GOOG
In-depth analysis and expert insight into Google’s products and services.We’ve already documented that Google hates scalable SEO strategies for economically sound reasons: their utopia is a world in which a CMO who doubles his digital spending has to do so through AdWords or DoubleClick—nothing else scales the same way. That explains a lot about Google: not just why they don’t like paid links, but also…
Yahoo Update
As has been reported at length, Yahoo’s board fired the company’s CEO, who fired back with an infamous email and a furious interview with Fortune. Yahoo’s board is now rumored to be considering spinoffs, divestitures, or a buyout, especially with the encouragement of their 5.1% owner, the activist hedge fund Third Point.
As a…
Baidu’s Cargo-Cult OS Strategy
Google’s move into operating systems makes sense: reducing Microsoft’s leverage over them, and increasing the aggregate number of Internet users are both great for their business, and they both directly benefit Google over competitors. None of those advantages really apply to Baidu’s decision to enter the OS market.
Fortunately, Baidu doesn’t…
You Like SEO More Than you Think
Seth Godin is dubious about SEO. But only when you call it “SEO.” When it’s “linkbait” he’s a big fan. Godin is a very smart guy, so just imagine what typical marketers and companies think.
A prediction: the most successful SEO-driven companies are the ones that can…
There are three big typo databases in the world:
The collective algorithmic typo database. There are a few standard typos (transposition, off-by-one, omitted letter, etc.), which are generally understood by anyone in academia who has studied the issue. Google’s massive database of misspelled terms, plus the results customers eventually click on. Apple’s massive database of…
The Patent Pledge
Ur-angel Paul Graham wants companies to promise not to offensively use patents against startups. So far, the participants in this patent pledge tend to by YCombinator companies. It could end up being something idiosyncratic to YC, which already seems to seek out the kind of companies that wouldn’t use patents offensively. But…
It’s natural to separate a company’s activity into two parts: the stuff they do to grow their competitive advantage, and the stuff they do to monetize it. For example, a company like Amex might run TV ads to make the Amex name more recognizable and synonymous with prestige—so when they send someone a targeted piece…
People Are Easy to Uniquely Identify
This research indicates that people can be uniquely identified with a tiny set of data: “87% of the U.S. Population are uniquely identified by {date of birth, gender, ZIP}.” That’s what you get as a proof of concept—imagine how much more precise it is when there are ad dollars at…
Zynga Delays IPO
Zynga is not likely to IPO on time, mostly due to the dicey market situation (though why they didn’t announce this during the diciness is a mystery). Dan Primack argues that it’s not a big deal.
Is Google+ an Identity Service?
According to BoingBoing, Eric Schmidt thinks so. If so, this is a more…
Google Brand Affinity Update
Score one more point for Google’s love of brands: they’re now citing recent searches in new search results. In other words, if you search for “airline tickets” and see a big-brand result, and then do a narrow search for “things to do in portland,” the sites that showed up in your…
Recent Research
Digital Due Diligence Weekly