a common language is needed.
"The hard trend of technology and demographics would indicate that when you have four pillars, it's not going to go back to one," he said. "It may become eight. Maybe another pillar should be entertainment. You can improvise with it. But this gives you a foundation and a common language to operate with.
"Standards are going to get raised really fast, starting this year and heading into 2008, around audiences and engagement," Thomas added. "Once you start buying big numbers of the kinds of audiences you can get in this audience pyramid, it's not going to feel so good to spend more money to reach an audience that's less engaged.
"This is a competitive idea: Who can customize the best audiences? Anybody can buy an audience, but how do you create the best audience - so your advertising is creating assets as it goes, not just performing an advertising function?"
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Hi all,
As M&A continues to stoke the fires of the big players in the online advertising and search/serving space, those of us in the trenches are continuously wondering where it may lead. No longer only the realm of online behemoths like Google or Microsoft, others such as News Corp. who are rumoured to be looking to offload MySpace in exchange for a 25% stake in Yahoo! or AOL's recent purchase of European ad serving company AdTECH, are looking to further their interests and monetize global online ad spend at an alarming rate.
We, and the following article, can only speculate and to what tomorrow will bring.....
Murdoch in search of online deals
By Aline van Duyn in New York and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in
Rupert Murdoch is looking for deals beyond his $5bn offer for Dow Jones, people familiar with his plans said.He is seeking internet acquisitions or a deal involving the MySpace social networking site to increase his stake in the booming online advertising sector, they say.Mr Murdoch has made a series of moves this month to build News Corp’s war chest, putting non-core assets such as its smaller US television stations up for sale and reviewing its outdoor advertising business in Russia and eastern Europe.Analysts estimate that the moves could bring in up to $5bn in cash for further deals.“Rupert has a shopping list. Dow Jones is at the top of it, but it’s not the end of the list,” said one person familiar with Mr Murdoch’s plans.Mr Murdoch has built his News Corp media business through numerous acquisitions. Following a deal with John Malone’s Liberty Media to swap News Corp’s stake in DirecTV for News Corp voting shares, he will control about 40 per cent of News Corp’s voting power later this year.“That increased ownership concentration raises the potential for transactions,” said Michael Morris, analyst at UBS.Mr Murdoch bought MySpace for $580m, and has already recouped his investment through a search deal with Google worth $900m and amid strong revenue growth.People familiar with MySpace say Mr Murdoch believes that despite the social networking site’s success, it is not able to make as much money from its non-search online inventory as companies such as Yahoo and AOL. This is partly because it does not own systems that match online inventory with ads. Yahoo, the internet portal, has long been seen as a potential News Corp partner. Mr Murdoch and Peter Chernin, his number two, have in recent months had informal talks with Terry Semel about swapping MySpace for a stake in Yahoo of up to 25 per cent, people familiar with the talks said. The discussions never developed into negotiations, and due to the shake-up at Yahoo which this week led to the ousting of Mr Semel, it is not clear if Jerry Yang, his successor, wants to consider a deal. “We would love to see News Corp monetise MySpace at north of $10bn tax-free for a 25 per cent stake in Yahoo,” said Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Research, adding that a newly merged Yahoo/MySpace should buy rival site Facebook.News Corp is potentially considering other acquisitions, following deals such as Microsoft’s $6bn purchase of Aquantive and Google’s $3.1bn deal for DoubleClick. The biggest potential targets in the US include Quepasa and Valueclick, according to UBS research.
As M&A continues to stoke the fires of the big players in the online advertising and search/serving space, those of us in the trenches are continuously wondering where it may lead. No longer only the realm of online behemoths like Google or Microsoft, others such as News Corp. who are rumoured to be looking to offload MySpace in exchange for a 25% stake in Yahoo! or AOL's recent purchase of European ad serving company AdTECH, are looking to further their interests and monetize global online ad spend at an alarming rate.
We, and the following article, can only speculate and to what tomorrow will bring.....
