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LookSmart's 1st quarter loss not as bad as anticipated

LookSmart (LOOK) reported a net loss of $7.1 million, or 7 cents a share, for the quarter ended March 31, 2004.

A year ago, the company reported net income of $1.1 million, or a penny a share. Revenue for the San Francisco-based Web search company was $27.6 million vs. $29.4 million for the year-ago period.

The company's results beat the consensus estimate of a loss of 9 cents per share for the period, according to analysts polled by Thomson First Call.

LookSmart announced earlier Thursday that it had acquired Net Nanny, an online filter, for $5 million. The company also raised its expectations on revenue and earnings for the year.

LookSmart officials said they expect to report revenue for the year of $76 million to $81 million, up from $45 million to $50 million.

Its net loss, previously forecast to be in the $26 million to $30 million range, was narrowed to $20 million to $22 million.

The company's shares closed Thursday at $2.44, up 8 cents.

Source: CBS Marketwatch

Try the Viewpoint Toolbar for IE

The Viewpoint Toolbar shows the usual search result as a web page but in addition to it, it fetches thumbnails of the shown search results.

There are search toolbars and then there is Viewpoint Toolbar. It does what an average search toolbar does and takes it one step ahead. It uses Yahoo! search engine technology to display results but the difference is the visual representation of the search results.

The good thing about the thumbnails is that you can make out if it’s a content rich site or just another keyword spammed site filled with advertisements. Since the generation of thumbnails is done in real time, the process can be quiet painful on a normal dial up connection so they do let you disable the thumbnail display and use the toolbar as a regular search toolbar.

And it does the other functions of a search toolbar pretty well too. There is the usual popup blocker with one interesting extra option (allow non ads popups) which sounds pretty ambitious. I would need some more tests before I can actually fall for that claim. Then there is a search save feature that functions as a visual bookmark, where your searches are saved as clickable thumbnails.

Shortcomings? Pretty apparent. It is supported only on Internet Explorer. Not surprising considering all the popular ones out there are IE only. It needs a good fast connection to properly exploit the features. Should not be a big problem now considering broadband is cheap. And it eats a big chunk of your browser window while displaying the thumbnails. Though it offers you three sizes to choose from.

Is the technology revolutionary? I beg to differ. I don’t know how old this toolbar originally is, but I remember using an Internet Explorer utility way back in 1999 called girafa. It showed you the thumbnails in the sidebar.

The website still exists so does the tool and the technology is apparently used by MSN to show search previews. So, it’s a good idea implemented well which works fine for people like you and me who want more than just results as links!

Download the Viewpoint Toolbar for free at http://search.viewpoint.com/

Source: Search Engine Journal

AOL delivers strong earnings with Google's partnership

Time Warner’s America Online turned in a better than expected performance in the first quarter of 2003 with a little help from paid search and broadband.

According to reports from analysts, paid search brought in revenues of $27 million in Q1 from an AOL partnership with Google.

Google powers the AOL search engine along with AOL search engine advertising - which is actually Google AdWords.

AOL reported total operating income of US$277 million, compared to $194 million in the year-ago period on revenue that remained essentially flat at $2.2 billion. Operating income before depreciation and amortization rose 21 percent, from $404 million in the first quarter of 2003 to $489 million in the most recent quarter.

On news of the earnings, Time Warner shares rose 4 percent, or 70 cents, to $17.21 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange today.

The number of subscriber defections has slowed, especially with the new AOL Netscape low budget Internet service, and AOL says it has more than 3 million subscribers on its new broadband service.

Total subscription revenue was up 1 percent, or $21 million, due to favorable foreign currency exchange rates at AOL Europe and the expansion of AOL broadband services, Time Warner said, with AOL Europe reporting a growth this quarter of 38,000 which brings its total EU subscribers to 6.4 million users.

Focusing on Search and More Public Users
AOL also introduced the AOL toolbar for both subscribers and nonmembers which opens AOL more so to the public than ever before, giving toolbar users an open door to the Google powered AOL search and members can view incoming email messages.

Along with providing a search box for AOL search, the toolbar lets users add icons to popular AOL content areas such as Yellow Pages, white pages, maps, weather, stock quotes, movie times and AOL CityGuide.

Other features include the toolbar standard popup blocker and access to AOL Instant Messenger. While AOL provides a toolbar for Netscape, the latest toolbar is its first for the AOL-branded service, AOL officials said.

Google and AOL a Sound Partnership
After proven success in the US market with AOL serving Google and Google AdWords search results, AOL and Google will be working together in AOL’s global expansion.

Last week Google announced their partnership with AOL Latin America to display its paid listings on AOL sites in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Puerto Rico. Google already provided Web search technology to AOL Latin America and is currently the search and search advertising provider to the US’s AOL.

Source: Search Engine Journal.com

AXA taking Google to court

Google’s AdWords advertising sales for trademarked names and competitive business terms is being challenged again in the court room, this time in France.

AXA, the world’s No. 3 insurer, is taking Google to court next month in the latest trademark challenge to threaten the heart of Google’s business model advertising.

AXA, which posted $86 billion in revenue last year, is the largest company yet to take the keyword “hijacking” and trademark targeted advertising controversy into a legal court. A ruling may have a large effect on the way Google serves targeted AdWords ads in the EU.

According to AP wire: A preliminary hearing on AXA’s allegations of “brand counterfeiting” is scheduled for May 10 in Paris, a court official said. Both companies have confirmed that litigation is pending but declined to comment on the case or say how much AXA was seeking in damages.

Under French court procedures, details will not be made public until later in the hearings and court procedings. A source close to the insurer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the lawsuit was filed after Google sold AXA’s registered trademarks as advertising search terms.

Google searchers who typed “AXA” or “Direct Assurance” looking for search results were served AdWords text advertisements for other insurance companies which purchased such placement from Google.

Source: Search Engine Journal

Google files for $2.7 billion IPO

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Google, the popular search engine company, registered for a $2.7 billion initial public offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.

Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston were named as the underwriters for the deal.

The company's IPO filing has been rumored for the better part of a year and recent speculation has created a buzz about Internet stocks not seen since online auctioneer eBay went public in September 1998.

Wall Street has been eagerly anticipating a filing from Google so investors could finally get a glimpse into the company's finances.

In the filing, Google said that it generated revenues of $961.9 million in 2003 and reported a net profit of $106.5 million. Sales rose 177 percent from a year ago although earnings increased by just 6 percent.

For the first quarter of 2004, Google reported sales of $389.6 million, an increase of 118 percent from a year ago. Net income was $64 million, up 148 percent from the first quarter of 2003.

Mark Mahaney, an Internet analyst with American Technology Research, said Google's numbers were incredibly strong, noting that its sales grew in the first quarter at a higher rate than Yahoo! and eBay.

Google's core business of selling search-based advertising, which allows companies to purchase ads tied to specific keyword searches, is one of the most lucrative and rapidly growing markets in the tech sector.

Google, founded in 1998 by former Stanford University students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, has quickly become one of the most successful Internet companies, thanks to search technology that many experts say is superior to offerings from rivals.

Click http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/29/technology/google/index.htm to read the whole story on CNNfn.

Overture signs deal with Mooter

Overture and Mooter have entered a two-year agreement which will see Mooter's fledgling search portal carry the Yahoo!-owned, pay-per-click advertising supplier's sponsored listings placed alongside its own.

Australian Web search start-up, MooterSearch, has moved to monetise its online search portal, mooter.com.au.

MooterSearch, which launched its search engine in October last year, has secured a deal with paid search listings provider Overture.

MooterSearch is one of a growing number of search minnows nipping at the heels of the Internet search heavy-hitters such as Google and Yahoo.

The company Mooter has drawn revenue from licensing fees for its patented personalised algorithmic search technology, but the agreement represents the company's first backyard test to see how well its theories on search behaviour convert to cash.

Mooter's search technology attempts to anticipate an individual's search aspirations by studying their behaviour patterns. The MooterSearch portal displays search results in diagrammatically in "clusters".

MooterSearch CEO, Leisl Capper, a trained psychologist, said that examining the behaviour patterns of Web users on the diagram gives clues as to what they need.

Capper believes that examining the "underlying patterns of personal search" rather than just keywords will result in more relevant advertising being served to the end-user.

She also pointed to the fact that small changes click-through rates can mean significant changes in revenue volumes.

