WSJ: Yahoo Plans To Reject Microsoft's Offer

WSJ: Yahoo Plans To Reject Microsoft's Offer

The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Yahoo plans to reject Microsoft's offer as insufficient:

Yahoo's board determined that the $31 per share offer "massively undervalues" Yahoo, the person said. It also doesn't account for the risks Yahoo would be taking by entering into an agreement that might be overturned by regulators. The board plans to send a letter to Microsoft on Monday, spelling out its position.

From Internet Marketing CMS

Microhoo At One Week 1: Decision Nears? Yahoo Brand To Survive?

Microhoo At One Week 1: Decision Nears? Yahoo Brand To Survive?

Has it only been a week since Microsoft thought it was a nice day for a Yahoo wedding? Indeed, so. And what's happened since? Rumors that Yahoo is nearing a decision, while Microsoft's Steve Ballmer seems to want to encourage his potential new employees that a Yahoo brand will survive. Let's do the news.

From Our CMS System

Daily blogging 'best for SEO'

Daily blogging 'best for SEO'

While blogging can be a useful way of adding to a website's search engine optimisation (SEO), it is vital the diary is regularly updated, an expert has explained.

An SEO programmer with optimisation company Just Search has highlighted the importance of adding regular new content, ideally around one post a day.

From Internet Marketing

A Bad Month For SEO's Reputation

A Bad Month For SEO's Reputation

We seem to be going through another wave "SEOs are scumbags" incidents, and I find myself with little energy to push back against them with yet another defense of the industry. It's not that SEO doesn't deserve better treatment. It's just that I feel anything I could say, I've said before -- as have others as well. But below, a round-up of some of the latest developments, including a podcast defense of SEO that I did after Jeremy "Shoemoney" Schoemaker gave SEO some slams.
On January 7, Tech 'Solutions' Your Small Biz Can't Use from Gene Marks in BusinessWeek is what I'd say was the start of the current round. Marks wrote:

Search Engine Optimization
You mean for $5,000 I can get my company's name on the very top of Google's search results? Where do I sign? Many business owners have been fooled by the allure of search engine optimization [SEO] -- and I'm one of them. I forked over a bunch of dough to a firm in California that promised to get my company's name on "all the major search engines" when someone was looking for products that we sell. How did they plan to do this? I'm still not really sure, but it had something to do with spiders, black hats, and link farms. That should've been enough of a hint that witchcraft was involved. After a brief flirtation with page 47 of MSN's search results, I gave up. SEO probably does the job for companies with oodles of money, but not for the typical small business.

From Free SEO Tools

Microsoft Corp. today unveiled a series of next-generation digital advertising technologies at its fourth annual Demo Fest, an event that showcases some of the leading-edge technologies in development by Microsoft adCenter Labs

The following seven demos were shown at today's event:

Air Wave. This technology creates a "fourth screen" experience beyond
the TV, PC and mobile phone to enable advertisers to engage consumers
outside of the home in public places such as an airport or a shopping
mall.
Contextual Ads for Video. Through speech recognition, this technology
enables ads to be dynamically served based on the content discussed in
the video.
Intelligent Bug Ads. This technology balances the interests of
advertisers and the target audience by locating nonintrusive frames in
a video in which to place ads.
Visual Product Browsing. This tool uses computer vision algorithms to
browse and categorize images as a human might, without the need for
manual data tagging.
Content Analysis Engine. This technology uses advanced algorithms to
automatically extract and categorize information from search queries
and Web page contents to better understand user intent and minimize
search engine marketing complexity.
Content Detection in Sub-documents. This technology identifies
sensitive or unsuitable content such as pornography, weapons or
negative sentiments that advertisers would not likely want to be
associated with, and automatically blocks contextual ads related to
that content.
Ad Research Dashboard. The dashboard builds on the success of the
Keyword Services Platform (KSP) introduced at Demo Fest last year.

