Google Stock Falls Hard Following Slow Growth Announcement

Google Warning on Growth
Unnerves Investors

Goog Stock Plunges Some 13%, Ending Down 7.1%

The Easy Stuff May Be Over
a recap from the Wall Street Journal

Google Inc.'s chief financial officer spooked investors with a warning that the Web-search company's growth rate would slow from its breakneck pace, sending Google shares down almost immediately.

Speaking at a Merrill Lynch & Co. investor conference, Google finance chief George Reyes said that Google is "getting to a point where the law of large numbers starts to take root," referring to the challenge of increasing revenue and profits at the same rate from higher base levels. "At the end of the day, growth will slow," he added. "Will it be precipitous? I doubt it."

Google shares plunged to $338.51 from $397.54 following his comments, as investors and analysts scrambled to figure out how serious Mr. Reyes's warning was. The shares later recovered partially, as some issued research notes saying that Google's sharp selloff was unwarranted, given that Google executives in the past had made similar warnings: that growth will eventually slow and profit margins eventually contract.

Google shares closed down $27.76, or 7.1%, at $362.62 for the day. At that level, they were 24% below than their intraday high of $475.11 hit on Jan. 11. The volume of 38.9 million shares traded yesterday made it the second-most-active day for Google since the company went public in August 2004.

But, for some investors who remained jittery from Google's fourth-quarter earnings shortfall announced on Jan. 31, Mr. Reyes's comments could be taken as the latest sign that Google is finished with the easy stuff. Some believe that the company has entered a new era, where factors such as tax rates, international operations and expenses can weigh more on short-term results than they have in the past. Such factors helped depress fourth-quarter earnings. Google's blowout growth -- its revenue rose 118% in 2004 from the previous year, for example -- has in the past largely masked any such concerns.

Speaking yesterday, Mr. Reyes said that the Mountain View, Calif., company had achieved most of the possible gains from a recent initiative to increase the revenue it generates for each consumer search. "We're going to have to find other ways to monetize our business," he said.

Mr. Reyes said future gains would come from "organic" growth, including by increasing the number of search queries Google handles. He cited Internet services that consumers can access from mobile phones and search services providing results linked to specific geographic locations as also having particularly strong potential. Google also has been pushing its toolbar software as a way to increase usage of its search services.

"I'm not turning bearish at all. I think we have a lot of growth ahead of us," Mr. Reyes said. "The question is, at what rate?" In response to a question, he said his comments weren't prompted by any specific observation about Google's business during the current quarter.

Analysts largely shrugged off Mr. Reyes's warnings. Piper Jaffray & Co. Internet analyst Safa Rashtchy in a research note said the share selloff represented a buying opportunity, saying Mr. Reyes's comments didn't suggest any faster or slower growth than Mr. Rashtchy already forecast. Piper Jaffray has received compensation for investment-banking services or has had a client relationship with Google in the past year and makes a market in Google shares.

Analyst David Garrity at Investec Inc. said in a note that Mr. Reyes "is not distinguishing his tenure through building investor confidence with well-timed statements," but also noted that the selloff possibly presented investors with a good opportunity to buy shares.

Many analysts and investors hope Google will provide more clarity during its annual analysts' day tomorrow. The company has been reluctant to provide specific financial guidance, but the recent earnings shortfall -- which Google blamed on complex tax considerations -- has increased analysts' demands for more details about its prospects.

Concerned About Your MSN Rankings?

MSN Engineers Confirm It's All About Content!

A recent conf. call with a team of MSN search engineers was most telling. The Redmond gang has done a great job of improving the quality of their organic keyword search results in recent months and searchers are responding.

It appears that keyword searchers are rewarding MSN as recent Nielsen reports confirm that MSN has increased from 8% to 14% of all keyword search in recent weeks.

**It looks like the MSN search gains are resulting in Yahoo search losses as Yahoo has fallen from 26% of all keyword searches to 18% and Google reports are up again increasing from 62% to 65% of all keyword search.

In Summary here are the latest Nielsen Net Ratings keyword search stats:

Percentage of Keyword Search Activity by Search Engine:

Google 65%
Yahoo 18%
MSN 14%
All other search engines: 3%

Why the recent jump in the MSN search numbers?

1) More Relevant Results.
2) Deeper Indexing.
3) Removal of Overly Commercial / Affiliate Heavy / eCommerce Link Farm Sites.

The MSN engineering team is confirming that recent algorithm updates are pushing down and restricting URLs with numerous affiliate links and/or high outbound link counts. Also the MSBbot formulas have been modified to negate URLs containing redirect links, invalid page code, or sticky web analytics/tracking URLs.