In this sense Capper is critical of what she believes is the Web industry's current approach to search personalisation. She claims it's too reliant on theories regarding demographic behaviour.

"I know from my ten years of psychology research it's not really a safe assumption to say that age or where they live or gender is a good basis for deciding what they're interested in," she said.

Capper also bemoaned the gravitation of the market toward Google and the homogenisation of the search experience.

MooterSearch has avoided developing a business relationship with Google as the company doesn't allow its partners to mix its search results with those of other providers.

"We think our own algorithms are pretty good. We don't just want to be a Google portal which is what you end up being," she said.

Mooter's algorithmic search engine accesses the company's home-grown global listing index. It's a hybrid index comprised of its own listings and those drawn from meta-searches of Yahoo!'s Inktomi search engine.

But while she says Google as the 800-pound Gorilla today, it's clear she sees other threats on the horizon.

"I sincerely hope consumers still want choice and Microsoft doesn't slay us all."

Source: ZD Net

Espotting reports 1st quarter 2004 results

Espotting Media today reported preliminary results for the calendar quarter ended March 31, 2004.

'We are delighted that Espotting has reached profitability and that we have had the most successful quarter in the Company's history' commented Daniel Ishag, CEO & Founder, Espotting Media. 'As we approach our merger with FindWhat.com, Espotting's performance is stronger than ever.'

Net revenues were over $30 million in the first calendar quarter of 2004, compared to approximately $18 million in the same period of 2003.

This represents a 67% growth in revenue. Espotting's results for the first calendar quarter of 2004 are preliminary results, prepared by Espotting's finance department. Espotting continues to finalise the audit of its March 2004 fiscal year. Espotting's fiscal 2003 results have been audited by Ernst & Young.

Espotting reached profitability in the first calendar quarter of 2004, for the first time.

Espotting's advertiser base grew by 14%. The number of active advertisers receiving targeted traffic from the Espotting Network was 22,700 in the first quarter 2004. This compares to 20,000 in the third calendar quarter of 2003.

Espotting's volume base of queries grew by 26% in the first calendar quarter of 2004, to nearly 4.3 billion, up from 3.4 billion in the fourth calendar quarter of 2003. The volume base of queries is the number of impressions where Espotting's listings can appear and thus represents the opportunity to reach potential customers.

Daniel Ishag, Espotting's CEO & Founder, has been short-listed as a finalist for Ernst & Young's London Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The award celebrates entrepreneurs who are building and leading successful, growing and dynamic businesses. Ernst & Young run a global awards programme, covering over 35 countries.

On February 10th 2004, Espotting announced its amended merger agreement with NASDAQ listed FindWhat.com (NASDAQ: FWHT). It is currently anticipated that on 2nd June 2004, the shareholders of Espotting, and on the 4th June 2004, the shareholders of FindWhat.com, will be meeting, independently, to vote on the merger.

Source: Espotting Media

About.com network gets overhaul and new CEO

Media company Primedia Inc. on Tuesday plans to unveil an overhaul of its About.com Internet portal, a revamp that follows the appointment of a new chief executive of the unit late last year.

Primedia is giving About.com, a provider of consumer-focused information on topics such as travel, food and health, a make-over in an effort to draw in more readers and build brand identity, the company said.

The relaunch is part of a series of changes at Primedia, which hired new Chief Executive Kelly Conlin last October and has sold high-profile magazines such as New York in an effort to focus more on special interest and business-to-business publications. Primedia earlier this year reorganized into four new business units to try to bolster performance.

"Previously, the About branding wasn't as strong as it should be ... " Peter Horan, About.com's CEO, said in an interview. "We want folks to view more pages on the site, and spend more time every time they visit us."

About.com ranked as the 14th most visited brand online in March with 21.4 million unique visitors, according to Nielsen/Net Ratings. But many people discover its pages through Internet searches and do not know what Web site they are looking at, said David Card, an Internet analyst at Jupiter Research.

"One of the things they are trying to do is make it like a network so that they would have kind of a hub site where you would start off .. and then you might dive deep into the different categories," he said.

As part of the overhaul, the new site will offer more targeted advertising based on a user's profile, so that advertisers can in effect follow a user with specific ads wherever that person clicks on the site.

The stepped-up advertising comes after Primedia sold its online ad service Sprinks to search engine Google, the No. 1 Web search company in the United States. The October deal called for Google to become the exclusive provider of targeted and search advertising across About.com.

Primedia bought About.com for about $690 million, a much-hyped deal in late 2000 billed as a marriage of traditional publishing and new media. However, the company's Internet expansion came just as the Web and advertising markets suffered a steep downturn.

Source: Yahoo News

Consumer research influenced by search engines

The majority of North Americans use search engines for consumer research states a focus group research product undertaken by the search marketing firm Enquiro.

The results showed that 65% of North Americans use search engines to come to a purchasing decision.

Enquiro President Gord Hotchkiss commented on some of the more interesting findings of the study, “We were more than a little surprised by some of the things we found. For example, search engines are much more likely to be used to research a purchase than to make the actual purchase.

Yet the majority of search marketing campaigns are aimed squarely at the purchaser. We also found that there are distinct search behaviors out there. For example, we found that many of the women in the group had different search behaviors than many of the men.”

One other interesting finding of the study was that many search engine users are still drawn first to the traditional, free search listings, rather than the sponsored ones.

This tendency was most noticeable in Google users, where the sponsored listings have always been clearly labeled. The Federal Trade Commission has warned many search providers that sponsored listings have to be clearly marked on the search results page.

This move was spurred by complaints from a group led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader who filed a complaint in 2001 against misleading advertising practices used by some of the major search portals.

Source: Search Engine Journal and Enquiro.com

Yahoo launches Internet radio

People spend hours a day with instant messaging programs, sending text to friends and co-workers online.

These free products already go well beyond the typed word: People can swap files and chat with webcams and microphones.

Instant-messaging software has evolved into the latest weapon in a fierce battle among major Internet companies to reap revenues off whatever you do, wherever you go online.

Now there's even more. On Monday, Yahoo Inc. launched Internet radio and other new services around its messaging software. Microsoft Corp., meanwhile, is leveraging IM as a subscription gaming hub, while America Online Inc. is packaging weather.

"They are becoming much more of a destination as opposed to just a communications front-end," Rob Enderle, an independent analyst in San Jose, Calif., said of instant-messaging services. "They want to own the user experience."

Expanding IM gives Yahoo -- the No. 2 instant-messaging service, with 19 million U.S. users in March, according to comScore Media Metrix -- a way to introduce users to services they may not have known about.

"The more Yahoo services people use, the more loyal they are, the more likely they are to come back and the more likely they are to tell friends," said Lisa Mann, Yahoo's senior director for messaging products.

The new Yahoo! Messenger software, available in a "beta" test Monday with a final version due in late May, reconfigures the main window so your list of friends can remain on the screen as you visit other Yahoo services such as news, stocks and calendar.

The software adds several free features: You can invite friends to play chess or dominoes. The titles of songs you listen to appear on friends' "buddy lists" next to your name so they can listen in, too. You can perform searches with a co-worker and have results appear on both ends.

The integration of search, in particular, could give Yahoo an edge over current search leader Google, which unveiled a Web mail service this month to rival Yahoo's and Microsoft's. Google officials say they have no immediate plans for IM.

"Google would be smart to roll out an IM strategy and to do it fairly quickly," Yankee Group analyst Paul Ritter said.

But while IM can foster collaboration among co-workers, Ritter said, new features can also create distractions.

A February survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project finds that 29 percent of full-time workers use IM at work. A study conducted last year by Harris Interactive for the Internet filtering company Websense Inc. says one in five workplace IM users populated at least 70 percent of their IM lists with personal as opposed to business contacts.

Nonetheless, IM providers aren't shying from new features. Last week, AOL began bundling WeatherBug with the most popular IM software, AOL Instant Messenger. The company is working to integrate features -- for example, issuing localized weather alerts through IM.

AOL also lets you obtain movie times, stock quotes, recipes and phone listings for local businesses by sending IM queries to special "buddy" addresses. And paid subscribers can update their AOL Web journals by sending an instant message.

AOL's main messaging products -- it's the market leader with 44 million U.S. users -- have become key delivery platforms, said Edmund Fish, AOL's senior vice president for desktop messaging.

"We know that the application is open more than six hours a day per user on average," Fish said. "It's a lifeline."