From Internet Marketing and online Annonsering

Search Illustrated: Building A Company With Social Media

Search Illustrated: Building A Company With Social Media

So much discussion in the SEO community today centers around social media because of its potential to drive traffic, increase awareness, and build links. The challenge of this new medium, though, is to marry social media tactics with real business goals.

From Make a RSS feed

Yahoo may consider Google alliance, source says

Yahoo may consider Google alliance, source says

Yahoo management is considering revisiting talks it held with Google several months ago on an alliance as an alternative to Microsoft's bid, that source said. At $31 a share, Yahoo believes the bid undervalues the company, two sources said.

A second source close to Yahoo said it had received a procession of preliminary contacts by media, technology, telephone and financial companies. But the source said they were unaware whether any alternative bid was in the offing.

In a memo to Yahoo employees on Friday, which was obtained by Reuters on Sunday, Yahoo leaders wrote: "We want to emphasize that absolutely no decisions have been made -- and, despite what some people have tried to suggest, there's certainly no integration process underway."

From Internet Advertising and Marketing Articles

A Local Look At Microsoft's Bid For Yahoo

A Local Look At Microsoft's Bid For Yahoo

Official Google Blog: Yahoo! and the future of the Internet

Official Google Blog: Yahoo! and the future of the Internet

Google blasted the Microsoft bid for Yahoo on the official Google Blog this afternoon. SVP Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond, characterized Microsoft's proposed acquisition as a "hostile bid" that threatened the underlying principles of the Internet: "openness and innovation."

Google then went nuclear, dropping the "A-bomb" -- invoking anti-trust concerns and citing as evidence Microsoft's "unfair practices" and "legacy of serious legal and regulatorty offenses" in the Netscape browser wars.

From Internet Marketing and Online Annonsering

Microsoft plus Yahoo! Strategic Assets in Email

Microsoft plus Yahoo! Strategic Assets in Email

So much of the chatter around Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo! revolves around competition with Google in the online advertising market. While that is a huge market, one that Google now dominates, and one that Microsoft has a jones for, that's a very narrow way to view the combination. And for Microsoft, it could be a fatal mistake to take the battle to Google on its own ground. That's the very mistake that companies like Netscape made in competing with Microsoft.

Remember that the key advantage in Web 2.0 applications comes from data assets built via network effects (and then ultimately, the ability to monetize those data assets). Thinking that way changes the calculus of this deal. Where is the high ground for Microsoft plus Yahoo!? I don't think it's in the combined advertising heft, despite the fact that advertising is currently the bulk of the monetization value

From Internet Marketing

AdSense Earnings Down? | WebProNews

AdSense Earnings Down?

A small poll at Search Engine Roundtable (43 participants as of this writing) shows just over half reporting a decrease in AdSense earnings, the other half reporting that things are on the level or increasing.

It's hard to say that's a representative sample with just 40 respondents, but it does match a bit with the reports at Webmaster World: some are losing, some aren't.

Many plausible explanations have been proffered without any real, thorough site examinations, as no URLs have been given by those complaining. The center of conversation though, has been around Google's "smart pricing," and whether that is the cause of lower returns on ad clicks.
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Anyone who claims to have his/her Adsense increase in the last 90 days either 1. isn't paying attention, 2. is deliberately misleading others or 3. just opened his account and started with zero.

Sad truth is that, on or about November 15th of 2007, practically all publishers saw a large drop when Google made it so that the only clickable part of the Adsense banner is either the hyperlinked title or the URL itself. Prior to that, the entire banner was a big juicy hot spot. For practically all publishers, that alone caused a huge income droppage. Big G called it a safety measure to prevent accidental clicks. Ok, whatever. Go argue with that.

Next came this smart pricing concept on or about the same time. Clicks that previously brought in significantly more now pay only $0.05-$0.10 -- if you are lucky. Sure some categories still pay a little more, but practically all took a beating.

Take a moment and think about this from Google's point of view, though. With the previously higher payouts, they got publishers to use their product in droves, they established themselves as the de facto place for companies to allocate advertising dollars, and they kicked the corporate tushies of MSN and Yahoo. Great strategy.

From Internet Marketing and Online Annonsering