The reconfigured MSNbots can now travel much deeper and are indexing volumes of urls per crawl versus only one or two URLs per site in years past. Also the semantic text matching capabilities of the Microsoft robot crawlers has improved significantly as the MSNBots now parse, index, and full capture almost any kind of text document with the formatting as the original layout provides.

These text parsing improvements at MSN search have led to dramatic improvements in the MSN search results and more keyword searchers are beginning to move towards MSN and away from Yahoo.

So much so that just last week Yahoo began a new user incentive campaign that rewards Yahoo users for staying and searching the tired and slow Yahoo search results. Yahoo account holders are now being given varoius FREE rewards and incentives to remain at Yahoo and search. This 'Yahoo search only promotion' appears to be the latest public admission by Yahoo senior management that the Yahoo keyword search product remains unfinished and in a state of constant flux.

Over in Redmond the keyword search engineering troops are gaining more confidence daily as their search numbers keep rising. The new MSN Ad Center is set to launch any day and feedback from new search programs like the Windows Live Mobile Search (now in beta tests) are receiving great user reviews and feedback.

MSN Confirms Content is King yet again!

MSN search engineers are requesting that webmasters and publishers seeking to increase their keyword positions focus on page content. Relevant content pieces and URLs with helpful information that best serve users are being more heavily favored than ever before. Those parties seeking to increase website awareness in MSN search are being strongly encouraged to deliver quality content.

On a related organic seo note was the downplay of backlinks in the new MSN organic search system as recent algorithm updates value on-page text parameters increasingly, versus suspect incoming links, as MSN feels incoming links from off-topic, or unrelated documents, cannot always be trusted, and often lead to results page manipulation and poor organic search results.

Relevant Content is definitely the key in the new MSN!

Google Confirms SEO Company Traffic Power and Client Sites were Banned in 2004.

Google engineer Matt Cutts posted these comments about rogue Law Vegas SEO Traffic Power earlier this week.

"I can confirm that Google has removed traffic-power.com and domains promoted by Traffic Power from our index because of search engine optimization techniques that violated our webmaster guidelines at http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html.

If you are a client or former client of Traffic Power and your site is not in Google, please see my previous advice on requesting reinclusion into Google’s index to learn what steps to take if you would like to be reincluded in Google’s index."

This Google Confirmation might help put an end to all of the legal fights that Traffic Power started as a result of Google's ban. Traffic Power created a new company and is operating as First Poisition here's the new website http://www.1p.com.

Google's Big Daddy Say: "Be Wary of Doorway Pages".

BMW Germany Pulled From Google For Cloaking --- NOT SEO

The SEO grapevine is spinning out of control once again, over last week's announcement by Matt Cutts at Google that they pulled BMW Germany for cloaking their search engine. Cutts posted a story (and the evidence) with details on how BMW Germany was serving pages based upon IP address or cloaking Google.

BMW programmed the known googlebot spider IP addresses into their servers and fed highly optimized pages to googlebot spider IPs, and their "true" graphics-heavy, un-optimized homepage, to all other IP addresses. The Google Cloak worked great for about three weeks, until Google sent some spiders out to double check this new high-ranking BMW Germany site on anonymized IPs.

Google randomly checks top ranking sites using anonymized IPs to make sure top ranking websites are on the up and up.

When the anonymous spiders from Google received the "true" unoptimized homepage and not the optimized page, BMW Germany was pulled from Google for cloaking.

Cloaking is cause for Google to Pull a website (typically 45 days or less) and is far too risky a method, however some larger companies still feel tempted to try and fool or trick the search engines rather than optimize their sites. Google has been temporarily pulling sites for Cloaking for years. This BMW Germnay case is simply the latest Google cloaking case of several hundred in the past few years.

That's why the SEO grapevine spin being put on this BMW Germany episode has gotten absolutely out of control.

This past weekend one blogger posted on his blog that SEO got BMW pulled from Google.

First we need to clarify a couple of points:

SEO is not Cloaking.

SEO is not "tricking" or "fooling" the search engines.

SEO = search engine optimization.

Quality Organic Optimization or organic seo is a proven process that equates to the organization of HTML elements throughout a site, cover to cover, that assists the search engine spiders in crawling, indexing, and ranking a site in top organic keyword search positions.

Search engine optimization is not showing one page to spiders and another page to website users. This is too easy, short-sighted, not ethical and websites involved in cloaking are most deserving of being pulled from Google's database.

