Microsoft has added malware warnings to the search results of Live Search according to a post on the Live Search Blog. When a link to a site that their crawler has detected as having malware is clicked a warning message is displayed. Yahoo released a similar service in May and Google has had similar services since August of 2006. Malware warning information was added to Live Search Webmaster Center last week.
WordPress 2.7 Release Candidate 1 Released
The first release candidate of WordPress 2.7 was released today according to a post on the WordPress Development Blog. According to the post, 2.7’s new administrative interface has been polished and 2.7’s new icons have been added since the third beta version of 2.7 was released. The post also says that this version is ready for everyone to use. The release candidate was previously targeted for release on November 10.
Firefox’s Market Share Surpasses 20 Percent
Firefox surpassed 20 percent market share worldwide for a full month for the first time in November according to Net Applications data. Firefox’s November share was 20.78 percent, up from 19.97 percent in the previous month and 16.01 percent in November of 2007. According to Net Applications the increase was due to continued growth of Firefox of use and increased residential browsing during the month, of which Firefox has a higher share than in corporate browsing. During the month both Safari and Chrome increased their share, while Internet Explorer and Opera share decreased.
eMarketer Lowers Online Advertising Projection
eMarketer has lowered its projection of growth in online advertising over the next several years from what it projected several months ago. eMarketer’s new report says that the revision was made because the old projections were made “before the full impact of the economic slowdown was revealed.” Spending in 2008 is projected to be 23.6 billion dollars, an increase of 11.3 percent. Spending in 2009 is projected to be 25.7 billion dollars, an increase of 8.9 percent. Spending in 2010 is projected to be 28.5 billion dollars, an increase of 10.9 percent. Spending in 2011 is projected to be 32.0 billion dollars, an increase of 12.3 percent. They also project that search advertising will continue to receive the largest amount revenue and continue be receive more than double the next largest, display advertising, from 2008-2013.
Live Search Webmaster Center Adds Malware Detection
The Live Search Webmaster Center has been updated with malware detection and simplified authentication. The malware detection will report any pages that Live Search’s crawler has found to be infected with malware. When a malware infection has been removed, a re-inclusion request can be made which “should take days, not weeks, to resolve” according to a post on the Live Search Webmaster Center Blog. The Webmaster Center also reports if any of the pages that are linked from the website have been infected with malware. The simplified authentication process allows the use of one authentication code for multiple sites and removes the need to specify if the whether the XML or HTML authentication method is used.
October U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online today released its rankings of U.S. search share for October. Overall search decreased 2.0 percent year over year to 7.8 billion searches. Google had year over year growth of 8.1 percent and received 61.2 percent of searches. Google’s percentage of searches was it’s second highest reported by Nielsen Online, only surpassed by April of this year when it received 62.0 percent. Yahoo had a year over year decrease of 12.0 percent and received 16.9 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year decrease of 19.0 percent and received 11.4 percent of searches.
Study Finds Increased Internet Use in U.S.
A new study by the Nielsen Company found an increase in the use of and time of use of the Internet in the United States. The study found that 160,069,000 Americans 2 years and older used the Internet monthly in the third quarter of 2008, an increase of 4.2 percent from the third quarter 2007. The study also found that the average American 2 years or older spent 27:18 hours a month on the Internet in the third quarter of 2008, up 5.7 percent from third quarter of 2007. The amount of time spent on the Internet by age was: 5:38 hours for 2-11 years old, 12:48 hours for 12-17 years old, 12:59 hours for 18-24 years old, 28:40 hours for 25-34 years old, 37:56 hours for 35-44 years old, 35:24 hours for 45-54 years old, 35:05 hours for 55-64 years old, and 26:39 hours for 65 years and older. Finally, the study found the average American watch 2:31 hours of online video in the third quarter of 2008. The figures were calculated using Nielsen’s Internet panels, which are measured electronically.
Online Advertising Grew 11 Percent in Third Quarter
Online advertising revenue reached 5.9 Billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter, an increase of 11 percent over the same period last year, according to a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Third quarter revenue was 2 percent higher than the second quarter of 2008. Revenue for the first nine months of 2008 reached 17.3 Billion U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 14 percent.
Internet Explorer 8 Delayed
The release of Internet Explorer 8, which was previously scheduled for later this year, will not occur until next year according to a post on the IEBlog. A final public pre-release version will be made available in the first quarter of 2009 and the finalized version will release at some after that. According to the post the final pre-release should behave in the same way that the finalized version will, and any changes that do occur will be clearly explained ahead of time.
Yahoo Becomes Search Provider for T-Mobile USA
Yahoo has reached an agreement to become the default search provider for T-Mobile USA’s web portal according to an Advertising Age article. Yahoo will also deliver advertising to the portal as part of the agreement. Yahoo already has a search agreement with T-Mobile in ten European countries and with AT&T in the United States. Google has agreement with Sprint and Verizon Wireless is currently in negotiations with Google and Microsoft.