Category Archives: yahoo

China redirects searches to Baidu? OR NOT!

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TechCrunch is reporting today that China is redirecting internet searches from Google, Yahoo, and MSN and I assume all other engines – to Chinese search engine Baidu.   However I can’t find anything but little anecdotal posts to support this.   Looks to me like some videos and blogs have been affected, but that the big search engine issues may have related to a temporarily problem or testing of DNS stuff.

They suggest this may relate to the recent award given to the Dalai Lama I’d guess China is spending a lot of time thinking and experimenting with ways to maximize their search revenues, and this redirection, if it really did happen as dramatically as some suggest, would probably be testing ways to gather data on how well Baidu monetizes search compared to the agreements they have with other players.

Wait – here’s a blogger in Beijing, China saying that he’s getting to places TechCrunch says have been sent to Baidu, like Google.   Not sure what’s up …

Is this a false alarm?   I think so, though it might be another example of how China’s centralized socialist economy can create power and monopoly conditions the most ruthless old style US capitalists could only dream about.    Increasingly control of the online landscape is control of the business landscape, and as China’s massive economic expansion continues it will be very interesting to see how the China wields her power.

Note – I just edited this post quite a bit thanks to the new info.  Still dunno what’s going on.

Social media frenzy may kill high quality content. Somebody fix this!

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The news last month that Microsoft may wind up offering Facebook $500,000,000 for a 5% stake is great news … for the tiny number of Facebook insiders who stand to gain from this move which would effectively value the social media giant at about $10,000,000,000.    For the millions of Facebook folks like me who provide the content and faces that drive Facebook it means … um … more advertising.   

Gee, thanks Facebook.   

When people wake up they may start to realize that we’ve got a potential crisis as small numbers of “info intermediators” like Google and Facebook scoop up the lion’s share of the online ocean of cash while the “info creators” are distinctly second class citizens in the big show.   Small time web publishers and mom and pops are in this group.  So are major newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post and most other print outlets who tend to make relatively little online despite offering much of the web’s best content to date, especially now that the foolish paywalls of some newspaper outlets like NYT are coming down.   Having no paywall will allow them to make more, but it’s not clear to me they’ll make enough to keep all that high quality content coming.  

Print and newspapers are  hurting and that is going to continue.   That’s OK as long as websites and blogs continue to provide great insight and breaking news, but it’s about time the big players in the online world start working *a lot harder* to feed the hands that are feeding them.  It’s about time they realize that the best web ecosystem encourages high quality content and not just socializing for the sake of hanging online with friends.

Yes, it is true that revenue sharing programs like Google adsense give publishers a nice share of revenues that come directly from activity at their websites.  However lost in this debate is the fact that *most* of Google’s money  (and virtually all of Myspaces), goes into the pocket of Google and Fox (owners of Myspace).   This is because most of the cash comes from searches done at Google.com rather than publishing affiliate sites, and Google keeps all that despite the fact it’s generated *indirectly* from the ocean of content Google has categorized.  Sure Google should make *a lot* from categorizing *your content* so effectively, but should they make 100%?   You can argue this arrangement is fine if the big players turn around and do things with that money that make the internet ecosystem thrive and grow in ways it could not without their involvement.  I think that argument was far more valid a few years ago than it is now.  Literally thousands of  startups are dying off as the Youtubes and Facebooks – built squarely on the shoulders of other people’s content  – scoop up the super gigantic big money.    It is not a problem that startups die – in fact it’s a good part of the ruthless evolution of things – but it’s problematic when the lion’s share of online resources from the work of so many are redistributed to so few.    Not because this is “unfair”,  but because this type of  inequity does not lead to optimal system efficiency and growth.

Social media in all its various and sundry forms is a wonderful development.  Finally we see clearly that people, not computers, will be at the heart of future online developments – probably for some time into the future.    Facebook users are now leading the innovation in this area, though Alice at NYT thinks this could lead to unintended consequences.

To protect this new socially charged online environment from the ravages of our silly, stupid and prurient human interests we’ll need better incentives than the big players currently offer to quality content producers.   Those incentives will ultimately shape the quality of online content for years to come.