SEO Grapevine Blog posts like the one that follows are wrong, insulting and only further clouds the truth surrounding quality organic SEO which is highly specialized work, that requires substantial time and effort, and is not a simple flip of the switch, or employment of manipulative techniques that avoid the real issue: poor website design, too many dynamic-database indicators, slop code, sub-par linking architectures, and poor content.

Here's the error filled hype from a "self professed seo" blog post this past weekend. (again this blog post is 100% wrong!)

Google Blacklists BMW for Boosting Ranking, Blogger Says

Frankfurt -- According to a blog by Matt Cutts, a software engineer for Google,
the U.S.-based Internet search-engine giant has blacklisted the German website
of BMW after the car-maker allegedly tried to boost its popularity ranking
artificially. Cutts claims BMW employed a practice called search-engine
optimisation to ensure that searches for "BMW" and "used cars" returned to
BMW's website first -- a practice that apparently runs counter to Google
guidelines. Cutts said Google placed a "Google Death Penalty" on BMW's
German website that lowers its Internet profile.

(read original blog past from matt cutts here:http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/type/googleseo/

Can this blogger read, understand or write english?

Here is what Matt Cutts really had to say about why Google pulled the BMW Germany site and we quote...


"Don’t deceive your users or present different content to search engines than you display to users.”

i.e.: Do Not Cloak Google!

As for the Google death penalty this poorly informed Blogger references that BMW Germany received a "Google Death Penalty".

The truth is that the BMW Germany site was "temporarily pulled" from Google for only 30 days.

Submitting too often using automated submission software programs has more negative consequences with Google than cloaking. As submitting redundant urls and just badgering Google with redundant submissions can get a site/url pulled for several months.

Hopefully the truth about Cloaking, Links, PageRank, & Google's Mythical New Site Sandbox, will all someday come to the front again as the SEO grapevine has primarily been cluttered with inaccurate hype on these topics in recent months.

Especially from the Search Engine Marketing -- SES crowd. So much SEM/SES hype and conjecture with immediate top ranking offers that include:

1) Why optimize just buy keyword exposure.

2) Don't take the time to open up your site to the search engine spiders long-term, that takes too long...get out your credit card and sponsor any keyword you want today!

3) Outsource Pay Per Click Management and Your Dreams will come True!

4) Pay Per Click and SEM the quickest ways to SEO sucess.

5) Forget that organic search results are preferred 7 to 1 vs. paid links.

Or is quality organic search engine optimization that is above board, compliant and favored by the Google spiders worth the investment and effort?

You decide...






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Dell and Google Partner on New Line of Computers

Dell and Google have confirmed that they are testing a pre-installed package of Google software on Dell computers, in a blow to Microsoft dominance of the desktop software business.

Dell the world's leading personal computer maker is evaluating Google software that PC customers could use to search both the public Web and for local information stored on their desktop Personal Computers.

Dell and Google are making updates to hardware that Dell is scheduled to roll out with Hewlett-Packard.

Dell and Google are in talks to put Google software on as many as 100 million new Dell PCs.

This new development with Dell blends in with partnership deals that Google already has with many leading PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Sony, Apple Computer, and Toshiba to distribute the Google Toolbar.

Link Architecture Critical To Organic SEO Success !

Just got off the phone with a senior engineer at Google. The conversation turned from the feds hanging out in Google's lobby today unsuccessfully requesting the last two weeks of Google keyword search data, over to linking and redirects on websites.

It was confirmed that recent algorithmic updates have been installed that reduce the value of incoming links and decrease third party link casting scores. Too many sneaky redirects were reducing the relevancy of Google's organic results.

Instead a renewed focus of the googlebot spiders is link navigation. As so many websites have moved to sticky include files, especially many large dynamically generated, database sites that are using links housed in javascript and flash, despite the fact that the googlebot spiders often times cannot follow such links.

Creating a secondary navigation is a step in the right direction, however these new secondary navigation links are just that, secondary, and as such, typically cannot make enough of an impact to offset or compensate for the poorly designed and less than search engine friendly dynamic link navigation being used for the primary links of the website.

Why should a search engine spider favor or trust sites that utilize dynamic link navigations?, especially if the site combines one bad design idea with another and also uses urls that feature dynamic query strings. This deadly dynamic combination of javascript/flash link navigations used on "character-heavy, spider-choking query string urls" typically leaves a site invisible to new in-market users using search engines, found by no keyword searchers, and floating around aimlessley in the invisible 'dark web'.

How can a google spider be expected to "trust" sites with dynamic link navigations or redirect links, to actually serve users relevant content, or even render properly in all browsers, on pdas, wireless web enabled cell phones, or in alternative web browsers specifically designed for people with disabilities, etc.?

