Articles of the Day
Google Paid Clicks Stall In February, Too — No, comScore’s Google paid click data in January was not an anomaly. According to the latest report from the Web measurement firm, February was just as bad, as Google’s sponsored links rose just 3 percent to 515 million over a year earlier. And because the data doesn’t take into account that we had an extra day in February this year, overall growth was probably flat–again. So what gives? Analysts claim it’s the economy: a tanking housing market, higher oil prices and slumping consumer confidence mean that people are shopping less online–and if they’re shopping less online, they’re clicking on fewer ads enticing them to buy stuff. Meanwhile, the downward trend continues month-to-month, as ad clicks fell an additional 3 percent in February after falling 7.5 percent in January. All this leads to what should be another rocky day for Google in the stock market; the company’s stock fell $14.52 to $443.67 in after-hours trading, once the report was released. Google declined to comment for the Bloomberg report.
Social Nets’ Lowly CPMs — Staggering numbers, puny revenues: thus describes the social networking conundrum. Even Google founder Sergey Brin has thrown his hands up in the air: “I don’t think we have the killer best way to advertise and monetize the social networks yet,” he told analysts during an earnings call in January. According to a Wired magazine report, MySpace and Facebook, the undisputed top two of the social networking pile, have achieved an annual rate of growth of over 500 percent since 2005. LinkedIn, a social network for working professionals, has increased by a rate of 182 percent over the same period. And yet, the CPMs for most of these sites remain low. For example, Lookery, a social media ad network that serves display ads on MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, sells ads for 13 cents per thousand times its ads are viewed. By comparison, Yahoo’s average CPM is $13. Meanwhile, video ads on MySpace reportedly go for $25 per thousand compared to CBS, which charges $50, and NBC, as much as $75.
KickApps Launches Video Feature On Yuku Courtesy Of ClipBlast — White-label widget maker KickApps today is launching a new feature on its community-building platform Yuku for members to search, play and share video online. The service is the result of a partnership with Web video-search platform maker ClipBlast, which is providing the one-click video embedding feature. Yuku members can now search and preview video from the ClipBlast video index. Members can then embed the searched video directly in their posts and blogs to share with the Yuku community without having to leave their message to hunt for content.
Amazon Now Second-Largest Music Download Service — Amazon’s DRM-free download policy has accelerated its MP3 sales, making the service second only to Apple’s iTunes in terms of size, according to Amazon itself. The company, which launched its Amazon MP3 music download site last Sep, claims to offer 4.5m songs, compared to iTunes’ 6m. Amazon MP3 claims to be the only online music store to have reached deals with all four major record labels for DRM-free music. While the Apple service includes many small, independent performers, Amazon’s offerings focus on major label artists. iTunes was first to offer DRM-free major label songs in spring 2007, but its unlocked catalogue is restricted to 2m tracks from EMI as well as a variety of independent labels.
Adobe Launches Free Online Photoshop App — Adobe is launching a free, online version of Photoshop that is accessible from any computer and browser. Called Photoshop Express, the application is more basic than its software counterpart, which users must buy - at prices starting from USD649 - and install. However, it allows users to save and access their account online. By launching the application, which is still in beta, Adobe is moving into the sector of web-based services, in which Google has been aggressively expanding. “This is the battlefield where Adobe and Microsoft and Google are going to fight some pretty big battles,” Jon Peddie Research analyst Kathleen Maher tells Associated Press. It will also have to compete with established online photo services such as Shutterfly, Picnik and Photobucket.
Nokia to secure all major labels for music launch — Nokia is increasingly “hopeful” that it will have secured the signatures of all four major labels for the launch of its mobile Comes With Music service, reports the Financial Times. The mobile phone giant, which is due to launch its music service in the second half of 2008, is in talks with three major labels and 10 independents. It currently has just one agreement with Universal. Nokia’s executive VP, Anssi Vanjoki says: “I am hopeful at the time of launch, technically we are able to deliver other labels. Certainly our target is to have other labels on board. We have negotiations and discussions ongoing with all the majors and a number of indies as well.” The news follows an admission earlier this month by the head of EMI Finland who said: “We want to be part of it. I believe strongly that when it launches we will be there, with a full offering.” However, in Nov last year, Warner reportedly said it would not contribute tracks to the service.
