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Yahoo reveal list of top online news searches

Matt Thomas — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:00:44 +0000

Everyone enjoys a good top 10 list, there is just something about them that inspires interest. Yahoo, habitual list makers have released an interesting list of the top 10 news searches made online in the last 15 years.

No prizes for guessing that the number one most searched for news story was arguably the biggest news event of the last few decades in 9/11. This was followed somewhat surprisingly by ‘cloning’ and then by the Iraq war.

Just as interesting as the results of the study, however were the figures that it presented. It was revealed that the number of websites registered on the internet has grown by a staggering amount in 15 years. In 1995 there were approximately 18,000 websites compared with 2010 where there are an estimated 200 million, showcasing the massive growth and influence of the internet in the last decade and a half.

Inevitably the amount of websites is going to be proportional to the amount of users and the study threw up some interesting figures in regards to this also. Yahoo found that the number of users has increased from 10 million worldwide (less then 0.33% of the world population) in 1995 to 1.6 billion (25% of the population) in 2010, basically a 25% rise in 15 years.

Jerry Yang and David Filo founders of Yahoo said: ”These numbers are astonishing, but even more important and more exciting is the impact that the internet is having on so many people around the world.

”From socio-economic opportunities to more accessible healthcare to educating the next generation and beyond, the internet has changed the way we live, work and learn.”

The full list compiled by Yahoo is shown below:

1. September 11
2. Cloning
3. Iraq war
4. Saddam Hussein
5. Harry Potter book releases
6. Michael Jackson death
7. Steve Irwin death
8. Tsunami
9. Enron scandal
10. The Millennium

Yahoo and Sainsburys in advertising deal

Matt Thomas — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 08:00:27 +0000

After you have purchased your shopping at Sainsbury’s and the cashier habitually asks you “do you have a Nectar card”?. Have you ever found yourself wondering what the actual point of them is? Or whether or not the so called ‘benefits’ are worth the hassle of filling out a form or shuffling around your bag/wallet looking for the card?

Well Yahoo and Nectar (Sainsbury’s loyalty card) have agreed on a deal that may well answer the question as to whether or not the Nectar card is a worthwhile investment.

It is primarily an advertising deal that will allow online advertisers to target high-street shoppers based on their purchases. Under the opt-in scheme, Yahoo would be provided with detailed historical data on the purchases made by shoppers. Once this information has been provided by Nectar it can be linked to their Yahoo login details in order to tailor specific advertisements to for each unique user on any of Yahoo’s sites.

These results could then be monitored by Nectar and enable them to show “return on investment data. Amazingly there are 16.8million Nectar card holders and 2000 of these have already decided to opt into the scheme.

This venture could be seen by many as a bit of an invasion of privacy, details of every item that you have purchased on your shopping trip being passed around may not be that appealing. Although if I am going to be forced to have online adverts pop up during my internet surfing time I would rather they be specifically tailored to my every desire.

The campaign known as ‘Consumer Connect’ is going to be used by Yahoo in the hope that it will attract household brands that may have in the past been reluctant to partake in online advertisement.

Cadbury, recently taken over by US cheese company Kraft, have been using a similar service for the last seven years, and have agreed to be part of the scheme.
“The service is a silver bullet to improve brand building,” said Mark Rabe, Yahoo’s UK managing director. “For the first time, UK advertisers will have a simple way to track offline sales from online advertising campaigns, driving accountability all the way through to return on investment.”

David Buckingham, commercial director at Nectar’s insight and communication division, said: “It allows FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] brands to serve up highly targeted adverts online to an extremely relevant audience.

“We can prove to them what the effect of the advertising was.”

Microsoft and Yahoo deal approved by regulators

Jenny Sanderson — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:00:58 +0000

A deal struck by two online superpowers, Microsoft and Yahoo has been cleared by European Union and US regulators. First announced in July 2009, clearance by regulators will see Microsoft allowed to buy Yahoo’s internet search and search advertisement business. This move comes as Microsoft attempt to increase their share in the Google dominated online search engine market.

The EU commission gave Microsoft their backing and stated that the deal “would not significantly impede effective competition”.

