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Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Keyword Search Statistics - Search Stats By Search Engine

MSN Search increases slightly according to a new keyword search statistics report by OneStat.com

OneStat.com (www.onestat.com), the number one provider of on demand intelligence web analytics, today reported that MSN Search's global usage share has slightly increased and that Google's search site is still the number one search engine in the world.

MSN Search's global usage share has risen from 8.6 percent to 8.9 percent.

Google's global usage share has decreased 0.3 percent the last 8 months.

Yahoo's global usage share remained flat, as the second largest search engine on the internet had a global usage share of 21.2 percent.

The 4 largest keyword search engines on the web are:

1. Google 56.9%
2. Yahoo 21.2%
3. MSN Search 8.9%
4. AOL Search 3.2%

All numbers are an average of North American Keyword Search Activity in August and September of 2005.


The organic search results of all four search engines above are determined by a search engine spider and/or robot crawler using pre-programmed algorithms.

Contact Peak Positions Organic SEO consultants to discover the power of algorithm synchronization and database website optimization that allows corporate websites powered by dynamic databases to appeal to the leading algorithms and enjoy premium organic search engine placement.

Organic search results are favored by consumer searchers 6 to 1 and b2b searchers prefer the organic search results at a 7 to 1 clip.

Learn more about Organic Search Engine Optimization, the most effective form of online advertising at: http://www.peakpositions.com

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Key Organic Search Engine Optimization Facts:

Keyword search is the 2nd most popular online activity, rapidly approaching the popularity of email retrieval.

90% of all new, unique, website visitors are delivered by a major search engine and/or directory.

98% of all keyword search results are powered by the big (4) search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL. (see usage shares above).

Keyword search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL are all determined by a search engine spider and/or robot crawler.

Recent internet marketing studies confirm that keyword searchers prefer the organic results at a 6 to 1 ratio vs. pay-per-click sponsored search advertising listings.


Discover the most powerful and effective form of advertising:
Search Engine Optimization.



Search Engine Marketing is projected to become (10x) more powerful and influential than traditional media outlets such as: network television, cable television, local television, network radio, satellite radio, local radio, national newspapers, local newspapers, magazines, billboards, direct mail, telemarketing and more.

An aside for consideration are the segments of Search Engine Optimization. Clarification is required in terms of paid search marketing, sponsored search advertising, pay per click, email marketing, and the foundation of any successful internet marketing campaign: Organic Search Engine Optimization.

Organic SEO in some circles is also referred to as Natural Search Engine Optimization or Natural SEO.

Learn more about search engine optimization at: http://www.peakpositions.com

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Monday, September 26, 2005

Organic Search Engine Optimization > Organic SEO > Industry Facts

Organic Search Engine Optimization Facts (Organic SEO) in some circles also referred to as Natural Search Engine Optimization (Natural SEO).

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Key Organic Search Engine Optimization Facts:

- Keyword search is the 2nd most popular online activity, rapidly approaching the popularity of email retrieval.

- 90% of all new, unique, website visitors are delivered by a major search engine and/or directory.

- 98% of keyword search results are powered by the big (4) search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL.

- Keyword search results on: Google, Yahoo, MSN & AOL are determined by a search engine spider and/or robot crawler.


Recent internet marketing studies confirm that keyword searchers prefer the organic results at a 6 to 1 ratio vs. pay-per-click sponsored search advertising listings.

These Internet Marketing Facts make Organic Search Engine Optimization (Organic SEO) the most effective form of Online Advertising.
Microsoft President Resigns as more key MSN search engineers jump ship to Google.

Software giant Microsoft Corp. tweaked its organizational structure once again last week. The company president and chief operating officer Rick Belluzzo was forced to resign as more key Microsoft engineers fled to Google.

Belluzzo was unable to stop the flow of senior Microsoft engineers leaving for Googleplex. The fact that many of the engineers also took proprietary code with them to Google.

Microsoft is fighting many of the resignations trying to enforce non-compete clauses with federal lawsuits against he ex-employees and Google.

Microsoft has been in talks with America Online in recent months and Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer were not pleased with the lingering AOL talks and that many of Microsoft's books were exposed in negotiations with AOL.

Micorsoft has always been very protective over its business processes to date and Belluzzo was not providing enough protection to critical company systems as negotiations with AOL took place.

Many in the industry feel this latest move is more evidence that Microsoft is waffling and has not clearly defined their company direction for the coming years.