Murdoch in search of online deals
By Aline van Duyn in New York and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in
Rupert Murdoch is looking for deals beyond his $5bn offer for Dow Jones, people familiar with his plans said.He is seeking internet acquisitions or a deal involving the MySpace social networking site to increase his stake in the booming online advertising sector, they say.Mr Murdoch has made a series of moves this month to build News Corp’s war chest, putting non-core assets such as its smaller US television stations up for sale and reviewing its outdoor advertising business in Russia and eastern Europe.Analysts estimate that the moves could bring in up to $5bn in cash for further deals.“Rupert has a shopping list. Dow Jones is at the top of it, but it’s not the end of the list,” said one person familiar with Mr Murdoch’s plans.Mr Murdoch has built his News Corp media business through numerous acquisitions. Following a deal with John Malone’s Liberty Media to swap News Corp’s stake in DirecTV for News Corp voting shares, he will control about 40 per cent of News Corp’s voting power later this year.“That increased ownership concentration raises the potential for transactions,” said Michael Morris, analyst at UBS.Mr Murdoch bought MySpace for $580m, and has already recouped his investment through a search deal with Google worth $900m and amid strong revenue growth.People familiar with MySpace say Mr Murdoch believes that despite the social networking site’s success, it is not able to make as much money from its non-search online inventory as companies such as Yahoo and AOL. This is partly because it does not own systems that match online inventory with ads. Yahoo, the internet portal, has long been seen as a potential News Corp partner. Mr Murdoch and Peter Chernin, his number two, have in recent months had informal talks with Terry Semel about swapping MySpace for a stake in Yahoo of up to 25 per cent, people familiar with the talks said. The discussions never developed into negotiations, and due to the shake-up at Yahoo which this week led to the ousting of Mr Semel, it is not clear if Jerry Yang, his successor, wants to consider a deal. “We would love to see News Corp monetise MySpace at north of $10bn tax-free for a 25 per cent stake in Yahoo,” said Richard Greenfield, analyst at Pali Research, adding that a newly merged Yahoo/MySpace should buy rival site Facebook.News Corp is potentially considering other acquisitions, following deals such as Microsoft’s $6bn purchase of Aquantive and Google’s $3.1bn deal for DoubleClick. The biggest potential targets in the US include Quepasa and Valueclick, according to UBS research.
Friday, June 22, 2007
First off, just wanted to thank Jenn Blackie for posting pictures from the other night's Jays game on the SEP Blog, we all had a nice time but the score was horrendous!
I was offered tix for the next day's game but had to decline - unfortunately for me it was a good one with the Jays trouncing the Dodgers 10-1 behind Halladay.....
Why does it always happen to me?
Duane
Daily Dose:
Panama Gets High Marks
John Battelle's Searchblog -
On his Searchblog, John Battelle publishes the findings of Interpublic SEM firm Reprise in its early interactions with Yahoo's Panama search ad system. Overall, the search firm calls Panama "a significant upgrade over the previous Yahoo DTC (Direct Traffic Center) system, but it worries about the complex system's ability "to access the long tail of the market." The Reprise study evaluates Panama's campaign management and performance, user interface and technology over a three-month period (January-March). In terms of SEM performance, the cost-per-click for keywords actually dropped 6.2% during a period where the average CPC for Google AdWords increased 2.8% and Microsoft's adCenter a whopping 9.6% -- a good thing for search marketers. The good news for Yahoo is that Reprise also found that its clickthrough rates went up dramatically, bringing [the CTR] in line with our average Google CTRs. The bad news, however--and this usually proves to be the benchmark by which search marketers determine their spending--is that campaign conversions went down 5%, while conversion rates improved on both Google and MSN. That could mean the Panama's new quality ranking of sites has filtered out a few that used to convert at high levels. Reprise thinks Panama "does not yet address all of the requirements of the market," though it's a significant improvement.
I was offered tix for the next day's game but had to decline - unfortunately for me it was a good one with the Jays trouncing the Dodgers 10-1 behind Halladay.....
Why does it always happen to me?
