Spammed by Google? Think Again.

First of all, let me start this post by saying that I love Google. I truly do. They are probably my favorite search engine. They are my default in every browser I use. I use the Google Toolbar like it's going out of style. Google Bookmarks have saved my behind more than once. The Google Sidebar is just about the coolest thing I've ever seen and iGoogle is destination every single morning. Now, that said, what in the heck was this doing in my inbox just now?

At first glance, you could really fool someone into thinking that this was a product released and promoted by Google itself. Not so. I even started to wonder if I had shopped at a Google Store once before, given my email address and forgotten to uncheck one of those pesky "remind me about your offers" options that is on every form these days. Not so.

It turns out that this really is Spam right down to the missing opt-out components. A search of the website gave me this little tidbit:

"We are dedicated to providing the latest products and accessories that integrate directly into Google Earth. If you know of any additional products that are not avaialble here please contact us and we will try to add to to our inventory.

GoogleEarthStore.com
942 Calle Amanecer
Suite B
San Clemente, CA 92673, USA
949-243-7056

Copyright 2007 GoogleEarthStore.com San Clemente, California
Google Earth and the Google logos are the property of Google, Inc., Mountain View, California
This website licenses the Google Checkout system and other online services from Google, Inc."

I wonder how much longer this company will have license to Google properties once enough users on that spam list have sent this email to abuse@google.com? They might hang out for a while longer, maybe even get another blast like this out, but I'm pretty sure that Google is concerned enough about reputation to nip this in the bud.

Or maybe I'm wrong and spammers like this are a dime a dozen, trying to make a couple bucks off of an established brand because they know that everyone else is doing it and that the legal resources necessary to track down and order them all to cease and desist would be unrealistic. I hope it's the former and not the latter.

Tags: spam, google, igoogle, google toolbar, google bookmarks

Ebay and Google to Play Nice, For Now

Ebay will return to using Google's Adwords system after more than 10-days without the #1 search engine's traffic, but not without learning a valuable lesson in the process. Like so many other advertisers that have felt the cold-sting of Google's wrath, eBay has ventured out into other advertising avenues, including Yahoo, AOL and MSN. The timeline of the eBay | Google breakdown goes a little something like this:

• July 2006, eBay bans Google Checkout.
  
• In April, eBay announced it would no longer compensate affiliates for paid search traffic from any search engine, including Google.com. The change would go into effect on June 1st.
  
• In late May, Yahoo and eBay announced a multi-year strategic partnership with four major components: search and graphical advertising, online payments (think PayPal), a co-operative toolbar and click-to-call partnerships.
• June 11, 2007, Google invites eBay Live! party-goers to "celebrate user choice" at the Google Checkout Freedom Party to be held the same time as eBay's party; in retaliation to eBay's policy not to accept Google Checkout as a payment option for eBay auctions, something many eBay merchants and sellers have actually asked for as an alternative to Paypal. eBay's response was that Checkout is still largely untested.
• By the next day, eBay pulled all Adwords ads, a heavy blow to Google, as possibly the site's largest single advertiser.
  
• Rumor mills went wild, speculating that neither side could keep up the rift for very long because both sides were so co-dependent.
• June 13, 2007, Google probably realized they had gone too far and retracted the invite, stating new users and sellers could contact them "privately." Appreciative, but still miffed, eBay continued the Adwords boycott.
• 11 Days after the ads were pulled, eBay states (with a little help from Hitwise) that Google-based traffic to the site has had little impact post-Adwords, inciting the company to take a hard look at reallocating search dollars to other properties. According to eBay, overall traffic to the site actually increased.

So what did the rivaling giants learn from their spat? Probably not a whole lot. But one would hope that Google would take away from this: Yes, you're a huge company, Google. And yes, you're the #1 Search Engine in the world right now. But there are other huge companies out there. And you rely on them for revenue. Don't try to push others around to get your way. And eBay: Read what I wrote your friend, Google. You can say it's about user choice, tested services or whatever you want, but when you come right down to it, it's all about the benjamins, isn't it? Can't we all just get along?

Tags: aol, ebay, google, google checkout, msn, paypal, yahoo

Take that, GoogleClick, Yahoo to Merge Search and Display Advertising

With so many mergers and acquisitions going on, it's antiquated, but refreshing, to see a company look internally at what they can do with the resources on-hand,in order to compete. It's no secret that online advertising is shifting to an auction-based model. Reported by ADOTAS, Yahoo Inc. announced that they will be combining it's Search advertising and Display advertising units under one umbrella with David Karnestedt at the helm, hopefully fixing the holes in both of those divisions.

Yahoo will most-likely be leaning heavily on it's existing search experience and it's newly developed Panama platform, as well as Right Media's platform for display auction-based advertising. Yahoo acquired the remainder of Right Media in late April for approximately $680 million in cash and stock.

"The acquisition of Right Media will further Yahoo!'s goal to create the industry's most open, accessible and vibrant advertising marketplace, which will help democratize the buying and selling of digitally enabled advertising," said Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo!.

Terry Semel stepped down as Yahoo CEO this month. Replacing Mr. Semel is Yahoo co-founder, Jerry Yang.

Tags: googleclick, google, yahoo, right media, remix media, terry semel, jerry yang, auction-based advertising

Google's Search Domination Increases

Marketing Charts released their "Share of Online Searches by Engine" chart today and the results really shouldn't be news to anyone. Google increased their online search domination from 55.2% to 56.3%, leaving Yahoo (21.9% to 21.5%) and MSN (9.0% to 8.4%) in their dust. The big surprise was Ask, which increased search share from 1.8% to 2.0%. While this isn't a huge increase, when the other major players in the game are steadily losing share, it's refreshing to the underdog make some advances. Could this be the power of "The Algorithm"? Well, let's wait and see next month's chart before making that leap.

Tags: ask, google, msn, search engine marketing, the algorithm, yahoo, SEM