How will Microsoft address keyword search the second most popular online activity? The new MSN search engine has not been popular with internet users is not meeting consumer demands. MSN has been unable to substantially increase their share of the $16 Billion dollar keyword search market in recent months.

The article below is a great summary of MSN's intention to shore up their keyword search weaknesses and begin to make more in-roads on Google's market share.

Bill Gates and MSN Focus on Google

Bill Gates and MSN Focus on Google
Clash of the Titans, The War for internet user share reaching new heights

CARLSBAD, Calif. - Don’t be fooled by all the speeches about global health and high school education. Bill Gates is still, first and foremost, about clobbering Microsoft Corp.’s competition. And his current obsession is Google Inc.
"Google is still, you know, perfect," he told the crowd of technology executives attending The Wall Street Journal’s third annual conference on "All Things Digital." "The bubble is still floating. They can do everything. You should buy their stock at any price."

The world’s richest man said those words with a wry irony that suggested ridicule of the Google craze, but also resentment. There may be hot air in Google’s highflying stock price ($260 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market), but Gates clearly takes the company seriously. "We had a 10-year period like that," he said, equating Google’s current standing in the computer world to that of Microsoft from 1986 to 1996.

To underscore the point, Gates touted Microsoft’s new "Virtual Earth" project - a service starting this year that uses aerial photographs and satellite images to enhance local-area searches on the Web. The service looked surprisingly similar to Google’s "Keyhole," which was on display in the next room.

Gates also demonstrated how Microsoft will allow users to construct their own search home page - an almost identical service to the one Google announced last week. And he highlighted Microsoft’s new tool for searching files on your computer - also similar to a Google tool.

Gates’ fear is that the increasingly ubiquitous Google search will become everyone’s gateway into the digital world - a role he has always fought to preserve for Microsoft’s Windows operating system. The search is an elegant starting point - after all, why go anywhere before you have indicated what you are looking for? And Google has proved it is also a lucrative one, enabling the company to match advertisers with the specific interests of customers. As a result, Microsoft is determined to get into the game. "If anything touches on search," Gates said, "we’re going to do it."

That is why the biggest laugh of the conference came when Gates and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt appeared together onstage for the Computer Bowl quiz game with T-shirts that read "Same Team." These guys are definitely not on the same team.

For his part, Schmidt finds Gates’ focus - and the media’s fascination - on the industry’s competitive dynamics to be more than a little annoying.

"Come on. This is crazy," he said to me, after I pushed him on the point. "Google is part of the information industry, and that industry is very large, and Google is a very small part of that industry." Moreover, he added, "it’s not a zero-sum game." True enough.

A veteran of both Sun Microsystems Inc. and Novell Inc., Schmidt knows what it is like to be in the cross hairs of Gates’ competitive attention. "It’s the norm," he said, shrugging his shoulders. But it doesn’t mean he has to play the same game. "Google is not Microsoft, and I’m not Bill Gates."

Like John D. Rockefeller, Gates has taken his enormous wealth and turned it to good causes. Unlike Rockefeller, he isn’t giving up the chase. He is the nerd-turned-winner, still resentful of the cool guys in the class. When Apple Computer Inc.’s Steve Jobs spoke on Sunday evening, the audience’s questions were reverential softballs, even though his company’s business hangs on the ephemeral success of a tiny music player. When Gates spoke on Monday morning, as the unchallenged titan of the industry, every question asked of him had a decided edge.

Bill Gates may be curing diseases around the world. He may be tackling what he considers the most pressing public problem facing the United States. But for many people in this crowd, he was the same old Bill, seething with competitive intensity, copying ideas and smothering the competition.

Give Gates a few bonus points, though, for being a good sport. The oddest event at the D conference was a spoof of the quirky film "Napoleon Dynamite," in which the listless Napoleon - Jon Heder - teams up with the Fifty Billion Dollar Man to save his family’s business.

On screen, Gates looked about as uncomfortable as he did when testifying for his company’s antitrust trial. But he plays along - swiping Napoleon’s Tater Tots off his plate and donning a pair of Rollerblades to be pulled behind Napoleon’s bicycle. Perhaps he has mellowed a bit with age.

Friday, September 23, 2005

Breaking SEO News Report

IAC/InterActiveCorp founder Barry Diller is rumbling that he could be walking away from his purchase of the Ask Jeeves search engine.

