Google profit drops but strong revenue helps it beat estimates
The results are in: investments in AOL and a company called Clearwire contributed to a 68% drop in Q4 profit for Google but an 18% increase in sales helped the beat analyst expectations.
All told, Google achieved net income of $382m on total revenue of $5.7bn. Sales, excluding commissions paid to partners, was $4.22bn, beating the consensus estimate of $4.12bn.
Encyclopedia Britannica takes a page from Wikipedia
When it comes to online 'encyclopedias', chances are that Wikipedia springs to mind faster than the 241 year-old Encyclopedia Britannica.
Despite the virtues of an encyclopedia that is 100% edited by humans, Britannica's influence has waned in today's Wikipedia world.
Report: YouTube to let content partners sell their own ads
When Google acquired YouTube for $1.65bn in October 2006, many expected that the popular video sharing website would eventually fall into a profitable business model.
More than two years later, Google is trying hard as ever to monetize YouTube. While it's come a long way, all indications are that it still has a long way to go.
Microsoft joins the layoff party
It's not the type of party that one usually wants to attend but sometimes you have to make an appearance.
Microsoft today reported disappointing results for its fiscal second quarter. Those results included an anemic 2% revenue growth from the same period a year ago - $900m less than expected.
The inauguration of Barack Obama by the numbers
The inauguration of Barack Obama was more than just another big media event.
Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum and regardless of where you live, President Obama's inauguration was an historic moment for the internet.
New York Times creates policies for reporters' social network use
Services like Facebook and Twitter are changing the ways we locate and share important news and information, and they have proven to be valuable additions to the field of journalism.
Yet their rise has created some thorny ethical questions for reporters and news organizations.
Are SEO's glory days over? Not a chance
Mike Grehan, host of the Search Engine Strategies Expo London, wrote a comment on ClickZ last week that made quite a statement.
That statement: "SEO's glory days are over. And we should get over it. Nobody is online looking for content."
Google shutters Print Ads: are its ad domination dreams fading?
When Google reports its Q4 2008 earnings this Thursday, a lot will be learned about the state of the consumer internet and the online advertising market.
As I mentioned yesterday, one estimate has search advertising spend dropping significantly (8%) in the quarter. This despite the fact that search advertising was expected to hold up better than display advertising; some even predicted search advertising would benefit from a flight to quality.
Change comes to Whitehouse.gov: President Obama has a blog
Talk about a launch: minutes after Barack Obama took his oath and became the 44th President of the United States of America, a new Whitehouse.gov launched.
And it appears that President Obama, who made extensive use of the internet as a presidential candidate, will continue to use the internet as the most powerful man in the world.
Are search marketers really looking beyond search engines?
In this rough economy, it's now apparent to just about everyone that marketers are cutting back and looking to get the most bang for their buck.
Many expected this would be a boon to search engines since paid search advertising is easy to measure, quantify and analyze for ROI.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
