D-on-Net

Google jumps on FIFA World Cup train

Google's homepage is now showing a link to add "World Cup live scores and schedules" to your Google personalized homepage.  Although Yahoo looks to be the real World Cup winner with its long standing partnership with FIFA and its joint effort with FIFAworldcup.com, Google has tried to stay relevant to the World Cup by attaching its name to the social networking soccer site, Joga.com, with Nike.  Soccer/Football remains the most popular sport in the world, so it is a natural move strategically for companies to try and appeal to the fans during this monumental tournament.  Yahoo is offering live mobile SMS updates for the avid soccer fan, and it appears Google is too late to the game in offering such features.  Attaching ones brand to such a highly popular sport and tournament could provide long standing brand recognition and only aid in building out a stronger presence internationally.  Since Yahoo is likely responsible for serving and brokering the advertisements on FIFAworldcup.com it is conceivable the popularity of this event could garner greater than anticipated site traffic and lead to unexpected upside to revenue. 

Google Earth to the rescue...for Bird Flu virus

Reuters just released an interesting article that mentions U.S. poultry experts have been using Google Earth to aid in pinpointing the location of various chicken farms, feed mills etc. in the anticipated arival of the bird-flu virus in the U.S. expected at some point this year.  Google Earth first received a lot of press after rescue teams in Hurricane Katrina began using the mapping technology to identify neighborhoods etc.  Lucky for us, Google purchased Keyhole and gave it to the masses for FREE.  "Twenty years ago we had to drive around the countryside and find the chicken farm that reported a disease, but now everything is on a mapping system," Davison told Reuters in a recent interview.

If the Department of Justice says Microsoft can, so can Google thanks to partnership with Dell

An alliance between Dell and Google is no longer speculation, but was confirmed by CEO Schmidt at Goldman’s Internet Conference.  CEO Schmidt acknowledged it is a multi-year deal and on a “worldwide basis”, but would not divulge any of the financial details.  The strategic partnership is much deeper than I previously anticipated.  Dell will pre-install Google’s toolbar, Desktop 4, and set the homepage of the PCs browser to a co-branded Google and Dell site.  However, the most interesting part of the agreement is also a direct shot to the response of the DOJs recent ruling that Microsoft is allowed to set MSN as the default search engine for IE7.  Since the DOJ said Microsoft was in the clear, Dell will be setting Google as the default search engine of choice for every Dell consumer, small, medium and large enterprise PC they sell amounting to tens of millions of computers a year.  CEO Schmidt also confirmed the two companies have been in a trial period for approximately six months and stated “we understand the value that it provides and we really understand the economics well.”  This is a big win strategically for Google in that it puts them directly on the PC out-of-the-box and will enable them to better position themselves against the upcoming release of Windows Vista and IE7.  Given the six month trial period of the arrangement, Google must clearly like the amount of search queries and ROI they are witnessing on the initial sample and is betting on this being a large opportunity on a global scale.  I am a believer that gaining presence on more PCs out-of-the-box will correlate to search query growth and thus incremental revenue for Google.  That said, there are many unanswered questions surrounding the economics of the deal.  Is Google really paying $1bn up-front for the agreement?  Nobody seems to know for sure.  Regardless, I can't help but believe given they were in a trial period for six months, Google would have continued with a formal alliance if the economics didn't make sense.  Sure there are arguments out there that this could be a negative for Google's near-term cash flow depending on the amount of the upfront payment etc., but I can't believe a company with the minds at Google would move forward if they didn't like what they have seen thus far. 

Google launches first mobile ads offering in Japan

Google announced they are serving mobile ads in Japan.  However, the press release provides no indication when the company will  begin doing so in the U.S.  The ads are served in the same manner as when searching on a PC, but Google reported the ads will not be shown on the right of the user's mobile screen and will instead be on the top and bottom of the search results.  However, more interesting is the ads also feature click-to-call functionality, so users can connect directly to the advertiser.  This is interesting news and continues to demonstrate the velocity with which Google is able to roll out new product features.  Asia clearly represents a large opportunity for Google, and I love that team Google chose to roll out the feature first in Japan where Yahoo! has such a dominating presence.  Once again, it is time for Yahoo! and MSN to play follow the leader. 

Google and EarthLink set to tango again

The WSJ reported EarthLink is planning on teamming up with Google to bid on providing Wi-Fi to another city, which is TBA.  EarthLink's CEO, Garry Betty, also shared some interesting insight regarding how they plan on collaborating with their next Wi-Fi initiative, which differs from their San Fran joint proposal.  While the San Fran proposal involves a two-tiered system with one being free and supported by advertisements, their next proposal is set to offer more limitied free access to users.  Non-paying subs will only be able to sync up to Google's ad-supported Local Search service and specific area websites.  Google is reportedly supplying the technology that will prevent non-paying subs from gaining full access to the web and will be sharing some of the revenue generated through advertisements with EarthLink.  While this is not monumental news it does confirm Google has interest in pursuing Wi-Fi outside of the Bay area, which several Google insiders have denied for the past several months.  I believe the two companies will contiune to collaborate on Wi-Fi and won't stop at only a second city.  The opportunity to provide location based services and serve local advertisements is too larg for Google to remain on the Wi-Fi sidelines, and I expect more of these announcements to follow.

It will be interesting to see what kind, if any, of a response Google sees on the Wi-Fi front from Yahoo! and MSN.  Yahoo! and MSN have deep relationships with some of the telcos, which could pose as a barrier in forming any meaningful Wi-Fi partnerships.  While Google is the clear leader in online search and local search is the next big opportunity that is currently up for grabs.  All of the major players are racing to form partnerships with wireless carriers and mobile device players in order to position themselves for local search, but to date, Google is the only one making any moves on the municipal Wi-Fi front. 

Google & Earthlink win San Fran WiFi deal

The WSJ reported Google and EarthLink have been selected to roll out WiFI in San Francisco.  However, it appears there is still some negotiating to take place between San Fran and Google/EarthLink, which all parties hope to have complete by this fall.  Part of the negotiations stems around Google wanting to support one of the WiFi tiers with advertising.  This is a big win for Google and EarthLink and is actually EarthLink's second win as they were also selected to provide WiFi to the city of Philadelphia last year.  EathLink is struggling in the same veign as AOL with a deteriorating dial-up business and is betting its WiFi initiatives will aid in recouping lost cash flows.  However, there is also talk of EarthLink spinning off its WiFi division.  For Google, this means they will have a larger (10x the population of Mountain View, CA - another Google WiFi zone) audience to begin testing new local advertising technologies and strategies, such as location based services.  This is yet another win that puts Google ahead of its peers on this front.  Depending on how long the negotiations drag on, it remains possible the network could be up by the end of 2006.  The question remains if the two will join forces in bidding to win WiFi contracts for other cities.  On the equipment side, EarthLink reported it will be using devices from Motorola and privately held Tropos Networks. 

Background on partnership:  In February, Google and Earthlink decided to squash their separate bids and join forces in order to submit a two-tiered offering to the city.  Users will have the option of selecting Google's slower service (5-6x > dialup) for free or paying a monthly fee, reported at $20/mo., to gain access to Earthlink's faster (20x > dialup) connection.  EarthLink's president of municipal networks has said the company would pay for the majority of the $15mn cost to build and maintain the network over the next 10 years.  However, it is likely Google will be sharing a portion of its ad revenue generated through the network with EarthLinK.  The decision of Google to join with an ISP did not come as a shocker.  Google has a long standing relationship with EarthLink and both parties clearly believed they had a better chance of winning through a collaborative offering.  Google and EarthLink beat out five other proposals from Communication Bridge Global, NextWLAN, Razortooth Communications LLP, MetroFi and SF Metro Connect, and a partnership that included SeaKay, Cisco Systems and IBM.

Google selected by Clear Channel as exclusive search partner; What about DMarc?

Clear Channel announced they have selected Google as their exclusive online search partner resulting in Google Search powering over 1,100 of Clear Channel's radio station web sites.  However, the announcement is much more interesting than Google simply getting to add its search bar across this large network of sites.  Google is also getting access to tons of local advertisers in which the release states "Clear Channel's local advertisers will also benefit from the deal, as they will have the option to have their advertisements showcased first, followed by Google's sponsored links and Web search results."  Although the release doesn't go into the specific details regarding this "option" it safe to assume this involves local advertisers to pay a premium.  The most important aspect of this partnership is the fact it appears Clear Channel's radio stations will be educating local advertisers on Google's Adwords platform, again giving Google more feet on the street at the local level.  Aside from AdSense for Search and Google Web Search, AdSense for Content is also scheduled to be implemented across the network of sites.

After reading info. on Clear Channel's website it appears their radio stations are operated down to the local level.  I interpret this to mean each station is likely responsible for their own ad sales, tracking, reporting and implementation (although I am sure advertisers can run campaigns across several of Clear Channel's stations if they choose).  This brings me to Google's acquisition of DMarc Broadcasting.  This partnership with Clear Channel could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship if Google is able to get Clear Channel to implement DMarc's technology across its vast newtwork of radio stations.  I would bet these discussions are already in progress and this announcement was simply the precursor of more things to come. 

Google says "me too" with new real estate search features

The blogosphere has been chatting up a storm about Google's [GOOG] new real estate search features.  However, this really is just another "me too" offering by Google and isn't worth getting too fired up over.  It appears the listings so far are coming from Google Base, which is cool, but isn't really any different from Yahoo!'s [YHOO] real estate service, which also aggregates real estate listings from Yahoo! classifieds.  MSN [MSFT] also has a real estate serivice, but aggregates its listings through realtor.com, which is also the case for the online real estate verticle player Homestore.com [HOMS].  Clearly the dramatic difference at this stage of the game is the fact Google has such little inventory available.  For example, conducting a home search by my zip code yielded one result through Google's platform, but yielded 61 through Yahoo!, and 133 through MSN.  I also decided to run the same search through the two most popular real estate agencies in my area, which are Coldwell Banker Burnett and Edina Realty.  CBB yielded 369 results, and Edina Realty yielded 129.  MLS online also resulted in approximately 134 results.  In my opinion, this is a decent first step, but Google has a lot of work to do if they have any desires of making this more than a "me too" offering.

One unique feature Google incorporated into its real estate listings is the results are displayed within Google Maps.  Search results yield red balloons on the map and clicking on the balloon shows information corresponding to the search results on the left including a picture of the home plus a description of the property and more. 

Google Romance/Soulmate Search = Aprils fools

Google pulled out all of the stops for this year's April fools joke including issuing a press release and building a fake interface for Google Romance.  My personal favorite from the press release was the statement "Our internal projections say Contextual Dating is going to be unbelievably huge, just a total cash cow," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt in prepared remarks placed into the notes section of an executive PowerPoint presentation and intended solely for internal use but promptly leaked onto the web and then roundly mocked on Digg and Slashdot.  Always good to see a company is never too big or too successful to poke a little fun at themselves. 

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Check out Google's "Dos-like" browser.  Here is what Google has to say about it: Presenting you Google Browser, a fast, versatile and secure text browser for the Internet. Google Browser is free, already out of beta, and the installer has only 1.68 MB.  Just open it, type g (that's from Google), enter a URL, press enter and visit the web through Google's eyes.