After analyzing the accounting, financial records, shared PPC structure and traffic logs Mr. Diller feels he might be paying way too much for the 4th most popular search engine.

IAC/InterActiveCorp and Ask Jeeves are not officially commenting yet.

Only a couple weeks back Diller and IAC help press conferences to joyfully anounce a a $2 billion stock deal allowing IAC to acquire Ask Jeeves.

IAC/InterActiveCorp owns many popular web properties including: Expedia, CitySearch, Ticketmaster, eVite and Match.com and was looking to help increase Ask Jeeves’ share of the lucrative search engine market.

Mr. Diller and his team of accountants quickly began to realize however that the paid search partner agreements in place at Ask Jeeves only result in a small percentage of profit and limit the search engines revenue growth potential.

Mr. Diller had been researching the scope of the revenue share partnerships and has not found opportunities to convert the exisiting patnerships into IAC's favor.

Could IAC be moving away from ASK Jeeves in an effort to acquire AOL?
stay tuned...
Federal Investigation Begins on Print Circulation Numbers

Advertising Agencies and National Advertisers have requested a federal study of newspaper and magazine circulation nnumbers as audience reach and brand impact made with print advertising campaigns continues steep decline.

Major Advertisiers and Leading Agencies report that Online Advertising Programs and Search Engine Optimization are Far More Effective than Print and Magazines.

Time Inc. the nation's largest publisher of consumer magazines, has been subpoenaed by federal investigators to provide information about the magazine industry's circulation practices, the company confirmed earlier this week.

The disclosure comes at a time when advertisers and agencies are questioning the validity of audience circulation statements following a series of scandals and mis-statements among major newspapers, and several major magazines.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the probe by a federal prosecutor in New York is investigating the business practices of Inflight Newspapers & Magazines Inc., a third-party magazine distribution agent that is no longer in business, but whose practices have raised questions about how magazines treat magazines distributed for free to airlines and business travelers.

The report said publishers including Time Inc. routinely treats such 'Free Pass Along' distribution as "paid" circulation. This taints the paid circulation numbers that many print companies use to justify steep advertising fees.

Advertisers and their agencies are forced to pay print advertising rates based on audited circulation statements of publications. In recent years the audited numbers have been declining substantially, yet print advertising rates continue to escalate.

Advertisiers and their agencies are now reducing their "up-front" buying practices and shifting portions of their ad budgets into online advertising campaigns that have proven to be much more effective from all perspecitives.

A key component of online advertising is search engine optimization and more companies are beginning to address organic search engine optimization as the foundation of all corporate maketing efforts.

Organic search engine optimization offers 100% targeted reach with no waste as the keyword search phrase has qualified the new website visitors. Organic search engine optimization has lasting impact and benefits versus print that typically presents a 5 day conversion window.

Many senior execiutives are realizing that searching has replaced time spent reading and that most of their target consumers search daily and receive thier current news and information updates online versus interacting with the often dated and stale print publications. Aslo today's time-pressed target consumers lack the 'free time' that print publications require.

The federal courts now will investigate the audited circulation practices of the print industry in an effort to establish more accurate circulation numbers.

The next investigation is sure to lie with the broadcast industry as the inaccurate arbitron and neilsen radio and televsion ratings systems used to dictate quarterly television and radio advertising rate increases are sure to be called into question.

Related Media Buying Note:

The next time your media reps lay the ratings or audit circulation numbers in front of you demanding a market/ratings based Cost Per Point increase, ask for validation of the numbers, and in many cases your cost per point will decrease rapidly.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Authors Sue Google - Google Library Facing Copyright Heat

Google library faces federal lawsuit by US authors.

U.S. writers are suing Google Inc. in a federal court, alleging that the Web search leader's bid to digitize the book collections of major libraries infringes individual author's copyrights.

The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Google and its Google Print project, names as co-plaintiffs The Authors Guild and writers Herbert Mitgang, Betty Miles and Daniel Hoffman.

Hoffman was Poet Laureate of the United States in 1973-74. Mitgang is a historian, critic and former New York Times editorial writer. Miles is a children's book author.

The lawsuit seeks class action status, asks for damages and demands an injunction to halt further copyright infringements by Google.

This is the latest round in the battle between Google and major publishers that pit copyright holders' interests against Google's stated corporate mission of "organizing the world's information and making it more universally accessible and useful."