Google’s Constitutional Amendment: The Right to Rank as you see fit

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Some of the most lively debate and controversy at search conferences surrounds the issue of Google ranking rights.   At Search Engine Strategies in San Jose the most interesting (and confrontational) session involved Michael Gray taking Matt Cutts to task on Google’s aggressive stand on commercially driven linking.    

The stakes of the “right to rank” question may become even higher in the context of a recent Microsoft v Google case, where MS is suggesting in their court brief against the Google Doubleclick merger that the merger will create something like monopoly conditions in the online advertising space because (according to Microsoft’s sources) Google+Doubleclick serve more than half the world’s online advertising.  

Although I don’t think MS is attacking Google ranking methods directly here it’ll be interesting to see if Google claims that since their algorithm does not rank the free “organic” listings on a commercial basis the suit has less merit than it would if they *did* favor sites in the organic listings.   

This would, of course, beg the key point that Google’s ranking power is now so high that it can make or break companies – offline as well as online – depending on how they rank in the organic “free” listings.   This confers on Google an obligation that IMHO they still do not take seriously enough – the obligation to minimize the collateral damage and maximize the correct rankings using, if necessary, more human intervention.     In short I’m saying that until the results are *so good* that only highly subjective opinions are coming into play Google needs to do *more* than is currently done, based on the principle that “with great wealth comes great responsibility”.    Ironically I think Google’s success has to a large extent insulated them from the growing criticism in the webmaster community.   Some of that criticism is self serving, e.g. spammers who are unhappy their tactics now fail, but much of the criticism is coming from users and newly minted webmasters or mom and pops who are frustrated because they can’t seem to get ranked properly for even the most obvious queries.   Google blames the spammers for this, but it’s a dynamic process and more transparency from Google – perhaps with stronger forms of site and webmaster ID for “official” or clearly white hat sites – could go a long way to solving the transparency problems.

Over at Matt Cutts’ blog he makes this point about a recent ASK court case decision in favor of a search engine’s right to rank as they see fit.  This point lies at the heart of the right to rank debate:

 Again, it makes sense that search engines get to decide how to rank/remove content in their own index…

I replied over there:

Matt …hmmm….wouldn’t you agree that this has some clear limits?   What would you call crossing the line on this freedom to rank however you see fit?
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If Google pulled what Yahoo did some time ago and essentially forced sites to pay for inclusion or be excluded would that fall within the sensical realm?  
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MSN is claiming (somewhat ironically and hypocritically, but correctly) that Google’s ad power is becoming close enough to a monopoly that remedies are in order.  Historically there has been trouble when a single company or country controlled more than half a resource – why no problem here?      

—– end reply —–

Facebook will rule the world in 33 days! Ummm … not.

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Yes, of course Facebook is a great implementation of Social Networking which is undoubtedly the paradigm that will dominate the internet world for at least a few years.  However Facebook is hardly a *new* idea  and it’s hardly immune to other social networking forces that are in the mix now and will be popping up as time moves on.

AllFacebook is reporting that soon Facebook could kill off LinkedIn with new ways to segregate and work with your contact list, and I think he’s got a good point.   Ideally it seems like would be nice to have ONE intersection point that can be adjusted and manipulated according to our network, community, or audience.   But it’s not clear people will want that to be a commercial enterprise – in fact OpenID in some form seems more likely to take on that role. 

Despite all the hype surrounding a 10 billion valuation for Facebook and rumors of their takeover of the world I’m skeptical they’ll be as dominant as many seem to think after a few years of hassling with the real world of real people – potentially very fickle facebookers. 

Facebook is seeking the mantle of the one stop social networking shop, and as of the latest buzz they seem in a good position to take over from Myspace as the world’s top social network.   However Facebook has a very long way to go in terms of subscribers even though it does seem that the earlier enthusiasm folks showed for Myspace is  giving way to Facebook.    But Facebook is not as “fun” as Myspace so I’d guess we’ll see a demographic division as kids and new users gravitate to the more “fun” sites like MySpace or the new Yahoo Mash and more sophisticated users move in the direction of Facebook.   

