Yahoo and Microsoft Both Lose Market Share to Google

Yahoo and Microsoft are two gaint in online business. But they lost their market share to Google.com last year. So google is now no. 1 in web business.

Net Applications reports March 2008 Search Engine Market Share, showing that both Yahoo and Microsoft had small losses that seem to have shifted to Google. In March, Yahoo lost .17% of total market share, MSN lost .26% and Microsoft Live Search lost .09%. The losses went primarily to Google, which increased its share in March by .43%.

One of our Software Engineers (not naming any names, Ryan) posed the question - "Who uses Microsoft Live Search? I bet it's mostly people that are searching for files on their own hard drive who accidentally click the 'search the net' button."

So, with our new segmentation (see above updates) on MarketShare, we decided to research it.
We theorized that if Ryan (oops, there's his name) were correct, we'd see nearly 100% of MS Live Search usage coming from browser sessions running on Windows and using Intenet Explorer as the browser. And, the results matched the theory, with 99.8% of Microsoft Live Search users running Windows and 97.2% running IE.

For these and other Global Market Share Statistics, go to marketshare.hitslink.com.


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Google gets EC approval for purchasing DoubleClick

This is a great news for the users of google that DoubleClick was purchased by Google.
The European Commission is ready to approve Google's $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick despite objections from Microsoft. The EC action in favor of Google and advertising-seller DoubleClick will put even more pressure on Microsoft to complete its takeover of Yahoo.

The European Union is about to deliver Google some good news. According to reports, the European Commission is set to approve the search giant's $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick.
The news is not unexpected because the EC has yet to file formal objections to the merger. The EC has never rejected a deal without filing formal objections. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission approved the deal in December, despite virulent objections from privacy groups.

Final approval won't come until April 2 -- a full year since the deal was announced and a sign that Google, like Microsoft , faces extreme scrutiny when acquiring companies. With less than a month to go, it was clear that the EC won't place roadblocks in Google's way.

The Price of Success

"It's the price that Google must pay for its success," Rick Aristotle Munarriz wrote on the investing site Motley Fool. "Will this make it harder for Google to snap up other decent-sized Internet advertising specialists? Of course. If striking a deal with Google means delayed closings and the potential of regulatory derailment, Big G will have to bid a premium for future acquisitions if its rivals are holding up bidding cards."

The acquisition is important for Google, Munarriz wrote, because while Google's strength is in text ads, companies like DoubleClick deliver the "eye candy that is typically preferable in tough-to-monetize sites like social networking and gossip rags."

"This is still an ongoing investigation, but we do not believe the transaction raises any competition concerns," said a Google spokesperson. "We hope the EC will come to the same conclusions as the FTC and clear the deal without any conditions."

More Pressure on Microsoft

With Google's already dominant lead in Internet advertising, opponents to the deal like Microsoft have argued that with DoubleClick Google will essentially represent an advertising monopoly.

The final approval may well put even more pressure on Microsoft to complete its hostile takeover of Yahoo. Microsoft offered $44.6 billion, which Yahoo's board has so far resisted. The board has been searching for a white knight through discussions with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Time Warner about trading MySpace or AOL for substantial holdings in Yahoo.

The Yahoo board went so far as to change its bylaws regarding the election of directors in the face of Microsoft threats to launch a proxy fight to nominate its own board.

Meanwhile, DoubleClick launched a new "publisher solution" designed to make it easier for Web publishers to sell inventory in vertical networks. DoubleClick's strategy is to collect Web sites with similar content and tastes, and pool the sites' ad inventory into larger blocks.

Microsoft launches two new server solutions

From arstechnica.com, we come to know that Microsoft launches two new servers for businesses. I think this will be a great initiatives in this IT industry.
After extensive research and feedback from businesses around the world, Microsoft Corporation has announced the Windows Essential Server Solutions family of products, built on Windows Server 2008, which includes Windows Small Business Server 2008 and Windows Essential Business Server 2008.
The products integrate the technologies of Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Bob Kelly, corporate vice president at Microsoft, explained the company's target audience for the new products: "There are 31.9 million small businesses and 1.2 million midsize companies worldwide in need of powerful IT solutions, and they typically have very small IT staffs, or none at all." Apparently these businesses need more than just a free website creator.

Windows Small Business Server 2008 (code name Cougar) is aimed at organizations with up to 50 PCs. It provides increased security and protection with dramatically simplified server and PC backup technologies, and one-year trial subscriptions to Microsoft Forefront Security for Exchange Server Small Business Edition and the new Windows Live OneCare for Server. Small Business Server 2008 also integrates with Microsoft Office Live Small Business and with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. IT managers and technology consultants should find it easier to deploy, setup, and administer as it includes an administration console, new monitoring across servers and client PCs, Windows Server Update Services, and customizable reports.

Windows Essential Business Server 2008 is aimed at midsize organizations with up to 250 desktops. It provides a unified console for management of key workloads and product licensing and combines the technologies of Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Forefront Security for Exchange Server, System Center Essentials 2007, the next version of Internet Security and Acceleration Server and, in the Premium Edition, SQL Server 2008 technology.