Getting Granular: The DigitalGrit Blog

MediaWeek: Battle of Search Engines Rages On, and Everyone Wins

Whoohoo...Search continues to grow at a ridiculous pace and the advertising "trend" catches on in the mainstream, and search engine usage continues to rise. From MediaWeek:

In October, Nielsen//NetRatings recorded 5.1 billion total search queries, which was up 15 percent from just five months earlier. Thus, as MSN, Google and Yahoo! continue to battle for share of the search market, they appear to be going after an expanding search pie.

Google maintained its dominance in the search universe, accounting for nearly 2.5 billion searches in October, up 21 percent versus June activity. That figure gives the Mountain View, Calif., company a commanding 48 percent share of all searches.

Meanwhile Yahoo! is pulling in 22 percent of searches, seeing a 16 percent uptick in volume over the measured five month period. The third and fourth positions are held by MSN, which commands 11 percent of queries, and AOL, with 7 percent.

The search engine exhibiting the largest growth during the measuring period was AskJeeves, which saw its search queries soar by 77 percent, though Barry Diller's Web asset still claims less than 3 percent of the market.

Looks like it's going to be a happy holiday - and an even happier new year - in this vertical!

MediaWeek: Battle of Search Engines Rages On, and Everyone Wins

Whoohoo...Search continues to grow at a ridiculous pace and the advertising "trend" catches on in the mainstream, and search engine usage continues to rise. From MediaWeek:

In October, Nielsen//NetRatings recorded 5.1 billion total search queries, which was up 15 percent from just five months earlier. Thus, as MSN, Google and Yahoo! continue to battle for share of the search market, they appear to be going after an expanding search pie.

Google maintained its dominance in the search universe, accounting for nearly 2.5 billion searches in October, up 21 percent versus June activity. That figure gives the Mountain View, Calif., company a commanding 48 percent share of all searches.

Meanwhile Yahoo! is pulling in 22 percent of searches, seeing a 16 percent uptick in volume over the measured five month period. The third and fourth positions are held by MSN, which commands 11 percent of queries, and AOL, with 7 percent.

The search engine exhibiting the largest growth during the measuring period was AskJeeves, which saw its search queries soar by 77 percent, though Barry Diller's Web asset still claims less than 3 percent of the market.

Looks like it's going to be a happy holiday - and an even happier new year - in this vertical!

The Sopranos Filming in our Hometown

New Jersey is famous for many things including Atlantic City, The City of Hoboken (which is the birthplace of  Frank Sinantra and Baseball), and ...The Sopranos.

Recently, The Sopranos visited DigitalGrit's hometown in Boonton NJ to film scenes for their upcoming season. (click on picture to enlarge)

Where else do you get to escape for a minute to take a photo in front of the set of The Sopranos?...but the #1 Best Place to Work in New Jersey (Mid-Sized Company)! ...DigitalGrit....

Here is the "Dartford Library" from the set of The Sopranos.  Standing across the street, in front of the library, are some of DigitalGrit's finest who took a minute out of their busy days for a photo opp!! (You can't see but they're shivering - it's freezing outside - how do those film and cast crews do it???) They even filmed at one of our employee's house for couple of days. (...shhhh it's really the Boonton Library on Main Street in Boonton, New Jersey...DigitalGrit is located right across the street...)

Trivia question: This isn't the first time the Sopranos filmed in Boonton. A couple of seasons ago, they referenced "Boonton" and someone even got "whacked" here. Can you name the person who met their untimely end? Post your answer in the comments section!

Posted by: Scott Delea and Nicole DeBiase

The Sopranos Filming in our Hometown

New Jersey is famous for many things including Atlantic City, The City of Hoboken (which is the birthplace of  Frank Sinantra and Baseball), and ...The Sopranos.

Recently, The Sopranos visited DigitalGrit's hometown in Boonton NJ to film scenes for their upcoming season. (click on picture to enlarge)

Where else do you get to escape for a minute to take a photo in front of the set of The Sopranos?...but the #1 Best Place to Work in New Jersey (Mid-Sized Company)! ...DigitalGrit....

Here is the "Dartford Library" from the set of The Sopranos.  Standing across the street, in front of the library, are some of DigitalGrit's finest who took a minute out of their busy days for a photo opp!! (You can't see but they're shivering - it's freezing outside - how do those film and cast crews do it???) They even filmed at one of our employee's house for couple of days. (...shhhh it's really the Boonton Library on Main Street in Boonton, New Jersey...DigitalGrit is located right across the street...)

Trivia question: This isn't the first time the Sopranos filmed in Boonton. A couple of seasons ago, they referenced "Boonton" and someone even got "whacked" here. Can you name the person who met their untimely end? Post your answer in the comments section!

