MSN & Yahoo Join Forces, Google Looks For Display Gain, & More

MSN & Yahoo Join Forces

MSN and Yahoo have gotten regulatory clearance to form a search alliance, which will encompass a combined audience of 577 million searchers worldwide.

The Yahoo! and Microsoft Search Alliance is a major initiative between the companies to create a competitive choice in search for advertisers and consumers.  The combined scale will assist both companies in speeding the pace of innovation to improve the search user experience, as well as help advertisers get better results and help improve monetization for partners.

The goal is to implement the search alliance before the busy holiday season in 2010, but both companies will still continue to have differentiated consumer search experiences.  Microsoft will manage the technology platforms that deliver the algorithmic (powered by Bing) and paid (powered by adCenter) search results.

Google Looks For Big Display Gain in 2010

While experts believe search advertising will see growth this year (5.6%), the big eye opener will be in display advertising (8.2%), which is expected to give Google their first billion-dollar business outside of the search market.

Much of Google’s display advertising will come from selling video and banner ads on YouTube.  They are developing technology tools that allow for customization of banner ads, such as color, language and other elements, which will tailor to the individual viewer.  Data from Google’s Campaign Insights may also be used to help measure the effectiveness of display ads.

With their new focus on display, Google is said to get better at the personal side of sales, presenting them to large ad agencies and the like.

The search market is expected to only grow about $11.4 billion in 2010, compared to a projected $7.9 billion in display, which is also getting a boost as large advertisers are beginning to shift to the web from TV & print.

Some Extra Tidbits:

• Twenty-four mobile operators said they formed an alliance to build an open platform to deliver applications to all mobile phone users, in an attempt to emulate the runaway success of Apple Inc.’s App Store. Some members include U.S.-based AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp.; European operators Deutsche Telekom AG, France Télécom SA, Telefónica SA and Vodafone Group Ltd.; and Asia’s NTT DoCoMo and China Mobile.
• Despite alterations to Google Buzz and apologies to Gmail users, Google is now facing a class-action lawsuit filed in a San Jose, California federal court; the lawsuit alleges Google Buzz violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) – a law passed in 1984 that is intended to protect individuals against companies that compromise the confidentiality of a computer.
• President Obama is looking for a new “social networks manager” to maintain his accounts on Facebook (7.5 million fans), Twitter (3 million), and MySpace, which he used heavily during his 2008 candidacy.
• Audi announced that they’ll offer an in-car computer system called Mobile Media Interface Plus on selected 2010 models, which also integrates Google Earth into the navigation system.

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Sources:

http://www.searchalliance.com/home
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_08/b4167022997907.htm