ICQ, a separate service from AOL with 4 million users, last week added its ICQ Xtraz platform for automatically delivering new features such as games, some of which carry a fee.

Still missing, though, is a way for users of different services to reach one another directly, just as people can send e-mail to anyone with an Internet e-mail account regardless of service provider or software used.

Fish said users haven't clamored for such interoperability as much as other features.

Even Microsoft, which once joined Yahoo in a coalition to press AOL for interoperability, is happy to direct the 17 million U.S. users of MSN Messenger to the company's own offerings.

So one tab gets you traffic reports and gas prices from MSN Autos; another lets you sign up for news alerts through MSNBC.com, which Microsoft partly owns.

The company is testing a companion called Threedegrees, which lets IM users listen to music together or share photos. By early this week, Messenger users can also invite friends to play brand-name games like "Wheel of Fortune" for about $5 a month each.

"IM is such a social experience," said Brooke Richardson, an MSN product manager. "We think of these activities and doing things together as a natural extension of messaging."

Source: CTV News

Google chooses Morgan Stanley for its IPO

Internet search firm Google Inc. has moved one step closer to its eagerly awaited initial public offering, choosing Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston to be lead underwriters, according to a published report Monday.

Plans surrounding the IPO will probably be announced this week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

The IPO, widely expected to value the six-year-old firm at about $20 billion, would enrich Google's founders and early venture investors and give it a valuable currency for acquisitions as it takes on rivals Yahoo Inc. (YHOO: Research, Estimates) and Microsoft Corp.

Google's IPO is the most hotly anticipated IPO since the tech bubble burst in 2000.

The brainchild of two Stanford University graduate students -- Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who together hold 30 percent or more of the company -- Google revolutionized Web searching in 1998 by offering a simple and powerful way to find information based on the number of links to a page.

Credit Suisse First Boston, a unit of Credit Suisse Group and Morgan Stanley (MWD: Research, Estimates), would share in a pool of investment banking fees of almost $100 million, the paper reported.

Source: CNNfn.com

Spanish search engine Terra Lycos for sale

The sale of Terra Lycos, which is based in Waltham, Mass., would unwind the $12.5 billion merger of Lycos and Terra Networks, struck in 2000 at the height of the dot-com bubble.

The company has retained investment bank Lehman Brothers to explore a possible sale of its U.S. Internet business, including its flagship Lycos.com Web site, according to a document obtained by CNET News.com.

Now, with a resurgence of online advertising spending, Terra is seeking a buyer for the Lycos division as it focuses on its Spanish- and Portuguese-language businesses, according to the document, prepared by Lehman Brothers and circulated to prospective buyers over the past several weeks.

"An acquisition of Lycos, one of the last available premier Internet search and content properties, represents an outstanding and unique value creation opportunity at a time when advertising budgets are increasing, paid online content is gaining broader acceptance and public markets are favorably rewarding consolidation in the rapidly growing search market," the document reads.

Terra Lycos is hoping to sell Lycos for cash or liquid shares. Although no purchase price was listed, one source familiar with the deal said Terra Lycos is looking to sell Lycos for $200 million, based on $98 million in pro-forma revenue that the site generated in 2003.

A Terra Lycos representative declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Lehman Brothers did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The effort to sell Lycos offers the latest evidence of the reviving fortunes of Internet companies, thanks to improved financial earnings and growing confidence in online advertising. Hype for the sector is set to soar this week, when Web search engine giant Google is expected to announce plans for an initial public offering, an event that could inspire a new round of dot-com deal-making.

Few expect a return to the heady days of the late 1990s, when Internet companies with no profits were sold for stock worth billions of dollars on paper. But excitement is building once again for Internet companies--particularly those with an angle on Web search.

The success of the paid-search business has sent the stocks of Internet search companies surging.

Yahoo has led the way in deal-making to date, acquiring companies in the United States and abroad with stock and cash from a $2.79 billion war chest. In the past year, Yahoo has acquired paid-search company Overture Services for about $1.6 billion, French comparison shopping site Kelkoo for $579 million in cash and Chinese search company 3721 Network Software for $120 million.

The success of the paid-search business has sent the stocks of Internet search companies surging, including those of little-known players such as Mamma.com, whose shares jumped from about $2 in early March to more than $10. The company is backed by dot-com bubble investor extraordinaire Mark Cuban, who sold his Broadcast.com start-up to Yahoo in 1999 for stock worth more than $5 billion, and cashed out near the top.

The portal wars that marked the mid-1990s ended with Yahoo, America Online and Microsoft's MSN as the victors. Second-tier portals, such as Lycos, have remained popular according to online measurement firms, but their audiences are a fraction of the leaders'.

Walt Disney shut down Infoseek after spending billions of dollars trying to build out its own Go.com Web portal.

Excite.com, which was acquired by cable Internet service provider @Home for $6.7 billion in over-valued stock in 1999, was sold in 2001 in bankruptcy court for $10 million to online sweepstakes site iWon and Web directory InfoSpace.

Ask Jeeves in March said it is buying Interactive Search Holdings, owner of several destination sites including iWon, Excite and My Way, for about $343 million in cash and stock.

Terra Lycos is exploring a sale of its U.S. division following several rounds of layoffs and a recently announced restructuring that aims to refocus the company on search and its subscription businesses. According to the Lehman Bros. document, Lycos currently has about 170,000 paying subscribers for products including its Matchmaker online dating service.

Lycos lost $24 million in 2003, but broke even in the fourth quarter of that year, according to the Lehman document. The company expects to make a profit in 2004.

In February, Lycos laid off 20 percent of its U.S. staff and announced it would focus its business on the social-networking trend established by Friendster and Google's Orkut.com.

A year prior to that, Lycos had laid off 147 employees, 22 percent of the company, to refocus the company on a "global," rather than regional, scale. The company also said it would boost its collection of vertical sites.

Much of the trouble began in the fall of 2002 when German media giant Bertelsmann said it would renegotiate $675 million remaining from a $1 billion deal to buy in advertising as part of the Terra-Lycos merger. The renegotiation eventually lead to the departure of former U.S. head Stephen Killeen.

Things are beginning to look up for Web businesses, however, thanks to renewed confidence in online advertising, bolstered by Web search. Lycos uses Google to post commercial links throughout its Web search results and gets a cut of revenue every time one of its users clicks on the link, something the Lehman Bros. bankers are counting on to lure in potential buyers.

Google and Yahoo subsidiary Overture have helped contribute significant amounts of cash to companies that use their search links. AOL, for instance, received $200 million in 2003 from revenue generated through its Google relationship, up from $35 million in 2002.

Lycos may also have some other assets that would interest potential buyers, such as its collection of various Web sites for certain categories. The company operates businesses such as Matchmaker.com for online personals, Quote.com for finance, Angelfire and Tripod for Web publishing, and Wired News. These businesses could be attractive for some potential suitors.

"Is it worth buying a second-tier portal? To the right buyer it may make a lot of sense," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. "You can make a good living (even) if you're not the top player."

Source: C-Net News

Yahoo not afraid of Google's competition

"Yahoo is a company that has always had good competitors and Google will be a good competitor".

"There is plenty of room for Yahoo to thrive and for Google to thrive," Semel told reporters on the sidelines of a Milken Institute conference.

Chief Executive and Chairman Terry Semel on Tuesday shrugged off the possibility that a widely anticipated public offering by search engine operator Google Inc. would hurt the older Web company.

Yahoo has an estimated 5 percent stake in Google, which is expected this week to announce plans for an initial public stock offering that could value the company at around $20 billion.

But Yahoo also has expanded far beyond its core portal business. Last year, the Sunnyvale, California-based company invested more than $1 billion in acquisitions to challenge Google in the lucrative business of Web search and key-word advertising.

Google, meanwhile, recently announced plans to get into the free e-mail business now dominated by Yahoo and Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) MSN Internet unit.

Semel, a former Hollywood studio head credited with diversifying and reigniting revenues at Yahoo, told a panel at the conference that the nature of search was also changing as customers looked for search engines to allow comparison shopping across the Internet rather than approaching a host site as a place to buy.

"Search has become a lot more than we think of search," he said.

Source: Reuters

Earnings strong at Ask Jeeves, company raises guidance

Ask Jeeves Inc. on Tuesday posted earnings that topped Wall Street expectations and raised its guidance on its stock.

The company raised its quarterly and full-year forecasts, citing increased Internet traffic and a rise in Web-search ad revenue.

