Microsoft is apparently considering rebranding its search engine ‘Kumo’ having taken over the Kumo.com domain name.

Presumably the current brand, ‘Live’ (is it MSN Live, Microsoft Live or Windows Live anyway?) just doesn’t have the coolness of “Google’ or ‘Yahoo’. ‘Kumo’ on the other hand…

What’s more ‘Kumo’ apparently has a relevant meaning - it means ‘cloud’ or ’spider’ in Japanese. Well, maybe a little relevant…

That doesn’t mean Microsoft will dump Live.com though. According to TechCrunch, Live.com will become a pure social network and personal productivity portal.

Source: Mary Jo Foley, “Would you ‘Kumo’ it?”, ZDNet, November 23, 2008, Michael Arrington, “Microsoft To Rebrand Search. Will It Be Kumo?” TechCrunch, November 23, 2008

United States President-elect Barack Obama spent $7.97 million on online advertising before November. The Obama campaign managers spent it on search engine marketing, ad networks, social networks, local TV sites, newspaper sites and even NBA.com.

Think that’s a lot of money? Well, let’s put it into perspective. Obama spent over half that budget, i.e. $4 million, on one 30 minute television commercial in October.

Google got nearly half of Obama’s online budget, with nearly $3.5 million going into Google search. Yahoo search got just $673,000 in October.

Source: Nicholas Carlson, “Obama’s Online Spend: Actually Tiny,” Silicon Alley Insider, November 6, 2008

In keeping with the U.S. Presidential election theme, Search Engine Watch has provided a helpful list of tools from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL to help you choose who to vote for and where to vote.

Here are just a few of the interesting tools listed:

Google News - type a candidate’s name into Google News and if Google has indexed a quote by that person, you’ll see it at the top of the search results.

Google Mobile - type in your address and you’ll be directed to your local election precinct.

Yahoo Political Dashboard - a map of the latest poll results, which will hopefully be updated with real time results on election night.

MSN Election Live Q&A - ask and answer questions about the election in real time.

AOL Elections Toolbar - a toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox that will keep you up to date with election news.

Source: Search Engine Watch, “Election Tools from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL”, Search Engine Watch, October 31, 2008

Writing in Silicon Alley Insider, Henry Blodget makes the point that if Google and Yahoo go forward with their search partnership, they’ll have to sign a consent decree.

Among other things, this means Google will need to let government officials inspect its books and business practices. Apparently, the idea of revealing how it really does business is enough to cause Google to nix the deal!

Source: Henry Blodget, “Google Threatens To Stick Fork In Yahoo Deal”, Silicon Alley Insider, October 30, 2008

Google and Yahoo are apparently negotiating with the Justice Department to remove its objections to the two companies’ controversial search advertising deal.

As originally planned, the deal would essentially see Google serve up ads for Yahoo search results. Many – from advertisers and publishers to politicians – have expressed concerns that the upshot will be less competition and higher ad prices.

The Justice Department is evidently looking at capping the volume of Google ads Yahoo could show, imposing price constraints to prevent price hikes, and other initiatives to allow a deal to go ahead that would preserve competition.

Source: Michael Arrington, “Will A Volume Cap Make The Yahoo/Google Deal Work?” TechCrunch, October 14, 2008

Yahoo has launched ‘Yahoo Web Analytics’, a free web analytics tool to rival Google Analytics.

Yahoo Web Analytics is a re-branded version of IndexTools, a paid analytics platform Yahoo purchased earlier this year. At the time, IndexTools was widely regarded as being superior to Google Analytics.

Like Google Analytics, Yahoo Web Analytics provides statistics on web traffic, sales, and advertising performance. It also offers traffic alerts, custom reporting structures, and live cost analysis that incorporates dynamic search engine pricing data.

Initially, Yahoo Web Analytics will be available only to 13,000 Yahoo Small Business hosting customers, along with advertisers who use Yahoo Custom Solutions and Yahoo Buzz Marketing. Other Yahoo advertising customers will get access to the tool later this year. Paid IndexTools customers are now getting the service for free.