Duane
Daily Dose:
Panama Gets High Marks
John Battelle's Searchblog -
On his Searchblog, John Battelle publishes the findings of Interpublic SEM firm Reprise in its early interactions with Yahoo's Panama search ad system. Overall, the search firm calls Panama "a significant upgrade over the previous Yahoo DTC (Direct Traffic Center) system, but it worries about the complex system's ability "to access the long tail of the market." The Reprise study evaluates Panama's campaign management and performance, user interface and technology over a three-month period (January-March). In terms of SEM performance, the cost-per-click for keywords actually dropped 6.2% during a period where the average CPC for Google AdWords increased 2.8% and Microsoft's adCenter a whopping 9.6% -- a good thing for search marketers. The good news for Yahoo is that Reprise also found that its clickthrough rates went up dramatically, bringing [the CTR] in line with our average Google CTRs. The bad news, however--and this usually proves to be the benchmark by which search marketers determine their spending--is that campaign conversions went down 5%, while conversion rates improved on both Google and MSN. That could mean the Panama's new quality ranking of sites has filtered out a few that used to convert at high levels. Reprise thinks Panama "does not yet address all of the requirements of the market," though it's a significant improvement.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Me again,
Here's the followup from Jerry:
My new job
June 18th, 2007 at 1:18 pm by Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer In Working at Yahoo!, Trends & News
The title of Chief Yahoo takes on new meaning today. I have the great honor of stepping into the role of Yahoo!’s Chief Executive Officer. Yahoo! has an incredibly bright future and I make this move with deep conviction and enthusiasm. I’ve partnered closely with our executive teams for 12 years to steer our strategy and direction and today I’m ready for this challenge.
Today also marks the close of a great chapter in my life with Terry Semel as my partner. Since coming on board in 2001, Terry has given Yahoo! six of its best years. He delivered great value to our users, advertisers and shareholders. Terry refocused the company on key strategic priorities, and in so doing, helped Yahoo! increase our revenues nearly nine-fold from $717 million in 2001 to $6.4 billion in 2006; boost our operating income from a loss in 2001 to nearly $1 billion last year; and create more than $30 billion in shareholder value during his tenure. He helped grow our audience from 170 million to more than 500 million users globally, and he oversaw the expansion of our base of talented employees from 3,500 to nearly 12,000.
I will always be grateful for the incredible achievements under his leadership — and for his mentorship and friendship. We’ll continue to benefit from his support and guidance as he transitions to his role as our Chairman.
I also couldn’t ask for a better partner in Sue Decker as our new president. In addition to knowing this company inside and out, Sue has incredible talents, leadership abilities, a fierce focus on winning, and intense dedication to this company and its people. I look forward to teaming more closely with her as we pursue our joint vision.
What is that vision? A Yahoo! that executes with speed, clarity and discipline. A Yahoo! that increases its focus on differentiating its products and investing in creativity and innovation. A Yahoo! that better monetizes its audience. A Yahoo! whose great talent is galvanized to address its challenges. And a Yahoo! that is better focused on what’s important to its users, customers, and employees.
The past year has obviously not been an easy one for us. But we’ve taken important steps to address the challenges we face, and we’re starting to realize some of the benefits – especially with the successful launch of Panama, which continues to receive positive feedback from advertisers and is exceeding our expectations. By the way, that’s directly attributable to the operational excellence mentality Terry has instilled and is a clear sign one of his most critical initiatives is succeeding.
We have incredible assets. This company has massive potential, drive, determination and skills, and we won’t be satisfied until the external perception of Yahoo! accurately reflects that reality.
I have absolute conviction about Yahoo!’s potential for long-term success as an Internet leader. Yahoo! is a company that started with a vision and a dream and, make no mistake, that dream is very much alive. I’m committed to doing whatever it takes to transform Yahoo! into an even greater success in the future.
The time for me is right. The time is now. The Internet is still young, the opportunities ahead are tremendous, and I’m ready to rally our nearly 12,000 Yahoos around the world to help seize them.
Go Yahoo!
Jerry Yang CEO and Chief Yahoo
Here's the followup from Jerry:
My new job
June 18th, 2007 at 1:18 pm by Jerry Yang, Chief Executive Officer In Working at Yahoo!, Trends & News
The title of Chief Yahoo takes on new meaning today. I have the great honor of stepping into the role of Yahoo!’s Chief Executive Officer. Yahoo! has an incredibly bright future and I make this move with deep conviction and enthusiasm. I’ve partnered closely with our executive teams for 12 years to steer our strategy and direction and today I’m ready for this challenge.
Today also marks the close of a great chapter in my life with Terry Semel as my partner. Since coming on board in 2001, Terry has given Yahoo! six of its best years. He delivered great value to our users, advertisers and shareholders. Terry refocused the company on key strategic priorities, and in so doing, helped Yahoo! increase our revenues nearly nine-fold from $717 million in 2001 to $6.4 billion in 2006; boost our operating income from a loss in 2001 to nearly $1 billion last year; and create more than $30 billion in shareholder value during his tenure. He helped grow our audience from 170 million to more than 500 million users globally, and he oversaw the expansion of our base of talented employees from 3,500 to nearly 12,000.
I will always be grateful for the incredible achievements under his leadership — and for his mentorship and friendship. We’ll continue to benefit from his support and guidance as he transitions to his role as our Chairman.
I also couldn’t ask for a better partner in Sue Decker as our new president. In addition to knowing this company inside and out, Sue has incredible talents, leadership abilities, a fierce focus on winning, and intense dedication to this company and its people. I look forward to teaming more closely with her as we pursue our joint vision.
What is that vision? A Yahoo! that executes with speed, clarity and discipline. A Yahoo! that increases its focus on differentiating its products and investing in creativity and innovation. A Yahoo! that better monetizes its audience. A Yahoo! whose great talent is galvanized to address its challenges. And a Yahoo! that is better focused on what’s important to its users, customers, and employees.
The past year has obviously not been an easy one for us. But we’ve taken important steps to address the challenges we face, and we’re starting to realize some of the benefits – especially with the successful launch of Panama, which continues to receive positive feedback from advertisers and is exceeding our expectations. By the way, that’s directly attributable to the operational excellence mentality Terry has instilled and is a clear sign one of his most critical initiatives is succeeding.
We have incredible assets. This company has massive potential, drive, determination and skills, and we won’t be satisfied until the external perception of Yahoo! accurately reflects that reality.
I have absolute conviction about Yahoo!’s potential for long-term success as an Internet leader. Yahoo! is a company that started with a vision and a dream and, make no mistake, that dream is very much alive. I’m committed to doing whatever it takes to transform Yahoo! into an even greater success in the future.
The time for me is right. The time is now. The Internet is still young, the opportunities ahead are tremendous, and I’m ready to rally our nearly 12,000 Yahoos around the world to help seize them.
Go Yahoo!
Jerry Yang CEO and Chief Yahoo
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
06.19.07
My first post in 6 years - the web keeps changing and I have been a part of it all along! Best of luck to Jerry, Sue and the team - I have high hopes for you all to take Y! from strength to strength in the coming months. May we see improved stockprice and a steady marketshare increase to boot! [eBay is already helping that along - read: their $26 million monthly ad spend removal rift with GG]
Cheers
Duane (...is dead)
With Yahoo's Semel Out, Yang Makes People Priority
by Tameka Kee and Laurie Petersen, Tuesday, Jun 19, 2007
WITH A STEADY STREAM OF departures at all levels turning into a flood, Yahoo's co-founder and newest CEO Jerry Yang said "motivating, developing and attracting talent" will be one of his top priorities. In a Silicon Valley awash in venture-funded startups, that may be the toughest challenge.
Despite protestations from the board, speculation is rampant that the company is set to be broken up or merged.
Yang sought to galvanize investors during the press conference announcing his appointment with six words: "I am ready for the challenge."