Google Print (http://print.google.com/) has exploded into the top ranks of U.S. Internet sites, rising to the 30th most visited site for the week ending September 17 from 90th a week earlier, according to data from Internet traffic researcher Hitwise Inc. Global data was not immediately available.

A Google spokesman said the company regretted that The Authors Guild had chosen to sue rather than continue discussions.

"Google Print directly benefits authors and publishers by increasing awareness of and sales of the books in the program," Google said in a statement. "Only small portions of the books are shown unless the content owner gives permission to show more."

A year ago Google began working with five of the world's libraries -- at Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the New York Public Library -- to make large parts of their Library book collections searchable on the Web.

The action by the 86-year-old Authors Guild is part of a push by the organization to roll back efforts by Websites to make the contents of copyright protected books freely available online.

In a related case, the group has been seeking for a decade to force online publishers from New York Times Co. to Amazon.com to pay royalties to writers whose copyright protected stories appear in free online databases without their consent.

In August of 2005, Google said it planned to temporarily scale back plans to make the full text of copyrighted books available on its Internet site.

Google has said it will respect the wishes of copyright holders who have contacted the company and asked for their books to be withheld from the project. Meanwhile, Google says it was working with publishers and librarians to scan books in the public domain that are not covered by copyright.

Critics of the project said that Google's plan to allow copyright holders to opt out switched the burden of upholding copyright from infringers to copyright holders.

"This is a plain and brazen violation of copyright law," Nick Taylor, president of the 8,000-member New York-based Authors Guild, said in a statement on Tuesday. "

(Authors), not Google, have the exclusive rights to ... authorize such reproduction, distribution and display of their works," the complaint said.

"It is not the responsibility of copyright holders to protect their material, the burden of copyright protection lies with the infringing party and in this case the infringing party is Google."

"What gives Google the right to trespass on our membership's copyights and display this material in a free, online medium, without making any royalty payments."

"Also Google is reaping financial rewards by selling advertising sponsorships on pages filled with copyright protected materials. What give Goole the right to increase revenues at our memberships expense."

An attorney with Kohn Swift & Graf P.C., the plaintiffs' law firm based in Philadelphia, said the lawsuit had been filed on Tuesday in Manhattan.

Saturday, September 17, 2005

AOL to Replace Google with MSN Results ?

America Online the world's largest Internet Service Provider may replace Google with MSN in the coming days. Search Engine insiders report that AOL and MSN have had several high level meetings recently.

The first development of the metings has AOL turning to MSN to power AOL search results, ending AOL's search partnership with Google.

MSN is seeking to increase share of the total search market and this deal with AOL would allow MSN to increase their keyword search market share to approximately 20%.

MSN claims powering AOL search results will give them at least 20% of the $12 Billion dollar keyword search pie.

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Microsoft Aims to Buy AOL

MSN would like to acquire AOL and has been analyzing AOL business and accounting records however, MSN sees potential legal and litigation issues on the near-term horizon at AOL.

MSN is moving towards a short-term, exclusive partnership with AOL, with a formal takeover in the works once legal and potential litigation is fully identified.

MSN/Microsoft wants to control legal issues and has enough of own their legal troubles at this time. Once AOL has fully shaken out of the failed AOL Time Warner merger and all potential lawsuits and costly accounting lawsuit nightmares are gauged, then at that time, MSN will make their move and pull in AOL.

Also AOL has been losing account holders at a record clip in recent months and MSN would like AOL to re-calculate their total numbers and modify acqusition fees downward and more accurately reflect the declining value of the America Oonline enterpirse.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Spiders Control Organic SEO

An Analysis of Search Engine Spiders and the role they play in Organic SEO.

Let's Examine the robot spiders (Artificial Intelligence Agents/Robot Crawlers) that determine the organic search engine results.

The major search engines are: Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL.

This set of search engines are known as the Big Four. The big four search engines of Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL together represent 98% of keyword search activity.

Three spider families control the organic search results on the Big Four search engines of: Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL.

Organic search results on Google are determined by the googlebot family of spiders with assistance from the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) often identified in the Google results as the Google Directory.

Organic search results on AOL are also powered bt the googlebot spiders with slight assistance and support from the dated Netscape databases. This is often why AOL organic search results are not a 100% carbon copy of Google organic search results link for link.

Organic search results on Yahoo are determined by the Yahoo/Inktomi spider family.