Ask Jeeves (ASKJ) shares gained almost 4 percent in extended trade after the company boosted its outlook on the heels of first-quarter results that handily beat Wall Street's profit and revenue forecasts.

Emeryville, California-based Ask Jeeves had a profit from continuing operations of $13.4 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, compared with its year-earlier income from continuing operations of $8.5 million, or 17 cents per diluted share. The year-earlier results included an acquisition-related gain of 10 cents per share.

Revenue was up almost 73 percent, to $39.2 million from $22.7 million last year. The company's advertising partnership with Google Inc., the No. 1 Web search provider, contributed 69 percent of overall revenue.

Analysts had expected Ask Jeeves to post a profit in the range of 16 cents to 19 cents a share on revenue of $35 million to $37.5 million, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.

Ask Jeeves Chief Executive Steve Berkowitz told Reuters in a telephone interview that the company's growth had been fueled mainly by recent improvements to its Teoma search technology, coupled with existing Smart Search features that focus on such things as products, pictures and news.

With just 3 percent of the overall Web search market, Ask Jeeves is dwarfed by industry giants Google and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Nevertheless, it owns its own search engine and is seen by market experts as a strong alternative to the larger players.

"When we look at our technology, not only is it getting better, but it's different," said Berkowitz, who added that the company also is working to deliver more targeted ads.

"Advertisers are going to come where the users are," he said.

Ask Jeeves expects to close its cash and stock purchase of Interactive Search Holdings in mid-May, a move that is expected to nearly double its Web search market share.

ISH owns Web search sites iWon, Excite and others, which should help Ask Jeeves reach more users while providing a platform for delivering more personalized search results, executives said.

Excluding ISH, Ask Jeeves now sees second-quarter revenue of $38 million. It expects per-share earnings, excluding amortization, of 17 cents and net earnings of 16 cents.

Including ISH, the company expects quarterly revenue of $55 million and per-share earnings, excluding amortization, of 21 cents and net income of 15 cents.

For 2004, Ask Jeeves now sees revenue of about $255 million and earnings, excluding amortization, of $1.00 per share. It sees net income of 75 cents a share.

"The second quarter was a little conservative," said Fulcrum Global Partners analyst Imran Khan, who added that Ask Jeeves' 2004 outlook was in line with his own numbers.

Ask Jeeves shares rose to $38.49 in extended trade, after falling 6 percent to $36.90 on the Nasdaq ahead of the earnings report.

The stock has more than doubled since the start of the year.

Source: Ask Jeeves

InfoSpace extends agreement with Google

InfoSpace today announced it has extended its agreement to distribute Google search results through its network of Web search properties and partner Web sites until 2006.

The agreement includes distribution of Google's award-winning indexed Web search results, as well as targeted advertising from the Google AdWords™ Program.

"We're pleased to continue providing InfoSpace with targeted advertising and award-winning search technology, distributing Web search results and relevant advertising to the millions of users who visit InfoSpace's properties and partner Web sites each month," said Omid Kordestani, Google's senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.

"Our relationship with InfoSpace increases the value we provide to our advertising customers by extending their reach to InfoSpace Web search users at a variety of popular sites across the Internet."

"We have worked hard to build a valuable channel for our search provider partners by developing first-rate products and signing agreements to power Web search at some of the most popular sites on the Internet," said Brian McManus, executive vice president, Search and Directory, at InfoSpace, Inc.

"The extension of our agreement with Google reflects the success of these efforts and will help us to continue delivering top quality search results to our users."

InfoSpace's metasearch technology searches the Web's leading engines and delivers the best results from each. The company's Dogpile search engine has received favorable reviews recently in the search industry and technology press.

In a feature titled "Web Stars: Best of the Web" in the February 2004 issue of PC World, Dogpile was named first runner-up in the Search Engines category, behind category winner Google. In addition, the Dogpile Toolbar took top honors in the Browser Toolbar Plug-Ins category to win a "PC World Best Bet Award."

Also in February, influential search industry newsletter Search Engine Watch named Dogpile "Best Metasearch Engine." Dogpile won the category both in the popular vote and with Search Engine Watch editors Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman.

InfoSpace Web search is offered through the Company's three search properties, Dogpile (www.dogpile.com), WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com) and MetaCrawler (www.metacrawler.com), as well as the sites of leading distribution partners.

Source: Infospace Inc.

Froogle.co.uk dispute won by Google

Google has been awarded ownership of the domain name froogle.co.uk, which was registered by a UK web hosting company the day after the world's most popular search engine launched Froogle as its product search service.

Google's apparent mistake was to launch its service on 11th December 2002 – and to seek to register the UK domain name two days later – which left a window of opportunity for LWD Internet to snap it up.

Although Google Inc. had froogle.com, froogle.org and other names, and is in the process of registering trade marks for the Froogle brand, it wanted control of the .co.uk name and got its lawyers involved.

For a while, it looked like the parties would settle: to avoid formal proceedings, a deal was struck comprising a payment by Google of £500 together with credit of £1,000 in a Google Adword account. But negotiations broke down, and no transfer was made.

So Google took its case to Nominet, the registry for all domain names ending .uk. Nominet operates a dispute resolution service similar to that provided by the World Intellectual Property Organisation for other disputes, particularly those involving .com, .net and .org domain names.

LWD argued that the registration had been in good faith, that the “timing of our domain registration and the launch of froogle.com was entirely coincidental.” But the panel didn't buy that argument, saying it stretched “credulity too far”.

Nominet panellist Keith Gymer agreed with LWD that Google had insufficient trade mark rights in the UK in the Froogle brand – which had only been launched in the US. However, he reasoned that, for the purposes of the dispute:

-- “It is not necessary that [Google] should have had sufficient Rights to pursue a trade mark infringement or a passing-off action, nor is it necessary that the Rights be in the UK".

He pointed out that the Nominet dispute Policy defines "Rights" as including, but not being limited to, rights enforceable under English law.

Concluding that LWD did register the name with some "speculative intent,” he ordered that it be transferred to Google.

David Woods, a dispute resolution specialist with Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM comments:

"The case provides a useful lesson for anyone launching a new brand. Bringing a case before Nominet costs the complainant a fee of £750 plus VAT. If lawyers are instructed, the complainant has their fees as well. These fees are not recoverable in the event of success in a Nominet or WIPO case. But disputes like this are often avoidable."

Woods points to another example, from 2000, when PDA-maker Palm announced its new MyPalm service before securing the corresponding domain name. It then had to buy mypalm.com from the owner, who had already been using it for e-mail.

"With domain names, the cost of registration is cheap. For a company with an international profile like Google's, it is advisable to obtain a range of defensive registrations before announcing any new brand. Google could have had the name for £10 if it had registered it before announcing the service."

Source: Out-Law.com

Expect Google to announce its new IPO any day now

Google's IPO announcement is linked to the fact that the company will soon be required to publicly disclose more information about its search engine business, under a certain SEC rule triggered after closely held companies surpass a certain size.

Internet-search pioneer Google Inc. plans to announce within days that it will push forward with an initial public offering, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.

Google is expected to have to make such disclosures as early as next week. Lawyers have said that the disclosure requirements can be a trigger for companies to list their shares.

Major elements of Google's expected offering remain unknown, including its size, which banks have been tapped to lead it, and the extent to which individual investors will be able to participate. A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

Rumors around the Mountain View, Calif., company's IPO have swirled through markets since October. Based on early chatter among bankers, the offering could value Google at as much as $25 billion , and spread nearly $100 million in fees across Wall Street.

Last fall, some of Google's prospective advisers estimated the valuation of the company could be in line with other Internet leaders. Those include Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), valued at $38 billion , Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) at $20 billion and eBay Inc. ( EBAY ) at $54 billion .

Source: Dow Jones News

Google's Dave Girouard and enterprise search

With its release of the Google Search Appliance last year, the long-time leader of consumer Web search turned its attention to the needs of complex, data-intensive enterprises.

"People buy our product [because] our search results are better," Google Enterprise general manager Dave Girouard told the E-Commerce Times. "For the IT person, their customer is the employee. If it's an e-business, then their client is the visitor to the Web site. We really speak to the benefits of the end user, which is really how Google got started."

The search appliance -- which includes hardware, software and support -- interacts with an organization's datacenter to search either an intranet or a business' external Web site. Companies as diverse as Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Kansas, PBS, USA Today, the U.S. Army and Sun Microsystems already have adopted Google's offering.