Yang defined the key challenges that the Web giant continues to grapple with: from an underperforming search monetization platform, to the ever-increasing spate of rivals for its share of user traffic, to the "competition for our talent" that has led to employee attrition. He also laid out a road map for how the company would move forward.
Yang will have a formidable partner to lead Yahoo through its multi-year expansion plan, as former executive vice president Sue Decker now assumes the role of president. In her new role, Decker will continue to build the partnerships that are integral to Yahoo's growth strategy (such as a display advertising deal with Comcast), and will further implement the company's operational reorganization that began last year under Terry Semel, who announced his resignation after the market closed.
Yesterday's announcement ended months of speculation on whether Semel would keep his position as CEO amidst Yahoo's struggles with sub-par earnings forecasts, the loss of senior management personnel, and the relentless industry perception that it's always a step behind Google.
Semel countered those theories indirectly in his public resignation letter and statement, saying: "I've been clear in my desire to take a step back from an executive role, sooner rather than later. I've long been talking to the Board about ensuring a smooth succession--and the need for a leadership team committed to leading Yahoo through its multi-year transformation."
My first post in 6 years - the web keeps changing and I have been a part of it all along! Best of luck to Jerry, Sue and the team - I have high hopes for you all to take Y! from strength to strength in the coming months. May we see improved stockprice and a steady marketshare increase to boot! [eBay is already helping that along - read: their $26 million monthly ad spend removal rift with GG]
Cheers
Duane (...is dead)
With Yahoo's Semel Out, Yang Makes People Priority
by Tameka Kee and Laurie Petersen, Tuesday, Jun 19, 2007
WITH A STEADY STREAM OF departures at all levels turning into a flood, Yahoo's co-founder and newest CEO Jerry Yang said "motivating, developing and attracting talent" will be one of his top priorities. In a Silicon Valley awash in venture-funded startups, that may be the toughest challenge.
Despite protestations from the board, speculation is rampant that the company is set to be broken up or merged.
Yang sought to galvanize investors during the press conference announcing his appointment with six words: "I am ready for the challenge."
Yang defined the key challenges that the Web giant continues to grapple with: from an underperforming search monetization platform, to the ever-increasing spate of rivals for its share of user traffic, to the "competition for our talent" that has led to employee attrition. He also laid out a road map for how the company would move forward.
Yang will have a formidable partner to lead Yahoo through its multi-year expansion plan, as former executive vice president Sue Decker now assumes the role of president. In her new role, Decker will continue to build the partnerships that are integral to Yahoo's growth strategy (such as a display advertising deal with Comcast), and will further implement the company's operational reorganization that began last year under Terry Semel, who announced his resignation after the market closed.
Yesterday's announcement ended months of speculation on whether Semel would keep his position as CEO amidst Yahoo's struggles with sub-par earnings forecasts, the loss of senior management personnel, and the relentless industry perception that it's always a step behind Google.
Semel countered those theories indirectly in his public resignation letter and statement, saying: "I've been clear in my desire to take a step back from an executive role, sooner rather than later. I've long been talking to the Board about ensuring a smooth succession--and the need for a leadership team committed to leading Yahoo through its multi-year transformation."
This is the next step for the Search+Community Website behemoth known as Y! - Jerry and Sue are veterans by all standards in running and developing this company and I look forward to them taking Y! from strength to strength..... Here's looking at a stockprice upturn (we're all indirectly involed in this!).
As always - Duane
With Yahoo's Semel Out, Yang Makes People Priority
by Tameka Kee and Laurie Petersen, Tuesday, Jun 19, 2007
WITH A STEADY STREAM OF departures at all levels turning into a flood, Yahoo's co-founder and newest CEO Jerry Yang said "motivating, developing and attracting talent" will be one of his top priorities. In a Silicon Valley awash in venture-funded startups, that may be the toughest challenge.
Despite protestations from the board, speculation is rampant that the company is set to be broken up or merged.
Yang sought to galvanize investors during the press conference announcing his appointment with six words: "I am ready for the challenge."