Google encourages sites with problematic dynamic link navigation schemes to create a google sitemap url and also an xml feed providing a text url driectory or text based crawler roadmap for the spiders. This is a step in the right direction but even these spider sitemaps cannot compensate for the critical site design flaw of housing primary link navigations in javascript and flash.

The spiders are programmed to index and crawl rendered pages and engage their semantic text matching capabilities on the 'true' rendered pages of sites, not specialty text based spider site maps that only list url names and feature zero relevant page content.

In other words, why sacrifice the keyword ranking capabilities of your best pages by linking to them using links that are embedded in javascript or flash?

When the powers that be at your company begin knocking on your cube walls and tapping on your shoulders at the water cooler, moaning over their inability to find their company site on google searches of the company name and exclusive product/brand names, try explaining why javascript and flash based links are being used in the primary link navigation and how pretty they are.

Do you think upper management will understand why the site is not being found on searches for the company by name ?

I suggest touching up the resume and ensuring your COBRA plan elgibility before starting this discussion. Is it fair to conclude that search engine visibility far outweighs design aesthetics...it should as without search engine exposure no one will ever see the company picasso.

Consider that 90% of all first time website visitors are delivered to sites for the first time by a major search engine.

Link Architecture and W3C Code Vaildation Are Absolutely Critical To Organic SEO Success !

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MAC Software Developers Upset Over New Intel Partnership.

Our senior level software developer contacts at Apple are telling us that they are not happy about incorporating Intel processors into their new products.

They have a major concern that new Windows emulators will allow Windows programs to run on Macs, therfore eliminating the need for MAC only programmers and Mac only software developers.

Mac only developers feel the new Intel partnership could drive them into the unemployment lines.

New MAC Hacks are only weeks away.

Hackers are already working fast and furious to crack the new Intel/Mac products.

What hacker will become the king of the underground by being the first to hack the MAC Operating System.

Antivirus Software manufacturers like Kaspersky and Symantec are testing new programs designed to ward off MAC OS virus hacks.

How long before the MAC Operating System is able to run on Dell, HP, Toshiba and other popular computer line?

MAC software developers are touching up their resumes and contacting Union Stewards as the MAC OS enters the mainstream.

Google Earth released for Mac Users.

GOOGLE rolled out a new BETA version of the Google Earth SATELLITE MAPPING PROGRAM for Mac users with OS X 10.4. The beta version is the first Mac-compatible Google Earth program.

Google officially launched Google Earth for Personal Computers in June of 2005.

Google Earth was created to help Google compete for market share with the leading TOPOGRAPHIC MAPS program in the world.

On a related Mac Users note --

Intel Chips will now power iMac Desktops and McBook Laptops.

Apple computer moves to Intel micro-processors in their new Apple personal computer line. Intel's Core Duo processors will power the iMac desktops and all new MacBook Pro Laptop.

Intel the world's largest semiconductor company is proud to finally be working with Apple and is set to release the fastest chips ever exclusively in Mac products.

Apple and Intel a great partnership is born !

When will Apple address Quickbooks compatibility issues by partnering with Intuit?

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IS YOUR SITE OPTIMIZED FOR MAC BROWSER PERFORMANCE?

Browser Compliance and W3C HTML code validation becomes are destined to become even bigger organic search engine optimization factors in the months ahead.

Yahoo and Microsoft Strengthen Ties.

New Joint Yahoo Go Mobile Messaging Program Introduced.

New Deal signals partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft on the horizon as the companies band together to fight for more of Google's Market Share.

Peak Positions has been reporting that a Yahoo/Microsoft Merger is on the horizon and this latest Yahoo Go Mobile Program confirms that Yahoo's Terry Semel and Wenda Millard are working closely with Microsoft's Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates and all are determined to join forces in the war against Google.

Yahoo continues to slide away from their nearby Silicon Valley Gold mines and instead move far up north on the left coast towards the enticing liquid cash reserves found only in Redmond as YHOO and MSN bid to broaden reach and secure market share gains.

Here's the newest deal between Microsoft and Yahoo.

Yahoo has launched Yahoo! Go, a new mobile service that allows consumers to connect to all of their Yahoo! Internet-based services through multiple devices connecting anywhere, anytime. The new Yahoo! Go brand includes the Yahoo! Go Desktop, Yahoo! Go Mobile, and Yahoo! Go TV applications. The service will distribute consumers' Yahoo! content photos, e-mail, and address books no matter what device consumers are using, as long as it is connected to the Internet.