TechCrunch on Facebook’s changes

Yahoo rewriting URLs to improve indexing

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Yahoo just rolled out new search results so it’s a good idea to check your rankings after these settle in.    Over the past few years Yahoo has (too quietly) been improving their search results which now, arguably, rival those of Google.     Word on the grey hat SEO street however still contends that Yahoo and MSN are much easier to spam than Google.    I think I’ll run yesterday’s “Las Cruces” SERP test at Yahoo and see how those results compare to Google’s, especially given the new Yahoo efforts.

A feature Yahoo announced recently is they new dynamic URL rewriting which should improve indexing – sometimes dramatically – for sites with a lot of dynamic pages or content.

Yahoo Mash – all play and no work?

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Social networks are the key to understanding the “new” online world so I’m paying a lot of attention to Yahoo’s entry into this space called Mash.    Myspace, with close to 100,000,000 profiles remains by far the king of this heap though Facebook is catching up fast.  Yahoo failed to aquire Facebook after offering – according to most reports – about a billion dollars for what is arguably the best programmed and highest potential social networking environment.

With Mash, several of the beta testing folks including me are asking the question Li Evans correctly is asking over at Yahoo Mash:

… do we really need another Social Network?

I think the answer is basically “yes”, because we need to improve social networking so that you don’t have to sign up separately and build profiles and hassle with friends for every Mash, Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace that comes along.

We need social networking that breaks down the things that separate people from pure online interactions on their own terms, at their own time, and with the information they want to provide to others.   Facebook and Mash admirably are starting to do this with open architectures and developer programs and we are already seeing some great stuff come out of the Facebook environment.    Mash, correctly, is also working to keep development easy and open though they seem to be looking to compete with Myspace more than Facebook.    This may be a good idea from a profitability perspective but it’s disapointing to those of us who want some fun but mostly work related interactions with folks.

Yahoo Mash Blog

OK to email me if you need an invite to Mash beta   jhunkins @ gmail.com

Battelle will be back at Mash!?

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John Battelle‘s already giving up on Mash and I think that’s too bad.   He’ll be back because I think it’ll catch on… unless Yahoo fails to evangelize properly.    Umm – wait a minute.   Yahoo !   Evangelize!!!!!

Here’s the comment I could not post over at Searchblog because I gave up on the  4th time with the captcha.   Searchblog is still a good resource though I think it suffered greatly when John went off to build the Federated Media Empire.   Today’s challenge posting was a perfect example of why I’m getting tired of putting in my “valuable” comments at A list websites only to be treated poorly by tech problems, short replies, or no feedback.

Social media / social centric blogging will soon trump the current elitism that is damaging blogging and that’s a good thing.    I’m finding the best stuff is coming from peole who are not read enough.  That can be fixed though Google’s ranking system is getting in the way of that for sure – but this is for another post.

——  To John at SearchBlog —-

Wow John, I think you’ve given up too soon.  Yes it’s too much like Myspace but there are some great features that bring Yahoo’s strength to bear in social networking.  Blog and picture integration are good features but the threaded conversations *across different profiles* is a feature I’ve not seen before – it’s a very good way to get people talking, like MyBlogLog does.

For example I’ve given up on SearchMob and even commenting here because as much as I appreciate your wisdom on things this is very one-sided.   I give my .02 in thoughtful comments and get back…very little, because most A list folks are far too busy building empires to actively engage with the rifraff bloggers out there.  That’s OK, but’s regular blogs don’t reflect the web in all its powerful 2.0 social glory.  The holy grail for blog/social media is where we get away from the “A list” and towards socializing that is spawned from the belly of the internet beast itself – ie where socializing springs from natural relationships of people and sites.   Facebook and now Mash are facilitating that change, and it’s a great one.

Yahoo Mash is cool

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I’m enjoying Yahoo Mash so far. email me if you need an invitation as it is still in beta: jhunkins@gmail.com

Here are some observations for what they are worth:

* Lots of search and SEO folks in the beta so far. This will probably make early feedback very different,and a lot more sophisticated than what it would be with a normal online sample.

* Business features lacking. I agree with others who are noting this is a bit “too much” like MySpace which is inferior to Facebook and LinkedIn. You can do a hybrid of all these here, so bring in more biz networking features ASAP and it’ll get early adopters and influencers on board fast.