The Yahoo spiders identify themselves on website server logs as:
Yahoo-Slurp
Inktomi-Slurp
Inktomi Archiver
IA-Archiver
YahooSeeker

also scan website server logs for additional Yahoo spider ips like this:
Inktomi
Fast Crawler v X
Fast Crawler v
UA Mozilla/4.0
UA Mozilla/4.05
UA Mozilla/5.0 Slurp/cat; slurp@inktomi.com
UA Mozilla/5.0
Yahoo! Slurp
YahooFeedSeeker/1.0
YahooSeeker-Testing/v3.9
YahooSeeker/1.1
YahooSeeker/1.2

For more information on Yahoo spiders visit: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp/index.html

Organic search results on MSN are determined by the MSNBot spider family.

Many additional spider families also contribute to the organic keyword search results and is always serves websites best to be crawled often by as many spiders as possible. The Alexa/Amazon (www.A9.com) spiders are very helpful for sites especially ecommerce or shopping portals.

Some other leading spiders that also provide ancillary support, influence, and play a small but key role in determining organic search results are:
Lycos, InfoSeek, Alta Vista, Excite, Northern Light, Fast, and more.

Spider Track has great information and lists of spiders that are important in terms of Organic SEO for more information visit: http://www.spidertrack.org/index.php

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Organic SEO + Spiders + Algorithms

The algorithms that are programmed to power the spiders or robot crawlers of the Big Four search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL) have many similarities (thay all value HTML elements) however, contrary to popular belief the Google, Yahoo, and MSN spider families all are programmed with unique algorithms that have many differences.

A common misconception is that for the most part, all of the organic search spiders work the same way. It is true that organic search engine spiders are seeking text content and value URLs for content relevancy but it is not accurate to assume that spiders assign keyword ranking positions in the organic search results to webpages based exclusively on the number of backlinks.

If Google, Yahoo, or MSN were to weight backlinks so heavily what would prevent non-relevant sites with thousands of FFA Links (FFA: Free For All Link Farms) from securing and maintaining top keyword rankings on every possible keyword query.

Links Themes and content relevant links that tie pages from two sites together aid in serving users by helping to wrap and support a content theme are far more valuable and actually what the organic spider algortihtms are programmed to favor.

Google still assigns PageRank, however Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have both recently stated that:

"PageRank is Dead"

In summary of their comments: "PageRank is broken" and Google is moving on.

As a public company Google has many more valuable (revenue-generating) programs on their plate to step backwards and make repairs to the non-revenue generating and outdated PageRank system.

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The spiders that power organic search results receive algorithm updates often and require engineering management and human oversight. I will profile the algortihms, spiders, and the engineering teams that manage spider tasks in coming posts.

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If Organic SEO is a goal contact the top ranking Organic SEO consulting firms and organic SEO consultants not SEM marketing companies that are sponsoring links and forced to pay for search advertising of their organic SEO services, but the seo consultants and organic seo companies that are ranking in top ORGANIC SEO keyword positions.

Remember that search engine spiders control Organic SEO and knowledge of all of these spiders and their algorithms is absolutly essential in organic search engine optimization.

Look for technology empowered companies that demonstrate their organic search engine optimization capabilities with organic SEO keyword ranking positions versus search marketing companies that are forced to pay for keyword exposure on keyword search phrases that best describe Organic SEO.

Also be wary of marketing-intensive search engine optimization companies that are not listed in top 20 organic keyword positions.

Many of these SEM advertising firms prefer to steer conversations away from algorithms and specific technology factors and instead continually encourage PPC activity; repeatedly inquiring about your PPC budget levels, exclusively promoting Pay Per Click search marketing as search engine optimization solutuons, despite the fact that keyword searchers prefer organic search results 7 to 1 vs. the sponsored links.

The most effective search engine optimization programs involve a mix of both Organic Search Engine Optimization (Organic SEO) and Pay Per Click Search Marketing (PPC SEM).

These most successful search engine optimization campaigns (organic SEO / PPC SEM) result in a majority of keyword targets driving new business leads, RFQ inquiries, and conversions through organic keyword positions that correspond directly with the content theme of the website.

If your website does not contain content that correlates with a target keyword set then use PPC search marketing for exposure on these keyword targets as new relevant content pieces are being developed by your marketing or public relations departments.