The Yahoo! Go Desktop application is designed to link wireless phone and TV services to PCs. The Yahoo! Go Mobile applications will be installed on select Nokia and Motorola wireless handsets starting this spring. Yahoo! is partnering with AT&T, Cingular Wireless, Go Mobile, and Microsoft.

Yahoo! Go TV will allow consumers to link their Yahoo! contact lists directly via their TVs, view digital photos, and check news, sports, Yahoo search, bundled Microsoft software choices, and other Yahoo! services from the same account they use on their PC or mobile phone.

Yahoo!'s launched the service at the January 2006 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show using Ellen DeGeneres and Tom Cruise to help promote the new Yahoo! Go Service.

Both Yahoo! and Microsoft confirmed they have been meeting regularly developing a new suite of Web-based software services, applications, and keyword search advancements.

Keyword Search The Driving Force of a New Yahoo/Microsoft Merger.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft are pledging their commitment to keyword search and each other in their determination to fight the wall street dolls at Google with a new software engineering, web content and exclusive keyword search capability platform.

Yahoo and Microsoft have also been working the phones and hallways of bleeding edge technology players worldwide lining up talented partners to help create many new joint platforms. Both companies seek to extend their reach far beyond the desktop and move further into new virtual mobility applications.

Both companies have also stressed internally to their respective engineering teams that they re-focus attention on organic keyword search results seeking to increase results page delivery times, and database scraping capabilities while increasing the overall size and depth of their organic keyword search databases and in turn hopefully acquire more share of the lucrative keyword search marketplace.

Algorithm and Robot Crawler advancements at Yahoo and MSN are focused on dynamic urls and valuable content pieces housed in restricitve areas of corporate sites, news media portals, educational and military databases.

Yahoo, Microsoft, and Google all feel that much of the internet's most valuable content lies buried deep in "The Dark Web" and as of yet remains uncovered within dynamic databases and they are hell bent to increase robot crawling technologies allowing their spiders to index and crawl dynamic database-driven websites much deeper.

IT managers and webmasters worldwide are being encouraged by the search engines to provide absolute text-based link paths, text-based url directories, and RSS feed maps that include URL address lists and direct link paths to their best content pieces, scientific studies, research documents, schematics, white papers, and more.

Microsoft and Yahoo will be working much more closely in 2006 as both companies seek to improve their robot crawling and autonomous indexing capabilities in order to increase the content relevance of their old, tired, and "slow-shuffle" results page decks in order to further combat Google's "fast and open" results pages that both MSN and Yahoo executives have only recently, publicly slammed as: "The keyword-heavy and content-light Google results".

Both Microsoft and Yahoo executives have used recent trade show keynote addresses to call Google out and have even had the nerve to label Google keyword search results pages as: "often times irrelevant".

What gives? Yahoo and MSN continue to speak out of both sides of their corporate mouthpieces. Both companies can only skirt the truth and make excuses to the Wall Street Investment community and their own company boards why their top ranking senior managment executives, that are still in the positions of power at both companies have yet to issue any solid answers as to why they under-estimated the value of keyword search, took their focus off of keyword search only to reluctantly admit some four years later and after losing millions in new search revenues (and hundreds of their most talented programmers & engineers) that maybe keyword search is an important application deserving of their collective attentions.

To date, both Microsoft and Yahoo have shown little of the deep understanding and commitment to keyword search that Google has.

Why is GOOG trading at $400 a share and projected to reach $500 a share in next six months? Google is being rewarded for their long-term commitment, understanding and delivery of Keyword Search ...the saving application of the Internet Industry.

Keep in mind that keyword search is the highly addictive habit designed to create the world's Largest Free Library that in turn delivers control, influence, huge revenues, and ultimately the leverage that Google needs to roll out their all powerful plan to secure browser dominance and control of internet user sessions from start to finish.

Just how will Wall Street traders react though, when the Browser wars between Google and Microsoft become reality and erupt worldwide the day Google finally launches their new GBrowser to the public?

Who is fueling these recent acknowledgments by top Yahoo and Microsoft executives as to the influence, reach, and power that keyword search provides?

What bonds tradesman or PR agency is behind all of these highly staged and public discussions by the Yahoo and Microsoft executive teams centered on their deep understanding of the emerging issues driving the keyword search landscape?

Are these highly staged keyword search publicity stunts board-driven? share price driven? or revenue driven?

Has Yahoo's Terry Semel and Wenda Millard or Micorsoft's Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates finally succumbed to the reality that the user popularity of keyword search quite possibly saved the Internet and represents the core and future of our medium?.

