Tuesday, August 23

Google Current (TV Channel By Google)

A new Television Channel called Current TV has tied up with Google. According to the firm, the first contents of 'Curren TV' will be a 'Google Current' segment. 'Google Current' reflects the immediate needs and interests of young people, offering easily digestible 30-second to three-minute segments. The subject matter is culled from what the world is searching for right now on Google, with the most popular searches on the site forming the basis of news stories.

'Google Current' is to be broadcasted twice an hour (see distribution), together with contents devoted to business, music, art or Internet, and some minutes of 'Current Studio', the attempt to build a community of people sharing their video files.

Saturday, August 20

Chinese Firms Tapped By Google For Selling Ads

Google stepped up the pace of its expansion in China -- and competition with new stock-market star Baidu.com, by tapping three Chinese companies to sell advertisements for its China site.

Google named China Enterprise, China Source and Hotsales authorized resellers for Google AdWords on Tuesday, adding China to the roster of locales, including the United States, Britain and Latin America, where it has reseller programs.

The search advertising market in China remains small, attracting total ad revenue of just $148 million in 2004, according to iResearch of Shanghai. But strong growth in online advertising more broadly has buoyed Internet portals like Sina and Sohu.com and hinted at the promise of the fast-growing, enormous marketplace.

Saturday, August 13

Yahoo Investing $1 Billion in Alibaba.com

Yahoo has said it will invest US$1 billion in China-based e-commerce company Alibaba.com, targeting a market exploding with growth and ripe with new opportunities. In exchange, Yahoo will take a 40 percent equity stake in Alibaba and have 35 percent of all voting shares.

Wednesday, August 10

China Search Engine Breaks All Records

In one of the most startling flashbacks to the dot-com bubble yet, investors Friday piled into shares of Chinese Internet search engine Baidu and sent shares up US$95.54, or 354 percent, to $122.54. In just one day, shares of Baidu rose more than Google has gained in the year since it went public.

The biggest since the tech bubble burst, according to Thomson Financial. An IPO hasn't gained that much in its first day of trading since Selectica soared 371 percent in its debut on March 9, 2000, the day before the Nasdaq peaked.

Google Accused Of Overbilling

Two advertisers have filed a lawsuit against Google, saying the search giant did not live up to its promise to cap the amount of charges advertisers could incur in any given day. The suit was filed in the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara County and seeks class action status.

Yahoo Eyeing Stake In Alibaba

Their is a widespread romour that Yahoo would purchase a US$1 billion stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba is highlighting the efforts by U.S. companies, also including eBay and Google, to get deeper into the Chinese market.

Online Ad Revenue To Touch $18.9 Billion

A proof that e-commerce has come of age appeared yesterday as JupiterResearch predicted online advertising would reach US$18.9 billion by 2010 -- almost double last year's gross of $9.6 billion. Much of that revenue growth will be stoked by search engine advertising, which garnered 40 percent of online ad sales in 2004, compared to 27 percent for display and sponsorship advertising and 18 percent for classified advertising.

Saturday, August 6

Amazon To Start Digital Music Download

Amazon is soon set to start music download service. Although no official announcement has been made but there have been rumor and speculation about the same. It's believed that Amazon would offer both pay per song and subscription options to customers.

China Search Engine Offering IPO

Baidu.com, an online search engine maker vying to become the Google of China, priced its initial public offering at US$27 per share late yesterday, cashing in on the high hopes riding on a startup with a large audience and puny profits. The IPO raised a total of $109.1 million.

Yahoo Launch Ad Placement Network

Yahoo has launched a self-service ad-placement network that is designed to offer small publishers, including bloggers, access to revenue from contextually relevant advertising, a service already offered by rival Google. Yahoo said the beta version of the expanded Yahoo Publisher Network is aimed at small- and medium-sized Web sites and is currently available only to sites invited to take part. The beta is expected to run at least to the end of this year with further expansions to come.

Friday, August 5

Yahoo Tests Audio Search Feature

Yahoo begin testing a new search engine feature that will pore through millions of songs offered by popular Internet music services like iTunes, Rhapsody and Napster.

The free service, available at audio.search.yahoo.com, boasts an index of more than 50 million audio files, including newscasts, speeches and interviews posted online, as well as the Internet's deepening pool of "podcasts" -- recordings made to be played on a computer or digital device like Apple Computer's iPod player.

Yahoo's new alliance comes just three months after the company set out to topple the Internet's top online music services with the introduction of a rival subscription service that allows customers to download all the songs they want for US$6.99 per month.

Tuesday, August 2

Google, Amazon Sued by Adult Entertainment

Perfect 10's court filing states that the greater the content available through search engines, the more viewers they attract and the more advertising revenues they earn. The document claims that Google should be held responsible for direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement.