Yahoo vs. Google

Yahoo vs. Google – not anymore, not quiet. The first is facing a takeover from Microsoft, the second is making close to 70 percent more per search advertisement, and continues to increase its presence and its profits. Although Yahoo's reported profits for the first quarter are unexpectedly high, it continues to experience humongous pressure from Microsoft to either except its $31 a share bid or to face the consequences. The "or else" threat, politely issued from Microsoft means a takeover battle Yahoo can ill afford. comScore reports that although two years ago Yahoo's share of search engine advertising market was 29 while Google controlled 45 percent of the market, since then the ration has shifted dramatically. Yahoo lost ground significant and currently has 21 percent of the market share, while Google enjoys 60 and plans to expand aggressively. Should Yahoo decline the offer from Microsoft it just might stay afloat by allowing Google to sell advertising on their search engine. No certain decision in regards to either of the proposals has yet been made. It should be fascinating to watch the battle of the online advertising giants unfold.

Lean Times and Online Advertising

As countries around the world brace for possible recessions, and individuals, alongside with the corporations are becoming more cautious when and where they spend their money, online advertising market uncorks champagne. They have a reason to celebrate; since it is much easier to measure the efficiency of online advertisement, compared to that of print or TV more and more clients, set on downsizing the budget, while getting the most bang for their buck, turn to Web for promotions. "We constantly hear from our clients that when they're tightening their ad budgets, they look to digital because it's accountable and measurable, and they have a sense of what's working and what's not," Forbes magazine quotes Darin Brown, chief strategy officer at Avenue A/Razorfish. McDonald’s reportedly singed a $10 million deal with this ad company, so it’s clear that Darin Brown knows exactly what he is talking about. McDonald’s example used here is far from unique, just flashy.

Google Plus DoubleClick Equals Love

Google is beyond big - its proportions, in regards to everything (from the number of employees to the number of users, to their financial worth) are mind-blogging already and only keep growing. Thanks to its recent acquisition of DoubleClick, Google currently controls what is assessed to be just over 69% of the online advertising market. Microsoft and Yahoo’s concerns over Google’s domination of the online advertising market are well grounded. In fact, Attributor has recently released a survey which clearly shows that Google and DoubleClick control 34.39% and 35.3% of the ad server market. Google averages out 1,107,489,739 of unique monthly users, DoubleClick boasts 1,079,203,140, Yahoo comes in third place with an estimated 362,201,931 visitors, giving it 11.54% of the ad market share, and MSN lags behind with a modest 309,290,121 number of unique visitors a month, which translate into n 9.8% of the total online advertising market. Google shares are on the rise again this week, which is hardly surprising, given the numbers provided above. Due to Google’s clear lead in the number of the unique users it attracts monthly, its stocks are likely to keep growing. If you are a merchant, and you know that search engine A has almost three times the number of users than search engine B, where would you advertise, given that the cost of advertisement is roughly the same?