Yang defined the key challenges that the Web giant continues to grapple with: from an underperforming search monetization platform, to the ever-increasing spate of rivals for its share of user traffic, to the "competition for our talent" that has led to employee attrition. He also laid out a road map for how the company would move forward.
Yang will have a formidable partner to lead Yahoo through its multi-year expansion plan, as former executive vice president Sue Decker now assumes the role of president. In her new role, Decker will continue to build the partnerships that are integral to Yahoo's growth strategy (such as a display advertising deal with Comcast), and will further implement the company's operational reorganization that began last year under Terry Semel, who announced his resignation after the market closed.
Yesterday's announcement ended months of speculation on whether Semel would keep his position as CEO amidst Yahoo's struggles with sub-par earnings forecasts, the loss of senior management personnel, and the relentless industry perception that it's always a step behind Google.
Semel countered those theories indirectly in his public resignation letter and statement, saying: "I've been clear in my desire to take a step back from an executive role, sooner rather than later. I've long been talking to the Board about ensuring a smooth succession--and the need for a leadership team committed to leading Yahoo through its multi-year transformation."
As always - Duane
With Yahoo's Semel Out, Yang Makes People Priority
by Tameka Kee and Laurie Petersen, Tuesday, Jun 19, 2007
WITH A STEADY STREAM OF departures at all levels turning into a flood, Yahoo's co-founder and newest CEO Jerry Yang said "motivating, developing and attracting talent" will be one of his top priorities. In a Silicon Valley awash in venture-funded startups, that may be the toughest challenge.
Despite protestations from the board, speculation is rampant that the company is set to be broken up or merged.
Yang sought to galvanize investors during the press conference announcing his appointment with six words: "I am ready for the challenge."
Yang defined the key challenges that the Web giant continues to grapple with: from an underperforming search monetization platform, to the ever-increasing spate of rivals for its share of user traffic, to the "competition for our talent" that has led to employee attrition. He also laid out a road map for how the company would move forward.
Yang will have a formidable partner to lead Yahoo through its multi-year expansion plan, as former executive vice president Sue Decker now assumes the role of president. In her new role, Decker will continue to build the partnerships that are integral to Yahoo's growth strategy (such as a display advertising deal with Comcast), and will further implement the company's operational reorganization that began last year under Terry Semel, who announced his resignation after the market closed.
Yesterday's announcement ended months of speculation on whether Semel would keep his position as CEO amidst Yahoo's struggles with sub-par earnings forecasts, the loss of senior management personnel, and the relentless industry perception that it's always a step behind Google.
Semel countered those theories indirectly in his public resignation letter and statement, saying: "I've been clear in my desire to take a step back from an executive role, sooner rather than later. I've long been talking to the Board about ensuring a smooth succession--and the need for a leadership team committed to leading Yahoo through its multi-year transformation."
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Thursday, August 09, 2001
Hello there folks, I know it's been a while but.......here is some recent news on SPAM:
'SPAM' Gets Harder To Swallow: The amount of junk e-mail targeting in-boxes has spiked as much as 400 per cent over the past 12 months and will skyrocket in the next few years as this method of peddling unsolicited wares grows, some experts say. The average consumer today receives about three or four unsolicited commercial e-mails -- commonly called spam -- each day, pitching everything from sex to diet tips to moneymaking secrets. This rise in spam is only the beginning, e-mail experts warn. "It's definitely going to get worse -- much, much worse," predicts David Ferris, president of Ferris Research in San Francisco, a market-research firm.
Courtesy of The Globe and Mail
On my mind:
I want to extend a huge congradulations to A. and T. Ross on their recent marriage. I think I speak for all of your friends when I say that you two are very lucky to have found such a perfect match and we know that your happiness together will go on forever.
Lot's of love............cheers!
'SPAM' Gets Harder To Swallow: The amount of junk e-mail targeting in-boxes has spiked as much as 400 per cent over the past 12 months and will skyrocket in the next few years as this method of peddling unsolicited wares grows, some experts say. The average consumer today receives about three or four unsolicited commercial e-mails -- commonly called spam -- each day, pitching everything from sex to diet tips to moneymaking secrets. This rise in spam is only the beginning, e-mail experts warn. "It's definitely going to get worse -- much, much worse," predicts David Ferris, president of Ferris Research in San Francisco, a market-research firm.