As it stands Microsoft and Yahoo share 10% of the online search market in the EU where as Google control around 90% of it. Just how big an effect this deal will have is set to be interesting as it is difficult to see how Microsoft will wrestle any of that 90% away from Google who have coined the internet search phrase “Google it”.

Chris Green, technology analyst at DMG Europe doesn’t provide a positive outlook for Microsoft:

“This deal gives Microsoft a bigger slice of the internet advertising business, but it is still miles and miles behind Google,” he said.

“Microsoft’s Bing is technically a very good search engine, but no-one uses it, and it doesn’t currently make a profit.
“The deal with Yahoo should turn it into a not-too-shabby and profitable world number two search engine. But still no Google.”

The ten year deal will see Microsoft’s Bing search engine used by the Yahoo site with the respective companies sharing the revenue. Yahoo will be providing the main advertisement sales team for Bing.

Now lets talk figures, under the term of the deal Microsoft will keep 12% of the search engine revenue garnered by Yahoo for the first five years of the agreement whilst paying Yahoo the remaining 88%.

The deal is set to be implemented in the next few days and comes off the back of other significant deals for both companies, Microsoft with Facebook and Yahoo with Nectar, it looks as though we may see some interesting collaborations in the online world this year.

Yahoo criticised for Corporate Entertainment choices

James Oliver — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:41:11 +0000

Struggling search engine Yahoo is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons after a suspect staff entertainment decision. The number two search engine has been accused of sexism by many commentators after arranging for a ‘performance’ from girls dressed in miniskirts and bras to take place at an internet engineers’ brainstorming meeting called Yahoo Hack Day.

The subsequent outcry has led to a public apology from Chris Yeh, the head of the Developer network…

“This incident is regrettable and we apologise to anyone that we have offended. Rest assured, it won’t happen again… Our hack events are designed to give developers an opportunity to learn about our APIs and technologies. As many folks have rightly pointed out, the “Hack Girls” aspect of our Taiwan Hack Day is not reflective of that spirit or purpose.”

As a company, Yahoo are not having a good time currently, they are haemorrhaging staff, making very little headway in their search marketing battle with Google and, despite the best efforts of new CEO Carol Bartz their share price continues to flounder. The last thing they need at this point is bad publicity of this sort.

Yahoo criticised for corporate entertainment

Jenny Sanderson — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:00:34 +0000

The subsequent outcry has led to a public apology from Chris Yeh, the head of the Developer network…

Carol Bartz: Stop talking about Microsoft!

Matt Thomas — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:16:37 +0000

Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz has angrily asked the media to stop talking about the £47.5 billion dollar Microsoft buyout rejected by her predecessor late last year. The head of the number two search engine is apparently tired of hearing about the deal, stating…

“Yahoo! actually has a bright, bright future, probably cleaner and simpler future without thinking there’s any Microsoft connection. We’d be better off if we’d never heard the word Microsoft.”

Tough talk indeed. Unfortunately, no amount of sabre rattling is going to change the prevailing opinion that turning down the Microsoft deal was a phenomenally daft thing to do. £47.5 billion was a generous evaluation at the time and the decision to reject the offer ushered in a period of free-fall that, within months, saw the company cut around a thousand jobs, wipe two thirds off the share price and generally slip to a level where they couldn’t hope to get a valuation of anywhere near that figure.

It’s unsurprising that she doesn’t want to hear about it anymore, though it’ll be interesting to see exactly what kind of ‘bright future,’ Carol Bartz has in mind.

Baby Shaker app proving a thorn in Apple’s side

Matt Thomas — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 09:20:33 +0000

Most of the time it’s hard to tell which technology stories are going to cross over into the mainstream media and become higher profile news pieces. Sometimes however, it isn’t. The current outrage surrounding the Apple baby shaker app is certainly one that would fall into the latter category.

When news broke that an application where users shake a picture of a baby until it stops crying was available for download from the App Store, the Apple marketing department must have braced themselves – it was pretty obvious that this one had legs.

