More upbeat–but not too ecstatic–chatter about the state of the Internet advertising market this morning from Wall Street: Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth is raising his estimates for Google, citing “improving macro conditions [and] a stronger ad market.” Other online advertising bulls: Investors, who have been pushing up Google stock for months, and CEO Eric Schmidt, who has declared that the worst is over.
An endless ad barrage may be enough to get you to sample Bing. But it can’t ensure you’ll like the results once you try it.
That’s the conclusion Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney reached after taking Microsoft’s new search engine for a spin and comparing it to Google’s and Yahoo’s. The result: Google still delivers better results most of the time. In 71 percent of searches, Google either supplied the most relevant answer or tied with other engines. Bing did that 46 percent of the time.
Even as the rest of the retail world stumbled in the past year, Amazon kept cruising and increasing market share. So if a cratering economy can’t hurt the e-commerce giant, what could? Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney throws out a suggestion: Movies, books and music–the same stuff that helped Amazon get the lead it enjoys today.
Last fall, the consumer electronics giant bought Napster. Now it’s assembling a fund for more M&A, to be headed by digital vet Ross Levinsohn. And for good measure, it’s in the market for a chief digital officer.
The people who run the Virgin Megastore chain have already announced plans to close their Times Square outpost, which is the highest-volume music store in the U.S. So news that they’re shuttering even more of their stores isn’t shocking. Just telling.
The iPhone’s long-rumored appearance at the world’s biggest retailer is about to become a reality: Wal-Mart will start selling Apple’s iconic handset starting Sunday, Dec. 28. One rumor that has yet to materialize, though: A cheap version of the phone priced at $99.
Retail was supposed to get hammered during the holiday season that just ended, and a new survey says that sales fell four percent. But Amazon says Christmas 2008 was its “best ever.” Just don’t ask Jeff Bezos and company to explain what that means.
I don’t think this is quite what advocates of “creative destruction” have in mind when they talk about the upside of economic turmoil.
But it’s worth noting anyway: The daily drumbeat of layoffs, shutterings and other grim economic news has inspired a boomlet in Web sites and services dedicated to tracking them.
Holding back on your holiday shopping? You’re not alone. Retail sales have plummeted in the first half of November, according to a new report from Mastercard–and the Web hasn’t been spared.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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