Courtesy of The Globe and Mail
On my mind:
I want to extend a huge congradulations to A. and T. Ross on their recent marriage. I think I speak for all of your friends when I say that you two are very lucky to have found such a perfect match and we know that your happiness together will go on forever.
Lot's of love............cheers!
Wednesday, June 20, 2001
DoCoMo Takes Spammers to Court: this article just goes to show you all that SPAM is a global problem with serious reprecussions.....even in Japan! The NTT DoCoMo company is seeking a court order against 30 Japanese spammers who have sent electronic junk mail to I-mode users.
NTT DoCoMo hopes to help users of its I-mode wireless Internet service stop junk e-mail by dragging junk e-mail senders, or spammers, into court, the company announced on Monday. The company is also taking steps to reduce the cost of receiving e-mails, including spam, by offering I-mode users 400 free packets of data per month.
To date, DoCoMo has tracked down up to 30 individuals who have sent spam to I-mode users and is seeking a court order to force them to stop sending spam through the I-mode system. DoCoMo is hoping for a repeat of a legal victory by Nifty Corp., said Enoki, referring to a Japanese Internet service provider that succeeded in stopping a spammer with a court order. As I-mode charges users a fee for each e-mail that is received, users end up paying for all of this spam. In an effort to reduce the cost of spam mail, DoCoMo plans to offer I-mode users up to 400 packets of free data every month, amounting to a discount of about 97 cents (120 yen) per month for each user. "This started as a measure to prevent spam, but it is actually a new price reduction on our service. We will offer these free charges permanently," Enoki said.
Courtesy of The Standard
On My List:
For all you music lovers, tonight there is free show at harbourfront by Ninja Tune artists the Cinematic Orchestra. It should be fun so if anyone's interested you can talk to me. Remember folks, it's completely free!
Duane
NTT DoCoMo hopes to help users of its I-mode wireless Internet service stop junk e-mail by dragging junk e-mail senders, or spammers, into court, the company announced on Monday. The company is also taking steps to reduce the cost of receiving e-mails, including spam, by offering I-mode users 400 free packets of data per month.
To date, DoCoMo has tracked down up to 30 individuals who have sent spam to I-mode users and is seeking a court order to force them to stop sending spam through the I-mode system. DoCoMo is hoping for a repeat of a legal victory by Nifty Corp., said Enoki, referring to a Japanese Internet service provider that succeeded in stopping a spammer with a court order. As I-mode charges users a fee for each e-mail that is received, users end up paying for all of this spam. In an effort to reduce the cost of spam mail, DoCoMo plans to offer I-mode users up to 400 packets of free data every month, amounting to a discount of about 97 cents (120 yen) per month for each user. "This started as a measure to prevent spam, but it is actually a new price reduction on our service. We will offer these free charges permanently," Enoki said.
Courtesy of The Standard
On My List:
For all you music lovers, tonight there is free show at harbourfront by Ninja Tune artists the Cinematic Orchestra. It should be fun so if anyone's interested you can talk to me. Remember folks, it's completely free!
Duane
Wednesday, June 13, 2001
A spam cop goes AWOL The ORBS blacklist, a cotroversial tool for stopping unsolicited email, is suddenly inaccessible.
Spam fighters all over the world have lost a controversial weapon in the battle against unsolicited e-mail, ORBS -- the Open Relay Behavior Modification System -- has been gutted. ORBS's main service was a blacklist of Internet mail servers -- computers capable of routing mail across the Net -- that the ORBS administrator, Alan Brown, had identified as potentially capable of forwarding spam.
Questions about ORBS's behavior always centered on the problem of how to handle e-mail abuse. But more generally, ORBS symbolized the ongoing struggle between the Net's tendency to encourage individual freedom and the necessity of combating anarchy.
