Yahoo! and PayPal Emulate Checkout

A few days ago, Yahoo announced that they're teaming with eBay's PayPal, the most popular online transaction system, to compete with Google Checkout. The main features are freakishly similar to Google Checkout. Here are some of the similarities that stand out:

1. The badge next to the ads (Google's now changed to a bigger, and more colorful badge)
2. Free processing till December, '07 (exactly the same as Google)

What does this mean? I think it means, PayPal realizes that Google's innovative promotion of their service is working, and is eating into their share. For Yahoo, this is just a way of countering Google's service even if they don't want to invest in creating a new competitor.

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Google's Presently Working on...

A web-based presentation software which will be added to its existing suite of Google Docs & Spreadsheets. With this Google will have an online competitor for the three major MS Office components (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint)

The main benefit that Google boasts of is the collaboration aspect. I assume users will be able to view and edit the presentation online at the same time, and it'll have a chat area included to facilitate collaboration.

Other advantages include access to the data from anywhere if you're connected to the Internet. You won't have to back up the files on every one of your devices. And on a minor level, storage will not be a concern.

"It does not have all the functionality nor is it intended to have all functionality of Microsoft Office," he said, but quickly added, "It seems to be a better fit to how people use the Web."
- Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google

Teaser: Google's Q1 earnings will be announced tomorrow, so stay tuned
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After Google Acquires Doubleclick

Continuing from my post on 4 April, Google acquired Doubleclick for $3.1 billion this week. The most recent update on this is that Microsoft, and AT&T are unhappy about the outcome. MS has requested that Antitrust Officials review the deal for attempting to create a monopoly. It may be too late to reverse the deal now, and it's funny to see these two companies talking about 'monopoly'. Microsoft that wanted their software on every computer in the world, and AT&T that opposes net neutrality.

It's true that Google does have the bulk share of the online advertising industry industry, but the right attitude would be to either beat 'em, or beat it.

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Yahoo! to Serve Ads for Viacom

Viacom made their advertising preferences very clear yesterday when they chose Yahoo! over Google to partner with and serve ads for their popular entertainment websites for MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon. This is a multi-year contract, and could be expanded to more than the already mentioned websites.

This is a big deal for Yahoo! considering the growing gap between them and online advertising leader Google. Viacom has also sued Google last month over copyright infrignment with YouTube videos. Partnering is the way to go in today's businesses. Technology companies realize that the attention of their audience is spread over a large spectrum of websites, and applications. Gone are the days when portals ruled user behavior, and were the 'be all' and 'end all' in user choice.

Google provides advertising services for AOL, MySpace, and Ask.com. We hope Yahoo! can leverage its newly released Panama project, and increase the competition for the online ad revenue.

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Yahoo's Kiss Technique

I'm sure you've heard of the kiss analogy - keep it short and sweet. Yahoo! made a pretty long blog post that they would be limiting the length of text in their ads to 70 characters from this May.

Yahoo's comment: "We’ve found that ads written more concisely give users a better experience and perform better for advertisers."

I think it could turn out good for Yahoo!, and for users too. A small ad would catch my attention more than one with many lines of text. It's something like Google's homepage - the brevity, and emptiness on the page is something that users love. Webmasters know that cluttering a page reduces its effectiveness. We want information quick, accurate, and brief. I wouldn't be surprised if Yahoo! reports a revenue rise after implementing this change.

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2 Big Tech Companies to Sell

1. Recently, Dave Sifry (CEO, Technorati) made an announcement about Technorati's increase in traffic, and unique pageviews, sparking speculation of the organization being up for sale. Sifry commented on Michael Arrington's post saying "I’ll be very clear about it - Technorati isn’t for sale. We’re very happy doing what we’re doing, and we’ve been seeing significant growth." However, even this is not enough to quell the rumors.

2. DoubleClick is also up for sale, and this is confirmed unlike the former. Microsoft, AOL, and Time Warner are known contenders, but recently it was announced that Google has joined the auction too.

Currently, $2 billion is the estimated price of DoubleClick, which serves advertising for MySpace, and AOL. We expect an announcement about the aquisition in a few days from now, so stay tuned

Yahoo! Underground

Just when we have an overload of information from every kind of social networking site, Yahoo! comes up with a site that's based on Yahoo! News, and is customized for the "fringe cultures". It aims at sharing videos, music, pics, and text about things that social freaks do.

I see the direction Yahoo! is going in - the huge success of Yahoo! Answers makes them long for a repeat act. That said, Yahoo! could have made Underground more unique. But let's wait and see if this site picks up any momentum.

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Google Goes Down the Loo

OK, Google got me on April Fool's Day. Below, is my original post as proof.

Today Google announced that it's attempting to give homes across the US, and Canada broadband access, but you'll never in your wildest dreams imagine how they plan to do it. They'll send you a kit with a fiber cable, and you'll need to send a spindle attached to that cable down your pottie. It then opens up inside the sewage, and you plug the other end of this cable to a wireless router which comes along with the package. You'll need to run the installation CD, which will compulsorily install the Google Toolbar to your browser, and after an hour you'll have free broadband internet access! I'll leave the 'eeewww's or 'wow's up to you to decide.

The catch is to allow Google to gather information about you from your excreta. Information such as your "culinary preferences, current health status and likelihood of developing particular medical conditions going forward."

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