The Credence Dot Com

Yahoo Is Getting a Makeover

2009-06-26T20:47:07Z

Yahoo is currently undergoing a very large re-branding effort to change how it is perceived. Some reports speculate that the re-brand will be unveiled when the new homepage launches.

News of these efforts was revealed at Yahoo’s first annual meeting under CEO Carol Bartz. Newly announced chief marketing officer Elisa Steele is in charge of this endeavor. San Francisco brand consultant Landor & Associates and a former Young & Rubicam executive, Penny Baldwin, have also been hired for the task.

World-renowned advertising company Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide has worked with Yahoo in the past and will continue to do so.

A Yahoo-Microsoft deal is still up in the air. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the company was always open to a deal with Yahoo. Carol Bartz on the other hand, said Microsoft would have to give them “boatloads of money” to agree to reach a deal.

There is no word as to when Yahoo’s new brand or homepage will launch.

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Google Takes On Its Antitrust Concerns

2009-06-12T20:47:40Z

The three major search engines seem to have a large cloud of antitrust concerns hanging over them right now. Microsoft has had a long battle of antitrust issues with the European Union and others. Google however, the search engine that everyone loves and that people can never find a fault about, seems to be drawing a lot of attention of late regarding antitrust matters.

First it was the Yahoo-Google advertising deal that was canceled last year as a result of antitrust issues. More recently, Google has been brought into the limelight in reference to its settlement with authors and publishers on electronic rights to out-of-print books.

Another case involving Google, Yahoo, Apple, and Genentech is investigating whether the companies have issued agreements with one another saying they will not recruit certain employees from each company. The Federal Trade Commission is also raising concerns since Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson both serve on Google and Apple's boards.

How is Google responding to all this recent scrutiny? Both calmly and collectively, just as they do with most situations. Google's competition counsel Dana Wagner told a group of reporters in San Francisco that the search giant preferred to take a non-confrontational approach to the inquiries. He said:

"One of the reasons we haven't had a huge fight is that we [Google] generally try to find common ground."

What do you think? Do you believe these antitrust issues raise legitimate concerns? Is Google becoming too powerful?

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Craigslist Disputes: Who’s in the Wrong?

2009-05-22T21:29:06Z

First it was the newspapers to bring a case against Craigslist because of their declining advertising market, and now it's the state of South Carolina. Craigslist has been in the news quite often lately as a result of "suspected Craigslist killer" Philip Markoff and the dispute over its sex advertising model.

Most recently, South Carolina's attorney general Henry McMaster, threatened to bring criminal charges against Craigslist over the site's sex-related ads. Craigslist responded by suing McMaster and asking for an apology. The issue behind the dispute concerns the "erotic services" ads section on Craigslist. McMaster says the section corresponds to prostitution.

Craigslist has however, eliminated that section and replaced it with a more regulated "adult services" section. McMaster says his office "had no alternative but to move forward with criminal investigation."

Craigslist has firmly defended its site's ads by saying its ads are no different from the ads that are allowed in newspapers, yellow pages, and many other websites. Ironically, the same types of advertisements in those other outlets are legal. The classified advertising website is suing McMaster to further prove its innocence.

What do you think about Craigslist? Is the site operating within legal bounds? Is Attorney General McMaster acting irrationally? Do you think McMaster has made this move to simply further his political career since he is considering running for governor of South Carolina? Should "adult services" ads be allowed on any advertising platform?

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Wolfram Alpha: Google Killer?

2009-05-11T15:22:05Z

One week from today, May 18th, Wolfram Alpha will officially launch. Stephen Wolfram is the scientist behind this search tool. He wrote the book, A New Kind of Science, and is responsible for the Mathematica computational software.

So, is it a Google-killer? Danny Sullivan says, "Nope!" He goes on to say, "it should become an essential in anyone's search tool kit," but coins the service a "fact search engine." When you ask the service a question, it returns a tremendous amount of statistical information in the form of charts, graphs, etc.