Ever since the Net moved beyond its roots as a small, open, academic community, users have attempted to balance opposing forces. Most favor the right to speak out, along with the right to privacy; they rail against censorship, but at the same time desperately seek the ability to censor unsolicited e-mail by limiting spammers' access to their networks.
But not everyone is sorry to see the site go. ORBS has plenty of critics. ORBS wasn't just a useful technology, they say; it was also a tool used by a specific person, Alan Brown, an overzealous spam fighter who went too far.
"Alan Brown created some nice technology -- nobody faults him on that point," says Tom Geller, founder of Suespammers.org, a nonprofit group that lobbies for strict spam legislation. "But he used it in an irresponsible way, invading others' private networks and using others' resources against their stated wishes." He became a living contradiction -- a man who, says Geller, "used others' network resources to prove that it's wrong to use others' network resources."
courtesy of tomalak.org
On My Mind:
i want to rant about the sorry state of affairs, as i see it, in the world of baseball.
i went to the blue jay game last night. unfortunatly, i left with an "awful taste in my mouth" due to the sheer boredom that i experienced once the 3rd inning came around. don't get me wrong i've always enjoyed a good ballgame but last night's tilt was extraodinarily rough. it was a pitcher's duel - meaning there were no runs scored, at all! - and both teams seemed rather sluggish and disinterested with their dispositions. granted if i was making 10 million a year i might not give a hoot about anything either. but, i'm not making that much, i'm just an honest paying fan (just kidding, the tickets were free.....but they don't know that!) whose one small request is to enjoy a well played game of professional baseball. c'mon folks, pull up your beltstraps and give the fans what they want: a couple of hot dogs, beers and a home run or two to boot!
let's go jays,
duane
Spam fighters all over the world have lost a controversial weapon in the battle against unsolicited e-mail, ORBS -- the Open Relay Behavior Modification System -- has been gutted. ORBS's main service was a blacklist of Internet mail servers -- computers capable of routing mail across the Net -- that the ORBS administrator, Alan Brown, had identified as potentially capable of forwarding spam.
Questions about ORBS's behavior always centered on the problem of how to handle e-mail abuse. But more generally, ORBS symbolized the ongoing struggle between the Net's tendency to encourage individual freedom and the necessity of combating anarchy.
Ever since the Net moved beyond its roots as a small, open, academic community, users have attempted to balance opposing forces. Most favor the right to speak out, along with the right to privacy; they rail against censorship, but at the same time desperately seek the ability to censor unsolicited e-mail by limiting spammers' access to their networks.
But not everyone is sorry to see the site go. ORBS has plenty of critics. ORBS wasn't just a useful technology, they say; it was also a tool used by a specific person, Alan Brown, an overzealous spam fighter who went too far.
"Alan Brown created some nice technology -- nobody faults him on that point," says Tom Geller, founder of Suespammers.org, a nonprofit group that lobbies for strict spam legislation. "But he used it in an irresponsible way, invading others' private networks and using others' resources against their stated wishes." He became a living contradiction -- a man who, says Geller, "used others' network resources to prove that it's wrong to use others' network resources."
courtesy of tomalak.org
On My Mind:
i want to rant about the sorry state of affairs, as i see it, in the world of baseball.
i went to the blue jay game last night. unfortunatly, i left with an "awful taste in my mouth" due to the sheer boredom that i experienced once the 3rd inning came around. don't get me wrong i've always enjoyed a good ballgame but last night's tilt was extraodinarily rough. it was a pitcher's duel - meaning there were no runs scored, at all! - and both teams seemed rather sluggish and disinterested with their dispositions. granted if i was making 10 million a year i might not give a hoot about anything either. but, i'm not making that much, i'm just an honest paying fan (just kidding, the tickets were free.....but they don't know that!) whose one small request is to enjoy a well played game of professional baseball. c'mon folks, pull up your beltstraps and give the fans what they want: a couple of hot dogs, beers and a home run or two to boot!
let's go jays,
duane
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