* More blog integration /mybloglog stuff would be nice. I’d like to use Mash as a way for people to talk about blog posts at my blog and others. I can’t get the RSS feed to work in my Mash profile so far ( joeduck.wordpress.com/atom/ )

Mash has a GREAT idea with the comments crossing across all profiles and the convo feature which allows people to carry on a conversation across their profiles. I think this is a really neat breakthrough in interactivity though I’m still processing this feature, which I have not seen elsewhere.

Yahoo’s MyBlogLog, combined with Mash, could actually be the killer application (though I assume MySpace and Facebook would soon copy it but that’s fine) . For most onliners like me there is a huge problem with the amount of time spent navigating and participating in social networking plus blogging, not to mention “real” work on websites and such. Needed badly are ways to seamlessly travel online, carrying your profile and important ID elements, blog posts, and more around with you. IMHO MyBlogLog has come the closest to this holy grail so far because it allows people to do their own thing AND interact with others who are doing their own thing.

Yahoo gets this in a big way which is why they bought MBL and have created certain features in Mash. Good going so far Yahoo!

Disclaimer: I’m a Yahoo stockholder, so I’m rootin’ for them but remain pretty darn objective otherwise.

Yahoo Mash

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Update: I’ve got a basic page up at Mash but you’ll need a (free) Mash account to access in this new social network. Email me at: jhunkins@gmail.com if you need an invite.

Scott’s annoyed that Mash is treating him like a … kid.

—— earlier ——–

Yahoo’s in the process of developing a new social networking space and it looks promising. I’ll hope to be on it within a day or so to check out the features. Yahoo is a little late to the party after failing to aquire Facebook, but I’m sure the Yahoo teams have come up with a great social application. After all, Yahoo’s been doing a lot of the best Web 2.0 work for some time and it’s about time they leveraged all the visitors to Yahoo properties into a social networking system.

The major challenge here is that many people, certainly me included, are suffering from sort of “social networking fatigue” from trying to follow and participate and understand even a handful of the many social applications out there. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, Flickr,MyBlogLog, StumbleUpon, etc are all important places and offer the ability to interact with folks but there is only so much time in a day, even for those of us who spend a lot of time online.

I’ll write more about this after I get … Mashed.

Mash Blog

hmm – comments seem to be having problems. Maybe the TechCrunch coverage overload killed the form?

C’mon Yahoo, C’mon Yang! This investor is still optimistic!

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WSJ’s recent Yahoo story does not sound very optimistic about Yahoo’s potential to recapture the former glory Yahoo enjoyed in terms of stock price. The gist is that new CEO Yang is not going to “overhaul” the company, especially in the area of advertising sales where Yahoo clearly has enormous potential for bigger profits, and even a shot at eventually co-dominating the online advertising landscape.

It is this potential that interests me as a YHOO investor. Google’s done a fine job of monetizing internet activity in the search space, and GOOG’s capitalization of some 160 billion dollars reflects this fact. Yahoo was arguably too early to the PPC game with the purchase of Overture – the early leader in the PPC space. My assumption is that this kept Yahoo from innovating aggressively and allowed Google to sweep in with their contextual matching brilliancy and eat Yahoo’s PPC profit lunch. This feast continues despite the fact that Yahoo retains a significant portion of total online search activity and also remains in a position to monetize a large amount of other types of internet traffic.

Also, Yahoo’s making great strides in the Web 2.0 space thanks to a kick-ass developer team. Yahoo’s Flickr remains the best photo sharing application with a huge community. If Yahoo could use their 2.0 cleverness to crack the nut of better monetizing the traffic spawned by Flickr and even other non-Yahoo online communities like Myspace or Facebook it would be helpful to the bottom line.

Yahoo remains capitalized at a small fraction of Google – about 20%. This is consistent with the pessimism expressed in the WSJ article but does not seem consistent with Yahoo’s profit potential in the exploding world of online advertising.

There used to be a game where Yahoo employees would sneak into the Google lunch room to eat a free and delicious Google lunch. Jerry Yang, how about providing a free lunch at Yahoo and then focusing the employee’s attention on taking back all those free and delicious PPC profits?

Less glibly I’d suggest you focus on the Yahoo Publisher Network evangelism and monetization. So far Yahoo has failed – fairly dramatically – to gain publisher interest and loyalty in this lucrative sector of online advertising. Google adsense publishers are ripe for change and innovation in this space. Make it so!