Articles of the Day
Hitwise: MySpace Overtakes eBay As Most Searched Term - Social networking market share was not the only thing MySpace ruled last year. News Corp.’s Web darling also dominated all search-engine queries, according to new research released Wednesday by Hitwise. Other 2006 search query leaders included “eBay,” which came in third, “Yahoo” in fourth, “MapQuest” following in fifth, and the only general term, “lyrics,” in 10th place.
Study: One In Five Web Users Download Movies - Nearly half of all U.S. Web users age 12 and older have downloaded music online, while almost one in five, or 18%, have downloaded movies.
Shutterfly Loses Two Senior Execs - Two senior Shutterfly executives are leaving the Internet photo-sharing and services company, according to a securities filing Wednesday. News of the departures comes just two weeks after Netscape co-founder Jim Clark quit Shutterfly’s board, complaining of overly restrictive securities regulations.
WaPo Beefs Up Online Political Section With New Blogs - As the 2008 presidential election cycle kicks off, WashingtonPost.com has partnered with politics blog RealClearPolitics.com for a daily feed of opinion, commentary, polls and analysis from around the Web. The Post also will incorporate blogging into its election coverage, both for breaking news and color about about candidates’ travels.
Online Game Marketers Hope For Micropayments Growth - The market for virtual add-ons to online video games is slated for substantial growth, according to a study of console and handheld online gaming by ABI Research. The study predicts that a growing percentage of gamers’ budgets will go towards the purchase of in-game virtual assets such as “maps, game related add-ons, casual game titles, and, eventually, full core console titles.” Micropayments for consoles alone will account for over $833 million by 2011, as console vendors and their publisher partners look to monetize both in-game and game-related assets beyond initial game purchases.
Earnings: DJ Continues Move Away From Print Reliance - Last year, Dow Jones reorganized to match its goal to move from am unhealthy reliance on print to what CEO Rich Zannino described again during Thursday’s earnings call as “a more diversified content-driven company.” (I didn’t get to listen to the call live but have been able to catch up thanks to the SeekingAlpha transcript.). DJ discusses DJ Online, consumer publishing, Journal 3.0, online advertising and Marketwatch.com.
Google Video Search Needs To Improve - Google announced today that they are adding YouTube videos to searches on Google Video. They also said “Over time, Google Video will become even more comprehensive as it evolves into a service where you can search for the world’s online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted.” Eventually, I imagine we will see an end to new uploads on Google video, as they turn it into a pure search engine. “Google’s strength — and its history — is grounded in search” they say in the post.