Internet users love to search, view keyword search as their favorite online activity, are conducting multiple keyword searches daily, favor the organic search results 7 to 1 versus the sponsored links, and 70% of all organic search results being delivered to them are powered by Google, not Microsoft or Yahoo.

What are MSN's and Yahoo's joint plans to stem the user dominance tides of Google?

Let's hope that Yahoo and Microsoft have more in store on their search horizons than simply merging their two sub-par Google search alternatives.

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Does Your Senior Management Team Value Organic Website Optimization?

Is your company website making impact on the highly educated, keyword qualified, consumer and business decision makers who now favor the organic search results 7 to 1 versus the Sponsorsed Pay Per Click results?

Are keyword searchers on Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, AskJeeves, Teoma, Wisenut, and other major search engines finding your company website early and often and giving your company organic click consideration?

Discover the long-term reach and influence that top organic keyword positions provide. Take advantage of the exclusive algorithm synchronization programs available at our leading organic seo company: Peak Positions.

Our Best of Breed Organic Search Engine Optimization programs have the proven capability to dynamically overhaul your enterprise by opening up new sales channels worldwide and driving organic search exposure and new business revenues for years to come.

Google Denies Desktop Computer Launch

Google spokespeople are working hard to stem the tide of rumors and speculation following an LA Times news story earlier this week reporting that Google is manufacturing low-cost personal computers and is set to offer them for sale at Wal-Mart stores in the coming weeks.

Google PR staffers have released this statement "We have many PC partners who serve their markets exceedingly well and we see no need to enter that market, we would rather partner with great companies".

Some industry execs feel Google is about to announce new developments with Google Video versus the Goggle Personal Computer Line.

Very few marketing firms seem to be making the connection of the launch of the G-Browser or as many Google staffers have dubbed it "The Gangsta Browser".

The new $200 dollar entry computer line is a minor element, the real magnitude of Google launching a new personal computer line is the Gangsta Browser that it runs on.

Make no mistake at some point in the very near future Google intends to take internet browsing away from Microsoft with the new GBrowser.

Keep in mind that the co-founders of Mozilla are both Google employees and their focus has not swayed from Internet Browsing.

Keyword Search is the second most popular activity on the Internet.

Google Organic Search Results are the most in-demand pages on the Internet.

GMail provides Google with a small piece of the email retreival the most popular internet activity.

Now imagine the user share (and ad-serving capabilities) that browser dominanace provides.

The GBrowser allows Google to serve more ads without sacrificing the integrity of their coveted organic search results pages. The GBrowser also allows Google to control and influence users from start to finish for their entire Internet experience.

The real Internet war - The war for Browser Dominance has yet to begin.

Google to introduce a New Personal Computer?

Google Could Launch Version 1 of The New G-Browser and a new line of low price Google desktop computers in exclusive deal with Wal Mart.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Google is in whispered negotiations with Wal-Mart to sell a new, low-price Google PC.

According to the Times, the Internet-connected device would run an OS created by Google (Meet the New Google G-Browser), not Microsoft's Windows, and would be priced as low as $200. The new Google Operating System is most likely a Google-flavored version of Linux mixed with love from Mozilla.

Industry sources are theorizing that Google Co-Founder and President of Products Larry Page will use his Consumer Electrnoics Show keynote address in Las Vegas in of 2006 to launch the new Google Computer and launch the G-Browser.

Google could use their new low-ball personal computer to prep services including their Sun Microsystems StarOffice productivity suite (SUNW looks like a buy).

Peak Positions SEO a Traverse City, Michigan firm would like to gently remind everyone of the Michigan connection between Google, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and the driving forces of technology. As the war for technology leadership has its deepest roots in the state of Michigan.

Google co-founder Larry Page was born and raised in Ann Arbor and his father, still a University of Michigan professor in Ann Arbor, has known Scott McNeeley CEO of Sun Microsystems a Birmingham, Michigan native and his long competitve battle with Steve Ballmer, President and CEO of Microsoft also a Birmingham Michigan native since childhood.

It all started at a high school debate over the future of technology in Brimingham Michigan at Detroit Country Day School. Scott McNeeley, Steve Ballmer, and Mark Woodward President and CEO of Serena Software, all walking the halls with Mork & Mindy (comedians Robin Williams and Pam Dawber) at Birmingham Detroit County Day High School in the mid 70's, and all debating on conflicting views of the technological evolution that began with early research on packet switching and the ARPANET (and related BBS (Bulletin Board System) communication technologies that has since evolved into today's internet. Read more on the history of the internet here...