Dave Girouard, general manager for Google Enterprise, chatted recently with the E-Commerce Times about the Google Search Appliance, its target market, the vast opportunity within the enterprise search industry, and the environment at the Mountain View, California-based company's headquarters.

E-Commerce Times: How would you describe the Google Search Appliance?

Dave Girouard: At a simple level, it's a Google search engine in a box -- a box that has the entire Google search engine built into it. You install [it] in your datacenter, turn it on and set a couple of configurations. Then it creates a Google search engine within your company for all the information, documents and Web pages throughout your corporate intranet. It's also used broadly on public-facing sites for doing what we refer to as a site search.

ECT: What was the genesis of the Google Search Appliance?

It came about a couple of years ago because we had a lot of customers who said, "We really like using Google on the Web, and, gosh, we wish we had that same capability -- that same kind of Google-quality search results on our intranet -- because we find it's harder to find things on our intranet than it is to find things on the entire Web, which seems kind of silly."

Click http://www.crmbuyer.com/perl/story/33539.html to read the whole interview on the CRM Buyer website.

Source: CRM Buyer

A family-friendly search engine by Juvio

Search engine users can now breathe easy. Previously, using a search engine could generate less than desirable content.

The Juvio search engine screens out adult content and offensive language making for a family friendly environment.

Juvio Corporation has added yet another service to its already expanding portfolio of technology-based products and services with the launch of a unique, family friendly search engine.

The Juvio search engine allows viewers to target search results in a safe and friendly environment, free from adult material and offensive language.

Each site listed on the Juvio search engine is screened by a staff member so as to ensure that the site meets a rigorous standard of quality. Currently over 2 million screened sites have already been approved and listed with the Juvio search engine with that number expected to increase profoundly in the near future.

“Search engines have become the most popular method for users looking to find targeted results on the web, that’s a given.” says Juvio President, Paul Burg.

“Almost all other engines have virtually no filtering process in place, meaning that a child could perform a search for a female pop star idol and be flooded with websites offering pornographic content. We believe that people who want to search without coming across these types of sites have that right, as do their children.”

Advertisers can also enjoy Premium Member status for a nominal fee. These special accounts will have their URL and description listed above non-member sites that share identical keywords thereby giving them preferred placement in the Juvio search engine.

Juvio Corporation, operating with over 10,000 sales associates in 86 countries, has already given the approval for its representatives to begin offering Premium Memberships to websites looking to gain much desired consumer traffic.

In addition to a firm commitment to filter out improper sites, the Juvio search engine also allows users to rank sites they have visited and submit their own reviews. This consumer-based ranking service can increase an advertiser’s overall rank status within the Juvio search engine through positive reviews.

“We have created the first content approved, consumer feedback fueled search engine,” says Burg. “Over time, it’s our belief that those with Internet access will no longer tolerate their innocent children becoming exposed to adult-only sites.

Where these users go, the legitimate advertisers and their websites will follow.”

Source: Juvio

Google's SafeSearch filter too sensitive?

The domain name of PartsExpress.com includes an unfortunate string of letters, "sex," which is enough to block the Web site from Google's 'Adult Content' filtered results.

PartsExpress.com proudly touts itself as the Net's No. 1 source for audio, video and speaker components--but online shoppers who rely on an optional feature in the Google search engine to block porn sites would never know it.

Ironically, PartsExpress.com is not alone. A CNET News.com investigation shows that Google's SafeSearch filter technology incorrectly blocks many innocuous Web sites based solely on strings of letters such as "sex," "girls" or "porn" embedded in their domain names.

Google's SafeSearch flaws are more than academic--they can have serious consequences for innocent Web site operators blocked out by them. Google is the most widely used search engine on the Web, and failure to appear in its listings can have a direct impact on sales for some companies, particularly smaller enterprises with limited marketing budgets.

Research company WebSideStory reported last month that Google claimed an all-time high in search referrals, 41 percent of the United States total, and the search giant's market share is steadily expanding.

"Traffic from Google can make or break a business," said Maria Medina, whose family-run clothing business at ALittleGirlsBoutique.com doesn't pass the SafeSearch censor. "Here I am, a mom of four children, creating an at-home business that sells little girl dresses and accessories, in order to spend more time with my children, and I have been filtered out as not being family friendly. Ridiculous."

Matt Cutts, the Google engineer who designed SafeSearch four years ago, said his algorithm looks for a "relatively small" number of trigger words in a Web page's address. If one of those words appears, the SafeSearch algorithm puts the address on a block list and does not take the next step of evaluating the content of the site. "We try to find the best trade-off of precision, recall and safety," Cutts said. "People who opt in to SafeSearch are mostly OK with us being on the conservative side."

Cutts would not disclose how many Web searches are done with SafeSearch enabled, saying only that it's a small percentage of the millions of queries handled by Google each day. But the sloppy filter stands out as a rare black eye for a company that prides itself on superior search technology and boasts on its payroll one of the world's highest concentrations of computer science doctoral degrees. Google claims SafeSearch "uses advanced proprietary technology that checks keywords and phrases" and filters out only Web pages "containing pornography and explicit sexual content."

"That's not very bright," said Karen Schneider, a librarian who runs the Librarians' Index to the Internet and has made a study of filtering software. SafeSearch is "certainly evocative of the very primitive CyberSitter-type tools of the mid-1990s--not a tool of fairly sophisticated development."

The Scunthorpe problem
For years, Web content filters have drawn criticism for inaccuracies. In a famously embarrassing incident in 1996, America Online's errant dirty-word filter prevented residents of the British town Scunthorpe from signing up as new customers. Google's SafeSearch makes the same mistake, blocking local news sites like ThisIsScunthorpe.co.uk and ScunthorpeDistrictCatsProtection.co.uk, a housecat-adoption site.

SafeSearch is "evocative of the very primitive CyberSitter-type tools of the mid-1990s--not a tool of fairly sophisticated development," says Karen Schneider, a librarian who runs the Librarians' Index to the Internet.

Other Web sites misidentified by SafeSearch because of "sex" in their domain names include ArkansasExtermination.com, which claims to offer the "best in termite and pest control." The owner of the business, who declined to give his name, said he was puzzled by Google's categorization: "My brother wrote the Web site. I don't know anything about that."

SafeSearch also marked as unsafe for children JewishSussex.com, a religious Web site; EssexCountyBeeKeepers.org of Topsfield, Mass.; BluesExcuse.SouthBurnett.com.au, an Australian blues band's site; BassExpert.com; and the Anglo-Saxon history site RomansInSussex.co.uk.

Gareth Roelofse, the Web designer of RomansInSussex.co.uk, said his filtering complaints are broader than just Google. "We also found many library Net stations, school networks and Internet cafes block sites with the word 'sex' in" the domain name, Roelofse said. "This was a challenge for RomansInSussex.co.uk because its target audience is school children."

"I think it would be nice if Google would have a 'white list' for sites like ours, but this would involve human man-hours, I guess," said Roelofse, who designed the site on behalf of the Sussex Archaeological Society and local museums.

Cutts, the Google software engineer, noted that the SafeSearch Web page permits visitors to contact the company with complaints. "In most cases it's a pretty unambiguous usage," Cutts said about the word "sex" in domain names and Web addresses. "No filter can be 100 percent accurate. We're always willing to take a fresh look at our filter and see how we can improve it."

Google is not alone in seeking to lure searchers worried about encountering online raunch and ribaldry: Yahoo offers a "mature Web content" search filter, and Ask Jeeves has set up a separate Web site for kid-friendly searches. But Yahoo's filter isn't as hypersensitive as Google's, and lists domains mentioning Sussex, Essex and Scunthorpe as acceptable.

The flaws in Google's filter have persisted despite research published about a year ago that highlighted overblocking in SafeSearch.

An April 2003 report from Harvard University's Berkman Center described similar but less extensive problems with SafeSearch. That report said some news articles and political Web sites were filtered.

David Drummond, Google's vice president for business development, said that at the time of its development, SafeSearch was designed to be overly cautious. "The thinking was that SafeSearch was an opt-in feature," Drummond said. "People who turn it on care a lot more about something sneaking through than they do about something getting filtered out."

