SEO/SEM Journal: Microsoft Trying to Bludgeon Google with Checkbook
All that money that Microsoft will be spending starting July 1 when its new fiscal year begins - the couple of extra billion and change that sent Wall Street into a swoon last week - includges $1.1 billion of it targeted at MSN for R&D, up from $500 million in fiscal '05.
And it's increasing its capital equipment spending from $100 million in fiscal '05 to $500 million, so it can play tag with Google.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned this Thursday when Microsoft kicked off its new adCenter advertising vehicle, so it can play tag with Google. Microsoft's overall R&D budget will be about $6.2 billion, Ballmer said, and a nice chunk of it will be going into developing software-as-a-service so Microsoft can protect its flank against the likes of Google.
According to Ballmer, "We've told out R&D folks that our number one priority is software-as-a-service."
Meanwhile, Microsoft is rolling out what is now called Microsoft AdCenter, its homebrewed replacement for the Yahoo-Overture service it's been using, so it can chase the expanding search-related advertising business were Google is king. The thing is now 100% live in the US as well as in Singapore and France, which were the test beds, and they'll start phasing it in in the UK in June.
Microsoft AdCenter is better at demographics than Google's AdSense platform. It can target an audience by age, sex, geographic location and sometimes their tax bracket and lets advertisers pick the time of day they want the ads to run.
Microsoft has been testing adCenter with 6,000 accounts and reportedly those who tested it got more clicks converted to paying customers than Google or Yahoo. Looked at that way, Google tends to come in last behind AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Which might explain why Microsoft might be interested in doing a deal with Yahoo as the Wall Street Journal suggested the other day. If it gets more traffic Google will break out in hives. In this regard, Microsoft is also going to be spending money on developing content.
Initially adCenter will be used for search advertising but Microsoft intends to push it into videogames, mobile devices, e-mail, blogs, Office, small business hosted services and television sets.
Meanwhile, Google, master of search, has been complaining to the European Commission and the Justice Department about Microsoft's new IE7 browser rev and the search box that Microsoft has put in its upper-right-hand corner that by default delivers search results direct from Microsoft's MSN search without stopping at Google.
Google contends Microsoft is leveraging its monopoly and putting itself in position to grab web traffic and ad dollars unfairly from competitors.
IE7 just went into a pre-Vista public beta last week and when it finally goes gold it's expected to recoup some of the browser market share that Microsoft has lost recently to rivals.
The offending box makes IE look just like the Firefox and Opera Safari browsers, where Google estimates 30%-50% of all searches start. Firefox and Opera default to Google.
Microsoft, which contends its default setting is easy enough to change, is estimated to control about 80% of the browser market now and only maybe 11% of the US search business. Google has 49% and Yahoo 22%.
Google and Yahoo have been complaining to Microsoft about the box since last year, according to the New York Times. Microsoft has turned a deaf ear hence Google's escalating its complaint up the line to the regulators.
Of course, OEMs can always auction off the real estate to the highest bidder when IE7 starts being pre-installed on their boxes.
And it's increasing its capital equipment spending from $100 million in fiscal '05 to $500 million, so it can play tag with Google.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer mentioned this Thursday when Microsoft kicked off its new adCenter advertising vehicle, so it can play tag with Google. Microsoft's overall R&D budget will be about $6.2 billion, Ballmer said, and a nice chunk of it will be going into developing software-as-a-service so Microsoft can protect its flank against the likes of Google.
According to Ballmer, "We've told out R&D folks that our number one priority is software-as-a-service."
Meanwhile, Microsoft is rolling out what is now called Microsoft AdCenter, its homebrewed replacement for the Yahoo-Overture service it's been using, so it can chase the expanding search-related advertising business were Google is king. The thing is now 100% live in the US as well as in Singapore and France, which were the test beds, and they'll start phasing it in in the UK in June.
Microsoft AdCenter is better at demographics than Google's AdSense platform. It can target an audience by age, sex, geographic location and sometimes their tax bracket and lets advertisers pick the time of day they want the ads to run.
Microsoft has been testing adCenter with 6,000 accounts and reportedly those who tested it got more clicks converted to paying customers than Google or Yahoo. Looked at that way, Google tends to come in last behind AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Which might explain why Microsoft might be interested in doing a deal with Yahoo as the Wall Street Journal suggested the other day. If it gets more traffic Google will break out in hives. In this regard, Microsoft is also going to be spending money on developing content.
Initially adCenter will be used for search advertising but Microsoft intends to push it into videogames, mobile devices, e-mail, blogs, Office, small business hosted services and television sets.
Meanwhile, Google, master of search, has been complaining to the European Commission and the Justice Department about Microsoft's new IE7 browser rev and the search box that Microsoft has put in its upper-right-hand corner that by default delivers search results direct from Microsoft's MSN search without stopping at Google.
Google contends Microsoft is leveraging its monopoly and putting itself in position to grab web traffic and ad dollars unfairly from competitors.
IE7 just went into a pre-Vista public beta last week and when it finally goes gold it's expected to recoup some of the browser market share that Microsoft has lost recently to rivals.
The offending box makes IE look just like the Firefox and Opera Safari browsers, where Google estimates 30%-50% of all searches start. Firefox and Opera default to Google.
Microsoft, which contends its default setting is easy enough to change, is estimated to control about 80% of the browser market now and only maybe 11% of the US search business. Google has 49% and Yahoo 22%.
Google and Yahoo have been complaining to Microsoft about the box since last year, according to the New York Times. Microsoft has turned a deaf ear hence Google's escalating its complaint up the line to the regulators.
Of course, OEMs can always auction off the real estate to the highest bidder when IE7 starts being pre-installed on their boxes.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home