Birmingham Detroit Country Day High School is the college prep rival of Grosse Pointe Woods University Liggett School of which Peak Positions VP Jack Roberts is a graduate. As organic search engine optimization, spiders, and algorithms all have deep roots here in the state of Michigan.

If a Google branded personal computer does surface at Wal Mart, either the Google/Sun StarOffice or the open-source OpenOffice suite will launch with it.

Wal-Mart a most interesting choice of open source partners indeed!!!

Google the undisputed kings of New Media and the "open environment" who sometimes slammed Micorsoft and much of the corporate world for the last 7 years over user control issues, later turns to Wal Mart for their first dekstop distribution partnership?

Hello G-Browser ... how will Microsoft react?

This makes the recently rumored Microsoft and Yahoo partnership/merger even more intriguing.

Stay Tuned...let us reach some Google contacts and see if a link can be provided to Larry's keynote speech in Las Vegas this Friday.

Pay Per Click Fraud Running Rampant

New search marketing reports confirm that Pay Per Click Fraud is running rampant with no end in sight. One SEM study released last week finds that in high-profile keyword categories click-fraud now accounts for as much as 40% of all fees involved.

Many sponsors are returning from their holiday break only to find taht their PPC budgets are exhausted. Keyword Conversions are declining and the funds required to prop up their un-optimized websites on related keywords are sky-rocketing.

"We just blew through our quarterly budget last week and the quality leads are all from organic results" reports one tier one B2B AdWords/Overture sponsor.

"Most of the sponsored clicks are suspect."

"These PPC clicks seem staged."

"Our SEM company has no explanations".

We received more than a handful of these phone calls already today, from frustrated interactive marketing directors opening their December SEM invoices and gasping.

If you suspect fraudulent pay per click activity or feel your site was targeted go to your website server logs and begin to analyze traffic patterns.

One Florida Keys Realtor has retained an experienced PPC attorney to investigate potential legal action against competing real estate firms that were behind most of the illegal ppc click activity that ate up a significant monthly budget in less than one week.

More on the escalating PPC Click Fraud issues in upcoming posts.

Rumors Flying Microsoft and Yahoo to Merge

Microsoft looking to increase market share after losing out to Google in their AOL talks is rumored to be evaluating a purchase of Yahoo. Internet rumors and several phone calls already today from old Yahoo co-workers wondering if they are destined to work for the Redmond gang.

Microsoft appears to be planning a partnership or acquistion with another Tier 1 internet company. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer have been seeking an acquistion that could help them level the search marketing playing field with Google.

Other sources speculate that Microsoft/MSN is seeking a large ISP such as: Comcast.

It would be easier on a technical basis, for MSN and Yahoo who already share pay per click revenues and technology to merge and join together than waiting years to increase their share of the lucrative search marketing landscape.

Wenda Millard meet Bill Gates and clean out your desk as MSN will be driving this new shared enterprise.

Investor Carl Icahn Takes Steps to Block New AOL Google Deal

Investor Carl Icahn piped up earlier this week and issued a verbal warning to the Time Warner board of directors claiming that selling a piece of AOL to Google would be another "disastrous decision" for Time Waner.

The Time Warner board is on track to approve selling 5% of AOL to Google for $1 Billion in cash.

Icahn an outspkoen Time Warner shareholder wrote an open letter to the Time Warner board and also held a press conference claiming that selling 5% of AOL to Google is a mistake that limits AOL search and puts Google in the lucrative search marketing drivers seat at AOL for the next 5 years.

Icahn strongly labeled the deal as a "blatant breach of fiduciary duty" and to "enter into a 5 year keyword search results agreement with Google could prevent Time Warner from selling AOL outright to another party".

Icahn went onto to add "another transaction would be more beneficial for Time Warner shareholders".

The overly verbose Icahn, who only holds 3% of Time Warner stock claims he will attempt to start a proxy fight at the Time Warner shareholders meeting next year.

Time Warner's board yawned at Icahn's latest rant.

Icahn claiming to suddenly fully understand online marketing issues, including search marketing the internet's hottest industry of which Icahn has no experience to date, claims that fraud-laden eBay or old TV network pal Barry Diller's InterActive Corp. are better long-term matches for AOL than Google.

Wall street views Google's deal to purchase 5% of AOL from Time Warner as a very positive step for Time Warner and Google. The new Google deal could help AOL gain web traffic and search ad revenues, while also possibly preventing Microsoft's MSN from picking up AOL searchers.