Dedicated content pieces are the key to long-term organic search engine optimization strength. Proven organic SEO consultants help companies with SEO copywriting and content development and also help companies technically optimize website foundations of all URLs cover to cover and these proven organic SEO consulting firms can be found in the top 20 organic keyword positions on: Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Focus on HTML code characterisitcs and spider indexing capabilities per url, establish a sound HTML foundation for your website and then apply content relevance. Websites with content-depth, technically sound URL code foundations, solid URL naming conventions, and strategically optimized dynamic databases are the sites that enjoy the best organic search engine placement.

More on Spiders and their role in Organic SEO in coming posts.

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Sunday, September 04, 2005

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Vows to Kill Google

Here's the story as released by the Associated Press

Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Internet search leader Google Inc. in an obscenity-laced tirade, and Google chased a prized Microsoft executive "like wolves," according to documents filed Friday in an increasingly bitter legal battle between MSN and Google.

The allegations, filed in a Washington state court, represent the latest salvos in a showdown triggered by Google's July hiring of former Microsoft executive Kai Fu-Lee to oversee a research and development center that Google plans to open in China. Lee joined Google the day after he resigned from Microsoft only to be removed by a federal judge. Lee is still sitting idle waiting for the court to determine his fate at Google.

The tug-of-war over Microsoft employee Lee - known for his work on computer recognition of language (semantic text matching by language) - has exposed the behind-the-scenes animosity that has been brewing between two of high-tech's best-known companies.

Steve Ballmer's threat last November was recounted in a sworn declaration by a former Microsoft engineer and current Google engineer, Mark Lucovsky, who said he met with Microsoft's chief executive 10 months ago to discuss his decision to leave Microsoft after six years.

After learning Lucovsky was leaving to take a job at Google, Ballmer picked up his chair and hurled it across his office, according to the declaration.

Ballmer then pejoratively berated Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Lucovsky recalled.

"I'm going to f------ bury that guy, I have done it before, and I will do it again," the declaration quotes Ballmer. "I'm going to f------ kill Google."

Before joining Google, Eric Schmidt was a top executive at Sun Microsystems Inc. and Novell Inc., a pair of tech companies that Microsoft has previously battled.

In a statement Friday, Ballmer described Lucovsky's recollection as a "gross exaggeration. Mark's decision to leave was disappointing and I urged him strongly to change his mind. But his characterization of that meeting is not accurate."

Microsoft is suing to prevent Lee from leading Google's China expansion, maintaining those duties would violate the terms of a noncompete agreement that he signed as part of his employment contract.

Mountain View-based Google has depicted Microsoft's lawsuit as a form of intimidation designed to thwart a fast-growing rival that has emerged as a formidable threat to the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker.

The Lucovsky declaration is just one piece of evidence that Google has filed in an attempt to prove that Microsoft is on a vendetta.

Microsoft won the first round in the case in late July when King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez issued an order temporarily barring Lee from performing the duties that Google hired him to do.

Google and Microsoft are scheduled to face off in court Tuesday when Microsoft will ask Gonzalez to extend the order against Lee and Google until the case goes to trial in January.

As it tries to make its case, Microsoft is trying to demonstrate that Google wanted Lee largely because he knows intimate details about Microsoft's strategy for expanding in China and for the booming search engine market.

In its brief Friday, Microsoft alleged that Lee sent confidential documents about the company's China strategy to Google a month before he was hired, although Google insists all the material that Lee relayed to Google had been made public previously.

Microsoft also released an e-mail from Jonathan Rosenberg, Google's director of business development, in an attempt to prove the company wants Lee for other projects besides the new China center.

"I all but insist that we pull out all the stops and pursue him like wolves," Rosenberg wrote of Lee. "He is an all-star and will contribute in ways that go substantially beyond China."

Before resigning from Microsoft, Lee began to help Google plot its China strategy with a series of suggestions, including recommending possible sites for the new office, according to Microsoft's brief.

Microsoft alleged Lee's insights helped him win a Google contract worth more than $10 million - a package that Google itself described as "unprecedented" for the company.

Google paid Lee a $2.5 million signing bonus and promised a $1.5 million bonus after one year, plus a $250,000 salary and options on 10,000 shares of Google stock, according to court documents. If he stays for four years, Lee also will receive another 20,000 Google shares, currently worth $5.8 million.

Lee also demanded that Google pay all his legal fees if Microsoft sued, a request that was granted.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Google Falling Behind Baidu in China? Hogwash

The recent internet marketing press that Google has fallen behind in China is quite a boatload of garbage. Google is just fine in China.

