In This Update:
• Analyst: Why Bing’s Early Gains Will Evaporate Longer Term
• Coming Soon: Facebook Usernames
• Revenue at Craigslist Is Said to Top $100 Million
• Apple Adds Faster iPhone With Several New Features
• Google CEO says Looking to Buy Smaller Firms
• European Online Ad Market Grew 20 Percent in ‘08, Rapidly Catching U.S.
• DailyPerfect: Latest News Aggregator to Attempt Personalization
• Smartphone Rises Fast From Gadget to Necessity
• CreateThe Group Raises $12 Million for Luxury Brands e-Commerce Platform
• Mobile Analytics Firm Motally Raises First Round of Funding
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Analyst: Why Bing’s Early Gains Will Evaporate Longer Term
PAIDCONTENT
Microsoft’s Bing has stolen a bit of search share from Google and Yahoo in the last week– its share of search-results pages increased from 9.1 percent to 11.1 percent since its launch, according to comScore. But will the good times last? Probably not, says Barclays Capital analyst Doug Anmuth. In a report this morning, Anmuth says that while he likes Bing, its share will fall back for the following reasons: The halo effect: Anmuth cites the “halo effect” from other Google products, like Gmail, Maps and iGoogle as an advantage it has over Microsoft in retaining users since people go to Google for many different products.
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Coming Soon: Facebook Usernames
FACEBOOK BLOG
From the beginning of Facebook, people have used their real names to share and connect with the people they know. This authenticity helps to create a trusted environment because one knows the identity of the people and things on Facebook. The one place, though, where one’s identity wasn’t reflected was in the Web address for one’s profile or the Facebook Pages one administers. The URL was just a randomly assigned number like “id=592952074.” That soon will change. Facebook is planning to offer usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with others. When friends, family members or co-workers visit profiles or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter usernames as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find other people.
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Revenue at Craigslist Is Said to Top $100 Million
NYTIMES
As the newspaper industry and its classified advertising business wither, one company appears to be doing extraordinarily well: Craigslist. The Internet classified ads company, which promotes its “relatively noncommercial nature” and “service mission” on its site, is projected to bring in more than $100 million in revenue this year, according to a new study from Classified Intelligence Report, a publication of AIM Group, a media and Web consultant firm in Orlando, Fla.
That is a 23 percent jump over the revenue the firm estimated for 2008 and a huge increase since 2004, when the site was projected to bring in just $9 million. “This is a down-market for just about everyone else but Craigslist,” said Jim Townsend, editorial director of AIM Group.
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Apple Adds Faster iPhone With Several New Features
WASHINGTON POST
The latest iPhone, available next week, is faster than its predecessors, has an improved camera, can record videos and appears to be just what many Mac fans have been waiting for this year.
Apple unveiled the latest version of its popular iPhone, called 3G S, at a trade show for Mac users yesterday in San Francisco. The company, known for using the conference to launch new, often game-changing devices, touted its next-generation iPhone as its fastest-running smartphone yet. The “S” stands for “speed,” after all.
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Google CEO says Looking to Buy Smaller Firms
REUTERS
Schmidt said Google plans to focus on the cloud, mobile, and open source distribution of software in the next year. “We have been (looking to acquire),” Schmidt said. “We have been wandering around looking at all of the different companies. With the big ones we haven’t come across anything we’ve particularly liked. We are definitely talking to a number of smaller companies but we’ve done that routinely.” “We primarily look for technology. It’s a typical build versus buy. How long does it take us to build it with our engineers, versus there are already engineers in this other company that have built this thing.” The chief executive’s statements come as the Internet search giant’s growth slows from double digit percentages amid global economic turmoil and a sharp, industry-wide decline in advertising.
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European Online Ad Market Grew 20 Percent in ‘08, Rapidly Catching U.S.
CLICK Z
Online ad spend across Europe reached a total of €12.9 billion (18 billion) in 2008, representing a 20 percent year-on-year growth rate, according to the IAB Europe. The pan-regional trade body’s annual advertising expenditure report includes data from 19 markets throughout Europe, including, for the first time, data from Croatia, Hungary and Romania. Meanwhile In the U.S., online ad spend reached €16.6 billion ($23.4 billion) in 2008 and grew by 10.6 percent, suggesting the European market could overtake it in the next couple of years.
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DailyPerfect: Latest News Aggregator to Attempt Personalization
READ WRITE WEB
It’s been nearly 4 years since news aggregation site Techmeme (or tech.memeorandum, as it was called back then) launched to the world. Since then it’s grown to be the leading aggregator of tech news in the blogosphere. There have been no shortage of pretenders to the throne over the years, particularly from startups hoping to crack the elusive “personalization” nut. What could be better than a personalized, automatically filtered page of news for you to peruse over your coffee each day? However Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera has been consistently skeptical of personalized news over the years, claiming that it’s too hard a problem.
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Smartphone Rises Fast From Gadget to Necessity
NYTIMES
Sales of BlackBerrys, iPhones and other smartphone models are rising smartly and are projected to increase 25 percent this year, according to Gartner, a research business. Widely anticipated new models like the Palm Pre, which went on sale nationwide on Saturday, will help fuel that growth. Meanwhile, total cellphone sales are expected to fall. The smartphone surge, it seems, is a case of a trading-up trend in technology that is running strong enough to weather the downturn. And as is so often true when it comes to adoption of new technology, the smartphone story is as much about consumer sociology and psychology as it is about chips, bytes and bandwidth.
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CreateThe Group Raises $12 Million for Luxury Brands e-Commerce Platform
PULSE2
The company has been around for about 5 years and has announced that they have raised $12 million in private funding from the United Kingdom’s Hargreaves family. CreateThe Group will be using the funding to expand their platform including the CTS/SELL service. The CTS/SELL and CTS/SOCIAL platform accounts for more than $200 million worth of online business. CreateThe Group was started by James Gardner and Tony King. Some of their clients include seven LVMH brands and four Gucci Group brands. Other clients include the New York Times T Magazine, Oscar de la Renta, Tom Ford, David Yurman, Calvin Klein, Burberry, etc.
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Mobile Analytics Firm Motally Raises First Round of Funding
DMW
Motally, the developer of a Web-based service designed to accurately collect data and analytic reports from publishers’ mobile websites, said on Tuesday that it has raised an undisclosed sum in its first round of funding, led by BlueRun Ventures. Angel investor Ron Conway also participated. San Francisco-based Motally said that its analytic tools have been built specifically for mobile devices, networks and service offerings.
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Tags: Craigslist, Google, Techmeme, Yahoo