"Plainly silly" blocking
CNET News.com evaluated SafeSearch by testing tens of thousands of random Web pages and identifying which ones were incorrectly listed as pornographic. The results showed that Google encountered many of the same problems that have plagued Internet filters for almost a decade. One 1996 analysis, for instance, showed that CyberPatrol blocked National Rifle Association and gay and lesbian Web sites, and CyberSitter cordoned off Usenet newsgroups such as alt.feminism and soc.support.fat-acceptance.

"People who opt in to SafeSearch are mostly OK with us being on the conservative side", says Matt Cutts, the Google engineer who designed SafeSearch.

"None of that surprises me," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) technology and liberty program. "The evidence that we put on in the library filtering case shows that it's very difficult to do filtering without being overinclusive, without blocking things that are just plainly silly. That's the reality of relying on blocking: You're going to block a lot of legitimate material."

The ACLU, which has warned against buggy filters since publishing a report on the topic in 1997, unsuccessfully sued to overturn a federal law compelling public libraries to install filtering products.

"In the end, the lists are proprietary," Steinhardt said. "Without access to the lists, you don't know precisely what's being blocked. You have to rely on the authors of the lists to have the right judgment."

The word "girls" also tends to lead SafeSearch astray. It incorrectly blocks the Web sites of the private school GirlsSchoolOfAustin.org; the bridesmaid dress shop DressyGirls.com; TatuGirls.com, a Russian band's site; and TheCalicoGirls.com, a Web site devoted to cat poetry.

"Porn" in a domain name can confuse SafeSearch just as thoroughly. It won't display Pornichet.org, devoted to improving tourism for the French seaside town of Pornichet; SpornGroup.com, a New York-based business consultancy; Sporn.com, which sells dog leashes; PornkRocks.com, a site devoted to the band Pornk; and Anti-Kinderporno.de, a German effort to oppose child pornography.

Aaron Wolfe, information systems director for SafeSearch-banned PartsExpress.com, said the company is planning to excise that unfortunate string of letters from its domain name.

"We are going to modify our domain name to Parts-Express.com," Wolfe said, adding that the renaming will also help "get around spam filters on e-mail servers."

Source: C-Net News

Google announces deal with RealNetworks

Google and RealNetworks announced today that the Google Toolbar is being distributed with RealPlayer 10 downloads.

By making the Google Toolbar available to the very large number of consumers who install the new RealPlayer 10 every day, Google Toolbar is sure to be popping up on the browsers of more everyday computer users and possibly the browsers of people who prefer Yahoo or other search engines.

With MSN, Yahoo, Amazon’s A9, UCMore, and other search related toolbars hitting the market left and right, this may start a “toolbar distribution war” among search engine companies.

RealPlayer 10 is the first free media player that enables consumers to play content in any of the major Internet media formats, including RealAudio, RealVideo, AAC, Windows Media, QuickTime MPEG-4 and MP3.

By including the Google Toolbar in the RealPlayer download options, consumers can choose to install the free web browser tool which enables them to quickly and easily search Google from any web page. Once Google opens its GMail email to the puplic, the Google Toolbar will be the ultimate place to promote the new GMail and access one’s inbox.

The downloading of the Google Toolbar will be opt-in, giving the RealPlayer audience the option to download Google onto their browser. If Google decided to sneak their toolbar on a browser, like many spyware and parasites currently do, they would be breaking some anti-spyware laws and form distrust among the Internet user community.

“By combining RealPlayer 10’s popularity with the Google Toolbar, we’re helping users worldwide improve and enhance their media playback and search experience on the web,” said Carla Stratfold, senior vice president, North America Sales, RealNetworks, Inc.

“Our relationship with Google demonstrates our commitment to partnering with best-of-breed products and services and leveraging our distribution power to reach consumers in all global markets.”

“RealPlayer 10 is a valuable distribution platform for the Google Toolbar,” said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations, Google Inc.

“We are committed to connecting users worldwide to the information they need, and by offering a free pop-up blocker and autofill capability to RealPlayer 10 consumers, Google further enriches their experience on the web.”

Source: Search Engine News.ca

InfoSpace extends agreement with Google

InfoSpace today announced it has extended its agreement to distribute Google search results through its network of Web search properties and partner Web sites until 2006.

The agreement includes distribution of Google's award-winning indexed Web search results, as well as targeted advertising from the Google AdWords™ Program.

"We're pleased to continue providing InfoSpace with targeted advertising and award-winning search technology, distributing Web search results and relevant advertising to the millions of users who visit InfoSpace's properties and partner Web sites each month," said Omid Kordestani, Google's senior vice president of Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.

"Our relationship with InfoSpace increases the value we provide to our advertising customers by extending their reach to InfoSpace Web search users at a variety of popular sites across the Internet."

"We have worked hard to build a valuable channel for our search provider partners by developing first-rate products and signing agreements to power Web search at some of the most popular sites on the Internet," said Brian McManus, executive vice president, Search and Directory, at InfoSpace, Inc.

"The extension of our agreement with Google reflects the success of these efforts and will help us to continue delivering top quality search results to our users."

InfoSpace's metasearch technology searches the Web's leading engines and delivers the best results from each. The company's Dogpile search engine has received favorable reviews recently in the search industry and technology press.

In a feature titled "Web Stars: Best of the Web" in the February 2004 issue of PC World, Dogpile was named first runner-up in the Search Engines category, behind category winner Google. In addition, the Dogpile Toolbar took top honors in the Browser Toolbar Plug-Ins category to win a "PC World Best Bet Award."

Also in February, influential search industry newsletter Search Engine Watch named Dogpile "Best Metasearch Engine." Dogpile won the category both in the popular vote and with Search Engine Watch editors Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman.

InfoSpace Web search is offered through the Company's three search properties, Dogpile (www.dogpile.com), WebCrawler (www.webcrawler.com) and MetaCrawler (www.metacrawler.com), as well as the sites of leading distribution partners.

Source: Infospace Inc.

Earnings strong at Ask Jeeves, company raises guidance

Ask Jeeves Inc. on Tuesday posted earnings that topped Wall Street expectations and raised its guidance on its stock.

The company raised its quarterly and full-year forecasts, citing increased Internet traffic and a rise in Web-search ad revenue.

Ask Jeeves (ASKJ) shares gained almost 4 percent in extended trade after the company boosted its outlook on the heels of first-quarter results that handily beat Wall Street's profit and revenue forecasts.

Emeryville, California-based Ask Jeeves had a profit from continuing operations of $13.4 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, compared with its year-earlier income from continuing operations of $8.5 million, or 17 cents per diluted share. The year-earlier results included an acquisition-related gain of 10 cents per share.

Revenue was up almost 73 percent, to $39.2 million from $22.7 million last year. The company's advertising partnership with Google Inc., the No. 1 Web search provider, contributed 69 percent of overall revenue.

Analysts had expected Ask Jeeves to post a profit in the range of 16 cents to 19 cents a share on revenue of $35 million to $37.5 million, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.

Ask Jeeves Chief Executive Steve Berkowitz told Reuters in a telephone interview that the company's growth had been fueled mainly by recent improvements to its Teoma search technology, coupled with existing Smart Search features that focus on such things as products, pictures and news.

With just 3 percent of the overall Web search market, Ask Jeeves is dwarfed by industry giants Google and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Nevertheless, it owns its own search engine and is seen by market experts as a strong alternative to the larger players.

"When we look at our technology, not only is it getting better, but it's different," said Berkowitz, who added that the company also is working to deliver more targeted ads.

"Advertisers are going to come where the users are," he said.

Ask Jeeves expects to close its cash and stock purchase of Interactive Search Holdings in mid-May, a move that is expected to nearly double its Web search market share.

ISH owns Web search sites iWon, Excite and others, which should help Ask Jeeves reach more users while providing a platform for delivering more personalized search results, executives said.

Excluding ISH, Ask Jeeves now sees second-quarter revenue of $38 million. It expects per-share earnings, excluding amortization, of 17 cents and net earnings of 16 cents.

Including ISH, the company expects quarterly revenue of $55 million and per-share earnings, excluding amortization, of 21 cents and net income of 15 cents.

For 2004, Ask Jeeves now sees revenue of about $255 million and earnings, excluding amortization, of $1.00 per share. It sees net income of 75 cents a share.

"The second quarter was a little conservative," said Fulcrum Global Partners analyst Imran Khan, who added that Ask Jeeves' 2004 outlook was in line with his own numbers.