Baidu is giving Away Free MP3's and Making Napster Look Tame.

Google will grow as China's business economy grows. The explosion in China is still months away and google's China revenues will increase in sync with this growth.

This story below is typical fare about Google possibly dropping the ball in China.

Our comments are wrapped within this less than acccurate viewpoint especially considering Baidu is promoting illegal file sharing music, video, and game downloads at this time.

A survey by a Chinese internet research firm (????) has found that Google is losing market share to its Chinese rival, search engine Baidu, which apparently boosted its user base in Beijing in the last six months by 10.8 percentage points and now accounts for 52 percent of China's keyword search marketplace.

Google's share of China's keyword search market has remained flat at 33 percent according to the Beijing-based China Internet Network Information Center.

The survey found that, combined, Google and Baidu held 80 percent of the market in Beijing and Shanghai, and 75 percent in Guangzhou. The three cities account for nearly 100% of Chinese internet use. ( with Illegal downloads readily available we expected higher market share gains for Baidu.)

Six months ago, Google held the largest market share in the three Chinese cities covered by the survey.

Baidu has a 43.9 percent market share in Shanghai, compared with 38.2 percent for Google. In Guangzhou, Google's market share was 28.7 percent, Baidu's was 48 percent. Yahoo, meanwhile held only a 3.7 percent market share overall (no mention of Yahoo's $1 billion dollar cash expenditure/purchase of Chinese market share by recently investing in alibaba.com China's ecommerce ebay twin)

Chinese rivals Sohu.com and Sina Corp. claiming a 4.6 percent and 4.0 percent respectively. Baidu's entertainment content, including MP3 downloads (ILLEGAL), is popular in China (Napster was quite a hit in the states a couple of years ago also), while Google is most frequently visited for enterprise products, business opportunities (is this not, where the real money in China lies?), transportation services and travel searches.

Google tends to attract high-end users who are well educated and have relatively high incomes (upwardly mobile and affluent is this a bad thing?); Baidu is favored by students (with less discretionary income seeking free, illegal, entertainment content), who account for a large part of China's search population, according to the report. Some 40-50 percent of Baidu users are students, the report said. (the report neglected to state that 90% of Baidu's activity is illegal file sharing downloads!).

China's Internet population hit 103 million by June, second only to the United States. Google owns 2.6 percent of Baidu (is this losing out? or is Google allowing a subsidary as much room as possible to grow market share while they ramp up their new China business enterprise office?. Also if google posted links to copyright and trademarked protected MP3 downloads on their site the feds would be roping off the Mountain View, California building within 24 hours).

The Baidu name (www.baidu.com) in Chinese stands for: searching for one's dream while confronted with life's many obstacles. (yes, especially the cash register obstacles at the local music or video store).

Is baidu (www.baidu.com) promoting illegal file sharing music downloads in their top nav?

(you be the judge...somebody email metallica...we just closed out on an illegal music download, and also a super nintendo rom download...now wonder baidu is so popular with these chinese college students. Hey American college students get out of your confining university music portals and check baidu out...they give the old Napster a good name! Is Napster back in business in Shanghai?)

Many Silicon Valley insiders feel Baidu is only days away from being shut down.
MSN Seeking to Compete with Google Talk

MSN Buys Net-Phone Startup Company

Pay-per-Call Now On Deck for the New MSN adCenter.

MSN Seeking to Compete with Google Talk announced that it has purchased internet-calling startup company Teleo to expand the capabilities of MSN Messenger, just one week after Google launched Google Talk instant-messaging service, emphasizing its voice-chat ad delivery capabilities.

Microsoft's purchase of Teleo hinges on technology from Skype which can convert the computer into an ordinary telephone, a feature that MSN Messenger would like to begin testing by the close of 2005.

Microsoft also gains click-to-call dialing capabilities, raising the real possibility that MSN new adCenter service could very offer pay-per-call pricing, although management at Microsoft-MSN would not comment on their new pay per call ad platform. Super Pages from Verizon and financially reeling America Online have already launched beta version of cost per call advertising.

Pay Per Call = Anything for a Buck !

Cost Per Call what's next?

How long are consumers are going to put with managing a middle man on a direct dial phone call to a company? Is this good for corporate image or brand loyalty?

How about companies simply improving the qualtiy and delivery of content on their corporate websites. Quit grasping for straws and hone in on existing website resources. Improve the quality of your site and the positive results will follow.