We’re now in day two of ‘babygate’ and things don’t seem to be letting up, in fact the story is snowballing. Established institutions across all forms of media (BBC news and the telegraph to name but two) are asking, not unreasonably, how one of the bright young things at Apple actually approved this App for sale. With the story set to drag on into the weekend Apple will be asking very similar questions.

The outrage has led to calls for improvements to the app approval process. Especially since this isn’t the first time it’s been found wanting. Remember the card counting app that angered casino bosses? Or the issues some people had with iFart and iBeer?

Yahoo cuts Jobs (Again)

Matt Thomas — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:23:58 +0000

Yesterday Yahoo confirmed that it will be trimming 5 percent of its workforce (675 jobs) in their third round of significant job cuts in 14 months. The company got rid of 1,000 jobs in January of 2008 and then a further 1,500 in October of the same year. The cuts however, will not be companywide. Yahoo will focus its streamlining policy on the hapless Yahoo product managers and engineers.

It is thought however that the product managers will bear the brunt after Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz betrayed some exasperation with them in a conference call with investors earlier in the week, stating, “We sort of had one product management person for every three engineers, so we had a lot of people running around and telling engineers what to do,” before sensationally adding, “But nobody was f***ing doing anything.”

This recent round of staff cuts was to be expected, Bartz has been talking about ‘streamlining’ Yahoo since she took over. Even so, the loss of more than 3’000 people in little under a year is far from a reassuring sign.

Tech Industry responds to Yahoo CEO decision

James Oliver — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:36:10 +0000

As you may remember, last week we reported on the hiring of Carol Bartz as the new Yahoo CEO. Well, the industry has had time to absorb the news and feedback from the press and analysts is mixed.

As we told you last week, there is widespread concern amongst industry insiders that she lacks experience in this side of the consumer Internet market. That said, however, there are also plenty of voices applauding Yahoo for taking the risk and appointing a strong, wilful personality as their CEO. The argument is that the struggling company needs forceful leadership from somebody willing to take the hard decisions. Bartz, by all accounts, is that kind of leader.

As far as what she is actually going to do, it is obviously too early to make any firm predictions, though she is certainly ambitious; her stated aim is to put Yahoo on top of all its markets.

There is also talk that a change in leader will reopen the lines of communication between Yahoo and Microsoft though it would be wise to take those predictions with a pinch of salt. The Microsoft-Yahoo saga has had numerous false dawns over the past months and this could easily be another one, especially as Microsoft are remaining quiet on the issue and Bartz has said nothing at all yet to indicate that is her intention.

New Yahoo CEO

James Oliver — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:41:32 +0000

Yahoo’s two month search for a new CEO ended on Tuesday with the announcement that seasoned technology executive Carol Bartz would take over in charge of the number two search engine. From her 14 year tenure as CEO at software company, Autodesk, Bartz has earned a reputation for revenue growth and straight-talking. However, it is thought that not all shareholders are thrilled with the move.

Apparently, some sectors of investors believe she lacks the web business know how to take on such a top job, there are also question marks around her deal making ability. It’s easy to understand why Yahoo investors would insist on the latter characteristic, previous CEO, Jerry Jang, was ousted largely based on his failure to pull off an advertising deal with Google and his rejection of a very generous buyout offer from Microsoft.

That said, Bartz increased Autodesk’s profits from $285 million dollars to $1.5 billion during her reign. Even taking into account the period of huge growth in the software industry at that time, that is still a very impressive achievement.

Bartz is taking over Yahoo at a difficult time to say the least, the company continues to lose staff and market share and remains a distant second in the search engine tables, with Microsoft and their deep pockets looking very capable of taking over. However, there are signs of hope, namely Yahoo’s new internet TV initiative which looks like it could be a real winner.

I suppose only time will tell whether Bartz can make the difference.

Yahoo cuts Data Retention period

Admin — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:07:29 +0000

Yahoo said yesterday that it will restrict the time it holds personal search information that identifies the user. The move comes amongst increased anger from politicians and civil liberties groups about the practice of retaining personal search data.

The new policy is to delete all personal information i.e., phone numbers, names, as well as most of the IP address and all cookie data, after 90 days, reducing their previous retention period by more than 10 months . In doing so, Yahoo have imposed upon themselves the most restrictive data retention policy of any of the search engines. At present, Google does a similar thing after nine months, whilst Microsoft keeps the information for 18 months.

