Archive for the ‘Google’ Category

Jun24

Bing is King?

Ever since Microsoft’s search engine Bing.com made its debut, it seems to be getting a lot of press and apparently sizable traction.
There are some who believe that Bing will be a real challenger to Google’s dominance in the SEARCH ENGINE world. There is speculation that Google is beginning to loose market share to Bing (link)

My view on the Bing Vs Google battle:
The only market share Bing is capable of eating into is Yahoo’s

Google offers a better user-experience, has great “mindshare” and a gigantic marketshare. Bing might do *some* things better but thats not enough to make users switch.
You dont displace a market leader (like Google) by being incrementally better… You have a chance if you are exponentially better.

All this percentage talk, is essentially Microsoft’s hype machine at work. Bing’s traffic will spiral downwards once the marketing budget is exhausted!

Also, Google has been around for a long time. They are not a company that rests on past laurels… they are only going to get better.
As for Microsoft’s strategy: first there was MSN search, then LIVE and now Bing. I guess their biggest strength is not search technology related, it is in fact “Re-Branding”

Mar10

Can Yahoo succeed where Google failed?

The Print Media business is in big trouble at the moment. Several media houses have altogether shut down and some have filed for bankruptcy (Tribune).

Why is this happening?
The simple economics is that revenues have sunk below publishing costs (i.e. paper + print + distribute). Also, there is some tough competition from Television & New Media. For advertisers, newspapers are no longer the only game in town.
Newspapers need to reinvent… not incrementally but exponentially. Else, they might go the dinosaur way!

Google Vs Yahoo!
Google tried selling contextual print ads in newspapers… but the strategy failed:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/20/google-bails-on-print-ads-and-newspapers/

Surprisingly, Yahoo seems to be enjoying some degree of success here. Yahoo’s Newspaper Consortium Keeps Growing:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/09/yahoos-newspaper-consortium-keeps-growing/

Interesting strategy.