Wolfram Alpha does face challenges such as interpreting search queries. Another problem is awareness. The product is geared toward the general public, but they have to be made aware of it before they can utilize it.

Stephen Wolfram says:

"We are not a search engine. No searching is involved here. The types of things that people are currently searching for have some overlap [with Google], but it isn't huge. What's exciting is that we have a whole new class of things that people can put into a input field and have it tell them what it knows."

To better understand how Wolfram Alpha works, check out Danny Sullivan's perspective, which includes a demo from Stephen Wolfram.

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Disney-Hulu Deal Could Have Greater Impact Than It Appears

2009-05-01T21:12:29Z

Disney is buying a 30 percent stake in Hulu.com meaning Disney movies and ABC TV shows will be available on Hulu. In the deal that was announced this week, Disney will be bringing older movies and ABC shows to the site in hopes of gaining new viewers and ultimately generating new revenue from the video sharing site.

Hulu has experienced unprecedented growth since its launch in 2007. Recent reports from comScore show that 380 million videos were viewed on the site last month, which is up 14.3 percent from its February statistics. Although still falling behind YouYube, Hulu is among the top three online video sites in the U.S.

On the Hulu Blog, CEO Jason Kilar wrote:

It is such a thrill to work alongside such a great team in Disney. I believe that cultural fit, that similar focus, is going to be the source of many good things to come for our users, our advertisers, and our content partners.

Three of the four major U.S. broadcasting networks are now content partners with Hulu. CBS Corp. is the only one that is missing. Kilar has indicated that Hulu would gladly welcome CBS on board as well. However, CBS says it believes in "controlling our own rights" and "CBS has long employed open, non-exclusive content partnerships that allow fans across the Internet to engage with our programming in such a way that we control our distribution, sales and profit."

Incidentally, CBS Corp. acquired TV.com when it purchased CNet last year. Also in February of this year, Hulu pulled all its content from TV.com.

As a result of this news, there has been much speculation as to what it means for Hulu rival YouTube and the left-out network CBS. What do you think?

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Update on Yahoo and Microsoft Talks

2009-04-10T21:10:07Z

We reported a few weeks ago that rumors of Micro-Hoo were flying again and those rumors just might be turning to reality. According to Kara Swisher, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met face-to-face last week to discuss a partnership.

In reference to "cautioned sources close to Yahoo," Swisher says the talks are not in an effort to reignite the original acquisition deal. Instead, the discussion involves a partnership in the areas of search and advertising.

Ballmer has publicly stated on several occasions that Microsoft is interested in buying Yahoo's search business or their search advertising business. However, many reports also reveal that Yahoo is determined to keep their search business under their own control.

Microsoft wanted to acquire Yahoo primarily to fight the search-dominant Google. The latest surveys show Google with 63 percent of the search market share, Yahoo at No. 2 with 20.6 percent, and Microsoft coming in at a very distant third with 8 percent.

Last month at a media conference, Ballmer said:

"Unless I'm fooling myself, over time I would expect there's a good opportunity for a deal."

In spite of whatever is truly going on behind those closed doors, Wall Street and investors from both parties are encouraged by talks of a deal.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft declined to comment on this report.

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Is Twitter Being Acquired Or Not?

2009-04-03T21:35:05Z

Twitter is in the news once again and this time it looks like it is caught in the middle of an ugly battle. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reported that Google would buy Twitter in cash, stock, or a combination of the two and cited three unnamed sources. He also said the companies are interested in working on a Google real-time search engine.

Some time later, Kara Swisher over on All Thing Digital, reported that Arrington's story was inaccurate and cited a number of sources. Incidentally, Swisher is married to Google VP Megan Smith, which could signify that she has a credible inlet for information.

Both Arrington and Swisher stand by their stories.

