Category: Microsoft

Microsoft Updates adCenter Tools, Content Ads Service Comes Out of Beta

Microsoft has released a number of updates to tools for their adCenter online advertising service and taken the Content Ads service out of beta in the United States. Some of the biggest changes occurred in adCenter’s campaign management tools. Customer targeting and incremental bidding can now be set campaign wide and default bids can now be set for ad groups. Microsoft also made updates to it account management tools and the adCenter Desktop (Beta) software.

The Content Ads service, which has been available to some advertisers since its beta release in 2006, places text ads on content websites in the same way Google’s AdWords service provides the option to show ads on the it’s Content Network. Currently the service only displays ads on small number of partner websites, including WSJ.com, RunnersWorld.com, and across the Microsoft network. Google’s Content Network reaches a broader set of websites but also include lower quality websites.

April U.S. Search Share Results

Nielsen Online today released its rankings of U.S. search share for April (PDF). Overall search increased 4.4 percent year over year to 8.6 billion searches. Google had year over year increase of 7.8 percent and received 64 percent of searches. Yahoo had a year over year decrease of 2.8 percent and received 16.3 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 7.2 percent and received 9.9 percent of searches.

Internet Explorer 6 has Enterprise Market Share of 46.8 Percent

Internet Explorer 6 has a market share of 46.8 percent in enterprises according to research by Forrester Research as reported by CNET. Internet Explorer 6’s enterprise market share is significantly higher than its market share among all users. According to Net Applications in April it had a market share of 17.52 percent. Market share for all version of Internet Explorer is also higher in enterprises, with it accounting for 78 percent of the market versus 66.10 percent among all users. Forrester Research also reported that Firefox has an enterprise market share of 18.2 percent, Chrome has 2 percent, and Safari has 1.4 percent.

Internet Explorer 8 Market Share Reaches 4.63 Percent a Month After Release

A month after Internet Explorer 8’s release it had a market share of 4.63 percent of worldwide web browser share according to Net Applications. This was an increase of 3.18 percent of market share from the 1.45 percent Internet Explorer 8 had on release date of March 19. Those number include users using pre-release versions of Internet Explorer 8, the day before the finalized version was released it already had market share of 1.34 percent. Internet Explorer 8 now has a larger market share than either Google’s Chrome or Opera and over half Apple’s Safari had in the month of March. Chrome had a market share of 1.23 percent, Opera had .70 percent, and Safari had 8.23 percent. In March Internet Explorer had a total market share of 66.82 percent, with Internet Explorer 6 having a market share of18.36 percent and Internet Explorer 7 having 46.54 percent.

Yahoo Increases Share of US Search-Ad Revenue in Q1

Yahoo increased it share of US search-ad revenue to 19.3 in the first quarter of 2009, up 1 percent from the year ago period, according to search marketing firm Efficient Frontier. From the year ago period, Google dropped .9 percent to 72.3 percent and Microsoft dropped 1 percent to 3.5 percent. Google had a click-through rate (CTR) of 2.38 and cost per click (CPC) of 54 cents in the first quarter of 2009, Yahoo CTR of 1.16 and CPC of 42 cents, and Microsoft CTR of 2.19 and CPC of 52 cents. The data is based a subset of Efficient Frontier clients and is comprised of over 84 billion impressions and 785 million clicks.

Microsoft Announces Plan for Roll Out of Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft today announced its plan to roll out Internet Explorer 8 to Microsoft’s Windows Update and Automatic Update software update services. According Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 will begin to show up in the update services “on or about the third week of April” and the show up for “a narrow audience and expand over time to the entire user base.” For users who update via the Automatic Update service the update will not be automatically installed, instead they will see a screen that will ask them if they wish to update to the new version. When Internet Explorer 8 was released on March 19 it was only made available for download on the Internet Explorer website. According to Net Applications, Internet Explorer 8’s market share had reached 4.36 percent yesterday; up from 1.45 percent on the day finalized version was released.

Google’s U.S. Search Share Reaches New High and Yahoo’s Reaches New Low

Nielsen Online today released its rankings of U.S. search share for March (PDF), with overall search increasing 16.7 percent year over year to 9.5 billion searches. Google had a year over year increase of 27.6 percent and received 64.2 percent of searches. Google’s had it highest percentage of searches ever, surpassing November of last year when it received 64.1 percent. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 1.7 percent and received 15.8 percent of searches. Yahoo’s percentage of searches was lower that 16 percent for the first time in the last two years and was 6.1 percentage points lower than it highest percentage in the last two years. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 0.3 percent and received 10.3 percent of searches.

February U.S. Search Share Results

Nielsen Online yesterday released its rankings of U.S. search share for February. Overall search increased 10.1 percent year over year to 8.5 billion searches. Google had year over year increase of 19.2 percent and received 63.5 percent of searches. Google’s percentage of searches was it’s second highest reported by Nielsen Online, only surpassed by November of last year when it received 64.1 percent. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 4 percent and received 16.7 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year increase of 2.4 percent and received 10.4 percent of searches.

Search Engines Announce New Tag To Reduce Duplicate Content Issues

Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have announced support for a new tag to help reduce duplicate content issues. One source of duplicate content is when the same web page can be accessed from multiple URLs. The new canonical link tag specifies what is the preferred URL for the webpage. While search engines will use this as strong hint, they will use algorithmic mechanisms to compare the URLs to deal with improper use or abuse of the tag. The URL must be on the same domain, but can be on a different subdomain and can use relative or absolute URLs. The tag should be in the following format: <link rel=”canonical” href=”http://www.example.com” /> and should be placed in <head> section of the webpage. Google currently supports the tag, Yahoo says that it will implement support “over the coming months”, and Microsoft says that it will provide “full support in one of our upcoming releases.”