The US government and privacy campaigners have applauded the move, though it may not have been purely out of the goodness of their own hearts. Some industry analysts think that they have simply seen the way the wind is blowing and decided to move first, scoring a hefty PR victory in the process. Yahoo has gambled that their two major competitors, Google and Microsoft, will be forced to follow suit eventually.

They are probably right. The other big two will more than likely have to moderate their policies, bringing them roughly in line with Yahoo’s. If not by choice then by law, many privacy and civil liberties advocates are pushing hard for legislation to be put in place that would force them.

Google pulls out of Yahoo Deal

Matt Thomas — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:27:59 +0000

The troubled advertising deal between Google and Yahoo has been officially put out of its misery by the search engine giant. Since its inception, the deal had come up against strong criticism from advertisers, who feared prices would rise and the US Department of Justice, who feared that the deal would be anti-competitive.

The DoJ’s objection is strongly rumoured to have been stoked by Microsoft who, it is thought, have been making full use of their extensive government contacts and lobbying hard for the deal to be blocked. Indeed it was the DoJ who put the final nail in the coffin after informing Google that they were filing a lawsuit to stop the deal going ahead.

Microsoft’s involvement is ironic, as the dissolution of the deal once again raises the prospect of a strategic partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo. This would be viewed as a failure for Yahoo’s founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, who have been fighting tooth and nail to keep the company independent ever since Microsoft’s hostile bid to buy the company.

The deal with Google was viewed as Yahoo’s best shot at going forwards. With that now off the table, many people expect a deal with Microsoft to emerge early next year. So much so, that after the news of the Google’s decision broke Yahoo stock jumped 5% in anticipation of a buy out/deal.

Yahoo’s turn to get Sued

Matt Thomas — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:00:28 +0000

Search engine provider, Yahoo is being sued by one of the world’s leading airlines over copyright infringement. The unusual case boils down to this, American Airlines claims that, by allowing its competitors to bid on several of their trademarks, including AAdvantage and American Eagle, as keywords Yahoo has infringed their rights.

According to American Airlines Yahoo has allowed their competitors to become the top ranked advertising results on products that are unequivocally their property, allowing other companies a “Free ride on American Airlines brands.” Importantly, the Airline also believes that Yahoo, as well as clearly providing the technology to do so, has “Knowingly encouraged,” these activities.

This is a particular hobby horse of American Airlines’, they tried the same thing with Google last year and reportedly settled out of court for an undisclosed fee. If this case goes to trial it will be hugely important in terms of precedent as this is an issue in which no clear guidance exists. However, it is expected to go the same way as last year’s Google suit.

Interestingly though, European and UK trademarks are seen as much stronger than their US counterparts. It’s thought by legal experts that in a lawsuit heard by a British court, an infringement would be found. It can only be a matter of time…

Yahoo shares hit a five year low

Matt Thomas — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 10:26:57 +0000

Shares in Yahoo Inc. plummeted to their lowest point in five years yesterday. The dip is thought to have been caused by the weakening advertising market combined with increasingly tight regulatory scrutiny surrounding the proposed partnership with Google.

In a day that was turbulent for all technology stocks Yahoo emerged as one of the biggest losers, shedding five percent of its share value to close at $13.76 a share – this is the lowest price since 2003, when the company was still dealing with the dotcom bubble bursting. The stock has fallen 30 percent in the past month, admittedly amidst a broader market downturn that has seen the Dow itself drop seventeen points though Yahoo is falling at almost twice the rate leading some to speculate that there is much more than the credit crunch to blame.

Yahoo will, most likely, release its third quarter earnings on the 21st of this month though predictably the mood is not one of optimism amongst shareholders and executives. It’s a long way from earlier in the year when Microsoft looked into buying the California based company, at the time valuing the company’s at $31 a share.

An awful lot is now riding on the proposed advertising deal with Google. A decision in their favour would, no doubt, give them a rebound in terms of share price. However, a recommendation to block the deal from the US Justice Department might just administer a critical body blow to the company. Only time will tell.