Interestingly enough, Wired Magazine and Federated Media's John Battelle have indicated that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. could take over Twitter. Battelle wrote this on his blog on April Fools Day:

"Just got confirmation from a very reliable source that Newscorp has closed a definitive purchase of Twitter for 'at least $750mm in cash.'"

At this point, it doesn't look like there is anything official on a Twitter acquisition. I think it is safe to say there are several big players that are very interested in purchasing the booming microblogging service.

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Twitter Seeks Revenue Model

2009-03-27T14:16:50Z

Twitter has recently taken the world by storm. Most everyone uses the service and has nothing but good things to say about it. Businesses are making money with the tool and view it as an invaluable marketing device. Up to this point however, the Internet startup itself has not generated a profit for its service.

All that may change soon enough since reports indicate the company is planning to offer commercial and paid accounts for large corporations and businesses. These accounts would provide an expanded version of the Twitter service. Biz Stone, the Co-Founder of Twitter said:

"We think there will be opportunities to provide services to commercial entities that help them get even more value out of Twitter. If these services are valuable to companies, we think they may want to pay for them."

Earlier this week, one of the Twitter experiments was revealed. Microsoft and John Battelle's Federated Media released a special website called ExecTweets which allows users to view Twitter messages from business executives.

The company also announced its hiring of Anamitra Banerji. His job is to develop commercial products and essentially build the service into a profitable business.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams expressed his assurance that the company would make money. At an event, he reportedly said he wasn't sure how or when they would make money, but they would nonetheless.

You may remember that Twitter turned down a $500 million offer from Facebook last year. Rumors indicate that Google is interested in purchasing the service as well.

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Could There Be A Micro-Hoo After All?

2009-03-20T21:26:39Z

Rumors are flying again that Microsoft may acquire its competitor Yahoo. Recent reports indicate that Microsoft might not purchase all of the Sunnyvale-based Yahoo, but possibly part of it.

The main area that Microsoft is interested in is the area of search. At a technology and media summit this week in New York, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said a deal with Yahoo would help to advance Microsoft Live Search. If a deal did go through, Microsoft would likely attract more search users, which would also mean more advertisers and advertising revenue.

Ballmer alleges that he has had only one conversation with Yahoo's new CEO Carol Bartz since she has held the position. Most will remember Yahoo's former CEO, Jerry Yang, refused Microsoft's takeover offer of $47.5 billion last year.

Microsoft still continues its efforts to build its own search technology that would better compete with Yahoo and Google. The company even released the internal name of its new search development called Kumo. For years, industry experts have said that Microsoft needs to decide on one single brand and stick with it.

Ballmer said that when the new search platform is released that Kumo would not be the final name.

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts

Facebook Copying Twitter in Redesign?

2009-03-06T20:26:44Z

This week, Facebook introduced a redesign that ironically resembles concept of Twitter. Many people speculate that Facebook is now trying to compete with Twitter since it couldn't purchase the site.

The redesign consists of a new user home page as well as new public profiles for celebrities and organizations. According to the blog post from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg, the changes were necessary in order to accommodate all the information the site receives and keep it up-to-date. As he points out, the home page draws more attention to the news feeds.

"The new home page will let you see everything that's shared by your friends and connections as it happens. It will also provide you more control by letting you choose exactly who you see among the people and things you are connected to."

It's interesting that with the continuing popularity of Twitter, online services such as Google and Facebook are really stepping up their efforts to also produce real-time communication. Zuckerburg compares the site and the changes to a timeline or stream saying:

"As people share more, the timeline gets filled in more and more with what is happening with everything you're connected to. The pace of updates accelerates. This creates a continuous stream of information that delivers a deeper understanding for everyone participating in it."

The young CEO also indicated that there would be more changes to come in order for users to know everything that is going on around them.

The redesign is set to launch next week and a preview of it can be seen here.

No Tags

---
Related Articles at The Credence Dot Com:

No Related Posts