Not one wall street analyst has acknowledged or even tried to comprehend Google's hidden motivation to purchase 5% of AOL and more importantly lock themselves in as the exclusive controller of AOL keyword search results. Google motivation is not entirely fueled by gaining search marketing share. Google's motivations also include two other important factors:

1) protect 100% of their search technology (code) from getting into Microsoft's hands.

2) Establish a 5% ownership in AOL, which puts Google in first position to purchase AOL outright for a song when all of AOL's current lawsuits are resolved. Google knows it could take AOL up to three years to escape all of their legal troubles.

Here's more on Google's 5% purchase of AOL from a search perspective:

Google is buying a 5 percent stake in Dulles, Va. based America Online for $1 billion as part of a far-reaching business and search advertising partnership that will link the two companies in many ways and will greatly enhance AOL's financial prospects, according to people familiar with the agreement.

The deal between Google and AOL is a setback for Microsoft Corp., which had sought to replace Google as the search engine on the AOL service and had been in talks with AOL's parent, Time Warner Corp, since January. Google is the leader in search, followed by Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft's MSN Search, which is a distant third.

Under the agreement, Google will remain the search engine on the AOL service with a revenue sharing from text-based ads provided by Google of about 80 percent to AOL and 20 percent to Google. In addition, AOL will get the exclusive right to sell other types of advertising, including banner ads, for the Google network. AOL will keep 20 percent of the proceeds from those ad sales; Google will get about 80 percent.

AOL is already the largest single source of ad revenue for Google, generating about 10 percent of Google's ad dollars, according to public filings. AOL's business strategy under its chief executive, Jonathan Miller, is to garner more of its revenue in the future from the rapidly-growing online keyword search advertising medium.

As part of the new agreement, AOL gains the right to sell Google-generated, text-based ads that appear on the AOL service. This change will enable AOL to sell all forms of online advertising itself to any company.

In addition, AOL's video service will get special promotion as part of Google's video offering. And AOL will have graphic ads that attract attention and appear alongside the text-based ads Google traditionally has displayed to the right of its free search results.

AOL will also be given a substantial fixed-dollar budget from Google to purchase advertising to promote the Internet service. Google's organic search results, based on math equations (algorithms used by bots or spiders) that rank sites according to content relevancy, will not be changed as a result of the new partnership.

Google's $1 billion investment in AOL will give the AOL service, which has more than 20 million subscribers and a network of websites that includes AOL.com, Moviefone and Mapquest, an implied value of $20 billion. The five-year deal gives Time Warner the choice of maintaining its 95 percent ownership stake in AOL, or keeping majority ownership while spinning off a portion of AOL to shareholders as a way of boosting its stock price.

Time Warner has been under pressure from financier Carl Icahn to take steps to get the Time Warner stock price up. Icahn, who owns only 3% of Time Warner has been pushing TW management to do a large stock buyback, spin off the Time Warner cable division and increase cash flow and shareholder value.

The terms of Google's 5% purchase in AOL were reached last week in New York in the Time Warner office suites of CEO Richard Parsons, where he was joined by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and AOL's Jonathan Miller. The Time Warner board of directors will vote on the agreement next week. In the interim days, lawyers for both sides will hammer out the legal details. On Wall Street, as news began leaking of Google besting Microsoft on Friday, Google's stock price hit $429 a share. The company, the leader in Internet search and advertising will be able to protect their PPC revenues as anyone or any party who clicks Google sponsored links on AOL results in more PPC dollars for both AOL and Google.

Is the sponsored traffic and link activity generated on AOL audited?

Does a third party intervene to legitimize the click triaafic being produced on the AOL network of sites?

Publishers need to audit circulation via the Audit Bureau of Circulations and broadcasters also need to audit their audience counts with Nielsen TV and Arbitron radio ratings.

Is search engine PPC advertising activity audited by an established third party?

And very rarely do any of the national search marketing industry stories ever mention ORGANIC SEARCH RESULTS.

Trade magazines and national press publications fail to make an important distinction in that the organic search results are what keyword searchers prefer and that organic search results are clicked 6 and 7 to 1 over paid listings on search results pages.

Much like TIVO, DVDR and other popular commercial cancelling media devices searchers are seeking information and relevant content not advertising. Google understands this trend and search behavior and needs advertising distribution partners such as AOL to help carry out their sponsored advertising messages onto portals outside of Google.com

Google understands REACH, always has, and that is why they are trading in the $450 dollar a share range.

In the end, a proposed joint advertising arrangement between AOL and Microsoft's MSN network proved complex and not as lucrative as the long-term potential of the partnership with Google.