Ask Jeeves shares rose to $38.49 in extended trade, after falling 6 percent to $36.90 on the Nasdaq ahead of the earnings report.

The stock has more than doubled since the start of the year.

Source: Ask Jeeves

Froogle.co.uk dispute won by Google

Google has been awarded ownership of the domain name froogle.co.uk, which was registered by a UK web hosting company the day after the world's most popular search engine launched Froogle as its product search service.

Google's apparent mistake was to launch its service on 11th December 2002 – and to seek to register the UK domain name two days later – which left a window of opportunity for LWD Internet to snap it up.

Although Google Inc. had froogle.com, froogle.org and other names, and is in the process of registering trade marks for the Froogle brand, it wanted control of the .co.uk name and got its lawyers involved.

For a while, it looked like the parties would settle: to avoid formal proceedings, a deal was struck comprising a payment by Google of £500 together with credit of £1,000 in a Google Adword account. But negotiations broke down, and no transfer was made.

So Google took its case to Nominet, the registry for all domain names ending .uk. Nominet operates a dispute resolution service similar to that provided by the World Intellectual Property Organisation for other disputes, particularly those involving .com, .net and .org domain names.

LWD argued that the registration had been in good faith, that the “timing of our domain registration and the launch of froogle.com was entirely coincidental.” But the panel didn't buy that argument, saying it stretched “credulity too far”.

Nominet panellist Keith Gymer agreed with LWD that Google had insufficient trade mark rights in the UK in the Froogle brand – which had only been launched in the US. However, he reasoned that, for the purposes of the dispute:

-- “It is not necessary that [Google] should have had sufficient Rights to pursue a trade mark infringement or a passing-off action, nor is it necessary that the Rights be in the UK".

He pointed out that the Nominet dispute Policy defines "Rights" as including, but not being limited to, rights enforceable under English law.

Concluding that LWD did register the name with some "speculative intent,” he ordered that it be transferred to Google.

David Woods, a dispute resolution specialist with Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.COM comments:

"The case provides a useful lesson for anyone launching a new brand. Bringing a case before Nominet costs the complainant a fee of £750 plus VAT. If lawyers are instructed, the complainant has their fees as well. These fees are not recoverable in the event of success in a Nominet or WIPO case. But disputes like this are often avoidable."

Woods points to another example, from 2000, when PDA-maker Palm announced its new MyPalm service before securing the corresponding domain name. It then had to buy mypalm.com from the owner, who had already been using it for e-mail.

"With domain names, the cost of registration is cheap. For a company with an international profile like Google's, it is advisable to obtain a range of defensive registrations before announcing any new brand. Google could have had the name for £10 if it had registered it before announcing the service."

Source: Out-Law.com

Mesothelioma - FDA Approves First Drug for Rare Type of Cancer," Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today approved Alimta (pemetrexed disodium) for use in combination with cisplatin for the treatment of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma a rare type of cancer. Alimta received a priority review and is designated as an orphan drug. It is the first drug approved for this condition. Cancer of the mesothelium, a membrane that covers and protects most of the internal organs of the body is rare; about 2,000 new cases are diagnosed in the United States each year. This form of cancer is usually associated with a history of asbestos exposure.

Asbestos fibers lodged in the lung attach to the outer lung lining and chest wall, causing tumors to grow. By the time symptoms appear, the disease is usually advanced, and patients live, on average, nine to thirteen months following diagnosis.

"Up to now there has been no effective treatment for treating mesothelioma. Alimta offers new promise in treating this fatal cancer," said FDA Commissioner Mark B. McClellan M.D., Ph.D, "and its quick approval demonstrates FDA's commitment to making safe and effective products available as soon as possible."

The effectiveness of Alimta was established in one randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of treatment with Alimta given with cisplatin to treatment with cisplatin alone. Patients receiving Alimta and cisplatin lived three months longer after randomization than patients given cisplatin alone (12 months vs. nine months). Alimta must be administered with vitamin B-12 and folic acid supplementation to decrease the incidence and severity of adverse effects.

The most common adverse reactions observed with use of Alimta are low white blood count, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, rash, and diarrhea. Patients and caregivers should be encouraged to report the onset of fever, chills, diarrhea, and mouth ulcers immediately, since these symptoms could be a sign of infection, resulting from bone marrow suppression by the drug. Orphan drugs are developed to treat rare diseases, that is, conditions that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S. The Orphan Drug Act provides a seven-year period of exclusive marketing for the drug to the first sponsor who obtains marketing approval for a designated orphan drug.

Alimta will be distributed by Eli Lilly and Company, Indianapolis, Ind.

Search engine toolbars are becoming essential tools

Search engine toolbars for the Internet Explorer browser have become nearly essential tools online: They can block pop-up ads, alert you to new e-mail, even protect you from scams.

You'd need a half-dozen to combine all the best features, the Internet equivalent of leaving home in the morning with six different wallets.

So to narrow the choice I tested 11 - two of which, from America Online and EarthLink, debuted Monday.

Toolbars from the search leaders - Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL - all have decent pop-up blockers that kill windows I don't want (ads) and permit ones I request (shipping details, for instance). And they're all a snap to download and install.

The Google Toolbar includes an extremely useful feature for frequent online shoppers. It automatically fills out online forms, such as name and address. A password protects stored credit card information. And if you keep a Web journal using Blogger software, which Google bought last year, you can add entries from the toolbar.

A small bell appears on the Yahoo! Companion Toolbar when users of Yahoo e-mail accounts have new messages. You can also access bookmarks of favorite Web sites that you've stored on Yahoo. What I like best about the Yahoo toolbar is its portability. Settings are stored online, so you can customize it or add bookmarks wherever you are.

As for Microsoft, you can launch Hotmail and Messenger from its MSN Toolbar, but there's nothing special once you're there.

The AOL Toolbar displays the number of mail messages you have - if you're logged on already through AOL's regular software.

Yahoo outperforms MSN and AOL by allowing sign-ins from the toolbar, but Google outshines all of them. I found its search engine and extra features most useful. It even has a green bar that shows the relative popularity of the site you're visiting.

Among the rest, toolbars from Dogpile and Ask Jeeves have decent pop-up blockers. AltaVista and EarthLink make mistakes recognizing legitimate pop-ups, and Alexa keeps popping up annoying prompts asking whether I want that pop-up or not.

Dogpile, Ask Jeeves and Alexa have buttons for mailing Web links to a friend. Alexa's was the best.

Beyond that, each has its own handy features:

-Dogpile supports an emerging technology called Really Simple Syndication, or RSS. With it, headlines from your favorite Web journals, news or other RSS-enabled sites scroll across the toolbar.

-Ask Jeeves lets you shrink and expand entire Web pages - not just their text in the more limited manner of the Internet Explorer browser.

-Alexa, owned by Amazon.com, suggests related sites, as in "People who visit this page also visit ..." It's similar to Amazon's shopping recommendations. And should a Web site disappear, a copy at the Internet Archive may be reachable with the click of a button.

-AltaVista has a button for translating text to and from other languages. With it, you might get at the gist of what's going on.

-EarthLink blocks fake EarthLink, eBay and PayPal sites that try to steal your passwords or credit card numbers. It also searches your computer for malicious programs known as "spyware," though to remove them, you need an EarthLink account.

Among these features, EarthLink's ScamBlocker is the most promising, especially once sites identified by the anti-spam company Brightmail are added next month.

I also tried GuruNet, which helps you cull useful information from the junk by narrowing results to reference materials like encyclopedias and maps. It reduces clutter. But unlike the others I tested, GuruNet requires a cash outlay - $29.99 a year.

I like Dogpile's RSS scroller and Alexa's recommendations. In both cases, there's a trade-off. They collect information on surfing habits, so read their privacy policies carefully.

Most people will probably be fine with either the Google or Yahoos toolbar, unless there's a specific feature they'd use a lot - perhaps because you frequent foreign sites (then download AltaVista's as well) or have poor eyesight (use Ask Jeeves).

Sadly, however, all these toolbars work only on Windows computers running Internet Explorer. For other browsers, try GGSearch, a standalone application that looks like a toolbar. You get basic Google searches but not extras like pop-up blockers.

Or use Opera's browser, as I do. It has the Google search box and pop-up blocker built-in, though its form filler isn't as good.

Source: News Observer.com

Google announces deal with RealNetworks

Google and RealNetworks announced today that the Google Toolbar is being distributed with RealPlayer 10 downloads.

