August 08, 2006 | Tuesday
Live from San Jose: A busy day in search
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger in Events |News |Search Engines |Ask |Google |Yahoo |Microsoft
On the ground in San Jose, everyone’s concentrating on the Search Engine Strategies conference, but they’re still finding time to buzz about some of the latest search news.
The biggest story that broke on Monday was that Google has signed on as the exclusive search provider for MySpace:
The [$900 million+] deal, which marries the Internet’s leading search engine with the top social-networking site, means News Corp. will have essentially paid off the bulk of the $1.2 billion it spent last year to acquire both MySpace and the online video-game company IGN Entertainment Inc. Under the multiyear deal, News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media unit will add Google search boxes to MySpace and other sites, likely by the end of the year, and Google will provide search results and keyword ads targeted to people’s search terms. Google will also get first rights to sell any display ads not sold by Fox directly.
Because the primary reason people leave MySpace now is to conduct searches on Google, according to Fox executives, letting MySpace users enter such queries directly on the site allows it to retain visitors longer and thus boost its advertising potential. But just as importantly for Google, the deal lets the search company benefit from queries at MySpace instead of seeing those ad dollars go to rivals Yahoo Inc. or Microsoft Corp.’s MSN.
Another story that has everyone talking, debating, and scratching their heads is how AOL yanked its site which displayed US users’ search information:
AOL issued an apology yesterday for posting on a public Web site 20 million keyword searches conducted by hundreds of thousands of its subscribers from March to May. But the company’s admission that it made a mistake did little to quell a barrage of criticism from bloggers and privacy advocates who questioned the company’s security practices and said the data breach raised the risk of identity theft...For the posted data, each person using AOL’s search engine was assigned a unique number to maintain anonymity, the company said. But some privacy experts said scrutinizing a user’s searches could reveal information to help deduce the person’s identity.
The most feverish talk and speculation is reserved, though, for the question of which major media company - Yahoo? Microsoft? Ask? - will be hosting a party on Thursday night, where it will be, and how hard it will be to get an invite. On the topic of parties, the Unofficial SES Tailgate Party (aka Silicon Valley Blogger Slosher 2006) which I threw on Monday night was a great success. Latitude CFO Julie Moran and Director of Innovation Andrew Redfern were there, as were friends from Yahoo, one of the co-founders of Looksmart, Waxxi CEO Tracy Sheridan, best-selling business author Shel Israel, and a few dozen other Silicon Valley denizens who live and breathe their lives on the web and/or in the internet industry. Thanks for coming, everyone! (Incriminating photos are here.)
Comments
There are no comments for this entry yet. Use the form below to add yours.