Source: Zachary Rodgers, “Yahoo Unleashes Answer to Google Analytics”, The ClickZ Network, October 9, 2008

Despite scrutiny from the European Commission… objections by major advertising and publishing bodies… and an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department, Google and Yahoo will launch their advertising deal on October 11, 2008.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive officer, said the companies will press ahead with the deal in the absence of any objection from regulators. The deal allows Google to display ads against Yahoo search results.

Many advertisers and others are worried that it will lead to higher search ad prices overall.

Sources: Michael Liedtke, “Google CEO won’t delay Yahoo deal any further”, Yahoo Finance, September 18, 2008

What Google may giveth… it may also take away…

Many of us have learned that the hard way. As domainers, search engine optimizers, advertisers and publishers, we’ve seen revenues and profits rise… and plummet… as Google changes its mind about whether it ‘approves’ of our business model or marketing… or not.

Serves us right, eh? If we choose to play Google’s game, we must accept that Google can change the rules any time it chooses. That’s a right Google reserves legally - i.e. when we agree to Google’s terms of use - and as a practical matter, due to its sheer market power.

Or must we just accept it?

When does a company’s exercise of its rights go from simply being ‘unfair’… to constituting an abuse of market power or being ‘unconscionable’?

‘Unconscionable’ is a legal term that has slightly different meanings in different jurisdictions. In general, it loosely refers to contractual terms that are so unfair that no reasonable person would, under normal circumstances, accept them. They typically arise where a party to a contract has much greater bargaining power than the other party and uses this power to extract unreasonably one-sided and onerous rights from the other party.

Successfully proving the existence of excessive market power or unconscionable contracts is generally tough, whether in the United States, Europe, or here in Australia. But there are indications that businesses, large and small, are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Google’s dominance over the Internet.

For example, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recently wrote to the U.S. Justice Department to object to the Google-Yahoo search advertising agreement. And, at the other end of the spectrum, there’s the letter sent by the lawyers of Dan Savage, owner of Sourcetool.com, to voice concerns about Google ratcheting up his Adwords prices due to low Quality Scores.

Warranted or not, I bet those letters to the Justice Department are piling up. Whether it should - or is able - to address some of the concerns remains to be seen.

You know, I would much prefer to see the marketplace - rather than the government or the courts - sort out who wins and who doesn’t when it comes to market share, sales, profits, etc. I’m not convinced that Google is abusing its market dominance. But one thing IS true: none of us can afford to rely on Google for our livelihoods.

Source: Joe Nocera, “Stuck in Google’s Doghouse”, The New York Times, September 12, 2008, Anna Johnson, “ANA Objects To Yahoo-Google Ad Deal”, Kikabink News, September 15, 2008

The deal allowing Google to run ads against Yahoo search results sure has stirred up the media industry. Now the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) - a group representing newspaper publishers across the globe - has voiced its dissent over the deal.

WAN has stated that the agreement will limit competition, increase search ad prices, and exacerbate Google’s domination over the Internet advertising industry.

Members of WAN don’t just rely on Google and Yahoo for advertising revenue (as Yahoo Publisher Network and Google AdSense partners) but also buy search ads in order to drive traffic to articles and other content. WAN believes the current level of competition between Google and Yahoo is essential for ensuring both decent advertising returns (i.e. their share of Adsense or Publisher Network revenue) as well as competitive paid search prices.

Source: Kate Kaye, “Global Newspaper Group Pans Google/Yahoo Deal”, The ClickZ Network, September 15, 2008

The European Commission (EU) is conducting a preliminary investigation into the deal between Google and Yahoo, under which Google will be able to run its ads against Yahoo search results.

Whether or not the EU can do anything about the deal remains to be seen. It only has jurisdiction over activities that affect trade between EU Member States. Both Google and Yahoo have stated that the agreement applies only to the companies’ search services in the U.S. and Canada.

Source: Jack Marshall, “European Commission Inspecting Google/Yahoo Ad Tie-Up”, The ClickZ Network, September 16, 2008