Archive for November, 2010
Google Trying to Gain Acquisition on Groupon
Google is close to a deal to get hold of Groupon, the ground-breaking online discounter, for as much as $6 billion, people with direct knowledge of the matter stated recently. A deal, in the $5 billion to $6 billion range, could be struck during this week, these people stated, cautioning that the talks still could take a different direction.
At that value, Groupon would be the major attainment ever for Google. The deal would make Google the market leader in the fast developing arena of locally customized discounts. The acquirement would also be Google’s major invasion into local business advertising online, a large and untapped market it has been trying to get into, most recently. Over the last decade, Google has acquired dozens of companies, with an expenditure of billions for the online advertiser DoubleClick and the video site YouTube.
Groupon was founded in 2008 by its chief executive, Andrew Mason and it has become the fastest-growing Internet company ever.
The name Groupon is a combination of the words coupon and group and it is a group-buying site with a local focus. Subscribers obtain a deal each day, customized to the users’ location and profile, and though Groupon will proffer smaller side deals, the objective is to emphasize one discount for each user. A typical deal is 50 to 90 % off retail goods and services, sky diving lessons, restaurant certificates, dance classes and spa services. It’s a modus operandi that has taken off, turning Groupon into a cash machine with more than millions of registered users and an annual revenue of above $350 million.
Google however has refused to comment on the report .
If your eager to know what this acquisition means for search marketing,refer http://www.seobook.com/what-google-buying-groupon-means-search-marketing
Rich Search Assist-New Search Feature From Yahoo
Yahoo has commenced testing a new search feature that displays answers and results as you type based on search suggestions. Though there are big similarities between Google Instant and the fresh “Rich Search Assist“,the feature is surprisingly not named as “Yahoo Instant”.
Ethan Batraski,Group Product Manager at Yahoo Search,stated that at Yahoo, it is known that sometimes search is just about doing things at a faster pace.Whether one is looking for the latest game score, dietary facts about any breakfast, or a favorite TV show – one needs to be able to obtain answers with little to no effort. Presently,Yahoo Search is testing a beta version of a more sharp and content-rich Search Assist (a technology that Yahoo! pioneered) with a fraction of searchers.
The novel Rich Search Assist replaces the accessible Search Assistant. In the past, users would see connected searches and suggestions. In future, along with the suggestions, they will get direct links and answers based on the type of search.
Yahoo is merely testing the new feature with about 5 percent of users for now, but will roll it out further ultimately. There is no ultimate version yet, so several users may get different variations of the feature until Yahoo settles on the best one.
Wonder what strategies “Bing” would roll out in future !
Google Instant launched for iPhone, Android mobile
Google,the search engine giant has introduced the mobile version of its predictive search tool, Google Instant, for Apple iPhone and for a number of Android models.
Google software engineer Steve Kanefsky stated that with Google Instant on mobile, they were pushing the limits of mobile browsers and wireless networks. The mobile users would probably notice a huge improvement in speed while searching. This has been made possible with the help of new AJAX and HTML5 implementation for mobile that dynamically updates the page with fresh results and eliminates the need to load a new page for each query .
For enabling Google Instant on mobile devices, users have to tap the ‘turn on’ link on Google’s site on mobile phone.Also,users can disable it by clicking the ‘turn off’ button.
People with phones running Android 2.2 and iPhones and iPods running iOS 4 can enable Google Instant.