By making the Google Toolbar available to the very large number of consumers who install the new RealPlayer 10 every day, Google Toolbar is sure to be popping up on the browsers of more everyday computer users and possibly the browsers of people who prefer Yahoo or other search engines.

With MSN, Yahoo, Amazon’s A9, UCMore, and other search related toolbars hitting the market left and right, this may start a “toolbar distribution war” among search engine companies.

RealPlayer 10 is the first free media player that enables consumers to play content in any of the major Internet media formats, including RealAudio, RealVideo, AAC, Windows Media, QuickTime MPEG-4 and MP3.

By including the Google Toolbar in the RealPlayer download options, consumers can choose to install the free web browser tool which enables them to quickly and easily search Google from any web page. Once Google opens its GMail email to the puplic, the Google Toolbar will be the ultimate place to promote the new GMail and access one’s inbox.

The downloading of the Google Toolbar will be opt-in, giving the RealPlayer audience the option to download Google onto their browser. If Google decided to sneak their toolbar on a browser, like many spyware and parasites currently do, they would be breaking some anti-spyware laws and form distrust among the Internet user community.

“By combining RealPlayer 10’s popularity with the Google Toolbar, we’re helping users worldwide improve and enhance their media playback and search experience on the web,” said Carla Stratfold, senior vice president, North America Sales, RealNetworks, Inc.

“Our relationship with Google demonstrates our commitment to partnering with best-of-breed products and services and leveraging our distribution power to reach consumers in all global markets.”

“RealPlayer 10 is a valuable distribution platform for the Google Toolbar,” said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president, Worldwide Sales and Field Operations, Google Inc.

“We are committed to connecting users worldwide to the information they need, and by offering a free pop-up blocker and autofill capability to RealPlayer 10 consumers, Google further enriches their experience on the web.”

Source: Search Engine News.ca

Google wins google.ru domain name

Russian Internet culture developed later than the Western Internet culture.

Russian law also took longer to surface online — as many international companies who came to Russia to do business had a chance to find out the hard way.

All the way back at the dawn of the Internet Age in Russia, some people were already thinking of profiting from Western expansion.

Coca-Cola, Nokia, Kodak, Audi, and most recently, Google, have all had to battle cybersquatters who had registered Western trademarks as domain names.

Google, the Internet’s favorite search engine, has had a Russian interface since the spring of 2002, but not until April 3, 2004, was Google Technology finally able to register a proper Russian second-level domain name (in the .ru zone) for its search engine.

Russian Internet users who typed Google.com into the location window of their browsers were automatically redirected to Google’s mirror at www.google.com.ru. www.google.ru was being used by Avalanche, a Russian company that got the domain from Denis Gledenov, an infamous Russian domain investor, reports Mosnews.com.

Source: Multi Reg

Google going public for April 30?

Privately held Google appears to have triggered a provision of the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act that requires it to disclose closely guarded financial details by the end of the month.

Rampant speculation about a possible public stock offering has turned Google into the most closely watched technology company in the world. Now the Mountain View Internet company may be forced to show its hand.

The filing, with the Securities and Exchange Commission, would reveal so much about the secretive firm that many experts believe Google might take the next logical step and file for an initial stock offering, reaping the financial rewards that go along with having to open its books.

``It's a terrible place to be in because you get all the disadvantages of being a public company and none of the advantages,'' said Scott Spector, an attorney with Fenwick & West in Palo Alto. ``I can't imagine the company wanting to be in that situation.''

Google officials have been tight-lipped about the reporting requirement and possible plans for an IPO, and they declined to comment for this story.

But many observers believe that Google has triggered the requirements to become a ``publicly reporting'' company. Companies must report financial results to the SEC once they have at least $10 million in assets and more than 500 shareholders of record, including employees who hold stock options.

Google's profits are thought to be $100 million or more. And the assumption -- reinforced by Google's Web site, which touts ``pre-IPO stock options'' to prospective employees -- is that the company has granted stock options to most of its more than 1,000 employees.

If those assumptions are true, then Google should have to start making quarterly filings to the SEC by April 30, which is 120 days after the close of its fiscal year.

Reporting companies must disclose the same information to federal regulators as publicly traded companies, including assets, liabilities, operating expenses and partnerships. But they do not trade their shares on the Nasdaq or New York stock exchanges.

``The notion is that once you have 500 shareholders, you are a public company,'' said Peter M. Astiz, a securities attorney with the Gray Cary law firm in East Palo Alto. ``The effect is you become public. They have to report all the same numbers.''

Most companies view this middle ground with disdain because they spend millions to comply with government regulations and get nothing in return. In fact, filing this paperwork can come with disadvantages. In some circumstances, employees or investor shareholders can start selling their shares on the over-the-counter bulletin board. Companies typically prefer to control when and how their shares are traded.

Companies that grow big enough to hit the filing requirement typically opt to become a publicly traded company first, attorneys said. That's because public stock offerings can enrich employees and investors, and they give the company access to cash that it can use to innovate or acquire other companies.

Google executives have appeared in no hurry to become a public company, in part because it would begin to lift the veil of secrecy under which they seem to enjoy working. What is more, the company's revenue stream appears strong, and it may not need the money that an offering of public stock would generate.

Also, Google may not want to undergo the cultural shift that takes place in companies when they have to meet analyst and shareholder expectations every quarter. Google may turn out to be the rare company that willingly files public financial reports but doesn't publicly trade its stock.

Levi Strauss is one company that does this. Its stock is privately held -- mostly by descendants of the Strauss family -- but the company files quarterly reports with the SEC.

Another option is for Google to dodge the public reporting requirement. In 2001, the SEC detailed how companies can do so: by disclosing their financial information only to shareholders.

``You've got to give them the same information that you would otherwise give if you were public,'' Spector said.

Preparing the financial information is costly, and companies run the risk of the information leaking to outsiders. But several companies have picked this option.

``I would think Google would move mountains to not go public this way,'' said Kip Weissman, attorney with the Luse Gorman Pomerenk & Schick law firm in Washington, D.C.

Google could also buy back its shares from employees and investors, but few experts said they believed that was likely to happen.

Source: Silicon Valley

Voting by the Internet up 12 percent

The first electronic vote counting system was introduced in South Korea, even though counting in Seoul and Gyeonggi province was slower than expected, and Internet portal sites and wired and wireless telecommunications services updated poll results as they were released.

On Thursday during the National Assembly elections, about 15 million subscribers at SK Telecom, the largest mobile service provider in Korea, used their cell phones to place 319 million calls. The figure was about 33 million more than the average for a holiday.

"The increase is attributable to the election," an SK Telecom official said. The power of information technology was illustrated during the election.

KTF, the second largest cell phone carrier here, said text message traffic on Thursday was 12 percent higher than on other holidays. The voter turnout was nearly 3 percentage points higher than in the Assembly elections in 2000; in Seoul, the increase was about 6 percentage points. "Information technology, such as mobile phones, must be credited for the increase in turnout," an industry official boasted.

The electronic ballot counting system was set up by SK C&C. The system scans paper ballots and tallies them. Safeguards include a system that puts ambiguous ballots aside for scrutiny by poll officials.

KT, the nation's dominant landline telephone carrier, was on watch to ensure that its lines were available for precinct polling stations to transmit results electronically to the National Election Commission's computers.

Internet portal sites updated the election data as the commission released it, and political junkies pounded their keyboards in chat rooms.

The downside, though, was the increase in Internet election law violations. Campaign violations on the Net rose from 25 four years ago to 254 in the 2004 campaign.

Source: Joong Ang Daily

Google Overshadowing News

When I want to optimize a page for top Yahoo! rankings, it just happens. Little to no effort = lots o distribution. I can't think of a single site I have ever worked on which has not got decent Yahoo! distribution. Google, on the other hand, either takes a bunch of money, time, or understanding to manipulate. Last November Google made changes that most SEO's still do not understand to this day.

Google is so far ahead of it's competitors that it is a joke. I think they honestly hold back tons of information and innovation (perfecting it in the background) just waiting for competition to have an exciting story to squash.

Yahoo! dumped Google. Google added a billion pages to it's index. Which got more coverage in general media...Google adding a billion pages.

Amazon A9 just launched. Google just launched the ability to target ads to your neighbor's house. Google's new technology will allow small people with low funds to cause huge ripples in social and political processes...I, for one, think it is fun to mix things up a bit :)