Posted by: Scott Delea and Nicole DeBiase

DigitalGrit at SES - Searcher Behavior Research Update

Our own Jonathan Mendez spoke at SES on Monday...

For those of you who didn't make it, here's the session description:

Searcher Behavior Research Update
How do searchers interact with search engines? New research is constantly coming out revealing how searchers act. This session explores the latest studies and findings to provide tips and tactics for search marketers to consider.
Moderator:
Detlev Johnson VP, Director of Consulting, Position Technologies
Speakers:
Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO, Enquiro
Jonathan Mendez, Director of eMarketing, DigitalGrit
Mark Neal, Galleon
Jon Stewart, Senior Manager, MegaPanel Analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings

If you missed the session, but you're interested in seeing Jon's presentation, please post a comment!

DigitalGrit at SES - Searcher Behavior Research Update

Our own Jonathan Mendez spoke at SES on Monday...

For those of you who didn't make it, here's the session description:

Searcher Behavior Research Update
How do searchers interact with search engines? New research is constantly coming out revealing how searchers act. This session explores the latest studies and findings to provide tips and tactics for search marketers to consider.
Moderator:
Detlev Johnson VP, Director of Consulting, Position Technologies
Speakers:
Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO, Enquiro
Jonathan Mendez, Director of eMarketing, DigitalGrit
Mark Neal, Galleon
Jon Stewart, Senior Manager, MegaPanel Analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings

If you missed the session, but you're interested in seeing Jon's presentation, please post a comment!

2006 A Turning Point for Internet Advertising Industry

According to ZDnet, the 10th birthday of the online ad industry will mark the end of corporate testing and the beginning of bigger buys:

Corporate marketers have made online advertising a standard part of media budgets as online spending looks set to accelerate further in 2006, Google's North American sales chief said late Tuesday.

Tim Armstrong, Google's advertising sales vice president, said in an interview before the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit that 2005 marked the turning point when advertisers switched from testing to investing in the decade-old medium.

"There is robust interest in online advertising and that interest is now turning into real dollars," Armstrong said, noting that market analysts are predicting a banner 2005 year with forecasts ranging from $10 billion to $15 billion.

"The experimenting and testing phase begun in the 1990s has ended. Corporate ad buyers are investing now," he said.

Jupiter Research estimates the U.S. online advertising market will grow 28 percent over last year, to $11.9 billion in 2005, moving to $13.6 billion in 2006 and $15.1 billion in 2007....[read the article]

Of course, Google has outperformed, owning an estimated 30% of industry marketshare.

We're heard this before, of course, and it's what the IAB's been promoting for years through projects like the XMOS study. Estimates put online spends at 5% of overall budgets, but that could possibly jump to 10% over the next few years.

There are some interesting ramifications to that 10% spend. First of all, inventory is limited, particularly with SEM, but across the most popular sites, as well. Publishers and site owners are going to have to get creative to increase their value and inventory. Secondly, how will this impact keyword pricing among the major search engines?  Will the projected big online spend of corporate America make local search the only option for smaller businesses? Does it create room for another major player in the portal space?

We'll see...

2006 A Turning Point for Internet Advertising Industry

According to ZDnet, the 10th birthday of the online ad industry will mark the end of corporate testing and the beginning of bigger buys:

Corporate marketers have made online advertising a standard part of media budgets as online spending looks set to accelerate further in 2006, Google's North American sales chief said late Tuesday.

Tim Armstrong, Google's advertising sales vice president, said in an interview before the Reuters Media and Advertising Summit that 2005 marked the turning point when advertisers switched from testing to investing in the decade-old medium.

"There is robust interest in online advertising and that interest is now turning into real dollars," Armstrong said, noting that market analysts are predicting a banner 2005 year with forecasts ranging from $10 billion to $15 billion.

"The experimenting and testing phase begun in the 1990s has ended. Corporate ad buyers are investing now," he said.

Jupiter Research estimates the U.S. online advertising market will grow 28 percent over last year, to $11.9 billion in 2005, moving to $13.6 billion in 2006 and $15.1 billion in 2007....[read the article]

Of course, Google has outperformed, owning an estimated 30% of industry marketshare.

We're heard this before, of course, and it's what the IAB's been promoting for years through projects like the XMOS study. Estimates put online spends at 5% of overall budgets, but that could possibly jump to 10% over the next few years.

There are some interesting ramifications to that 10% spend. First of all, inventory is limited, particularly with SEM, but across the most popular sites, as well. Publishers and site owners are going to have to get creative to increase their value and inventory. Secondly, how will this impact keyword pricing among the major search engines?  Will the projected big online spend of corporate America make local search the only option for smaller businesses? Does it create room for another major player in the portal space?

We'll see...