Twitter Inc. co-founder Biz Stone ... denied widespread rumors that its acquisition by Google Inc. is imminent. The rumors erupted late Thursday when tech blog site TechCrunch, citing two anonymous sources, reported that the companies were engaged in "late stage negotiations."...It can't be encouraging that Google decided to stop actively developing Jaiku, a Twitter competitor Google acquired in 2007. Instead, Google has decided ... to release the Jaiku engine as an open-source project under the Apache license ... Google also recently put mobile social-networking service Dodgeball out to pasture.Why would Google want to buy Twitter? They have yet to properly monetize Youtube ... Sure, Google has lots and lots of money to spend. But there isn't much to Twitter that Google couldn't recreate itself with its vast internal resources. So why spend a billion dollars on something so (relatively) simple?For one, Twitter is already running at full speed. Google can't recreate the buzz and the excitement in the rapidly growing Twitter community ... While I get a kick out of seeing what my friends are doing and like to update them with neat things that I observe, the real value for me in Twitter is the real-time search and trending ... If I am looking for information about a hot technology topic, Twitter is the best place to find up-to-the-second information.ButFor all those Twitterers madly typing 140 characters and caught up in the grand idea of Twoogle, we return you to your regularly scheduled tweeting ... In fact, Twitter and Google (GOOG) have simply been engaged in “some product-related discussions,” according to one source, around real-time search and the search giant better crawling the microblogging service....[But] what if, for example, Microsoft (MSFT) offered some huge cash payday for Twitter? In that case, I am certain Google would jump into the faceoff, backing up a giant Brinks trunk to the door of Twitter’s San Francisco offices.FurtherMicrosoft should resist the temptation to become a "me-too" bidder to try to buy the company out from Google. Twitter might offer Microsoft some badly needed "cool," but ... it makes no sense at all. True, Microsoft is generally seen as old and stodgy, but buying Twitter won't change that.As for helping Microsoft catch up to Google in search, Microsoft shouldn't even bother. It's not going to happen, and buying Twitter for hundreds of billions won't help. Microsoft should play to its strengths, notably bringing Office online, and continuing to build out its Live services. Buying Twitter would only be a distraction --- and a waste of cash.A Better Idea :A few weeks back, Bernstein Research analyst Jeffrey Lindsay wrote a provocative research piece asserting that Internet companies have a long and terrible track record of destroying shareholder cash by acquiring pre-business model start-ups ... in a follow-up piece today triggered by the Google/Twitter speculation, Lindsay declares that Internet companies in general, and Google in particular, should ... instead give back the cash to shareholders in a once-a-year dividend....Indeed, Lindsay comes close to calling the entire Web 2.0 company-creation mechanism something of a Ponzi scheme. (Though he doesn’t actually use the term.) ... Lindsay, in short, has issue a kind of manifesto calling for a new focus in the Internet industry on responsible stewardship of their investors’ money. What it all means..At present, Twitter is having a media honeymoon. Not a weekend passes when The New York Times doesn’t devote a considerable part of its expensive newsprint to Twitter. Jon Stewart jokes about it. Even Playboy models have Twitter accounts! In today’s dismal economic climate, thanks to its simplicity and its chameleon-like ability to be “many things to many people,” Twitter in many ways has come to represent the zeitgeist. No wonder some hip-hop moguls want to invest in the company.
The future of AdSense is one that is much debated. The following is a look at some of the most prominent and promising ideas circulating about how Google AdSense will, and can, evolve from what it presently is. These ideas concern changes to specific uses of AdSense, the growth of AdSense and changes that would affect advertisers and site publishers who utilize AdSense.
First, in reference to the specifics of AdSense programming, algorithms are steadily becoming more powerful and developing greater capabilities. This has been seen in the Google search engine itself and the same results are expected to eventually affect AdSense. Those advertisers, who manipulate their content, allowing irrelevant high paying keywords to appear, will be faced with a major problem. They will have to contend with placing appropriate keywords in their content.
More protection for AdWords advertisers is projected for the future. This protection will address click fraud. Google currently acknowledges that click fraud is a key issue with the AdSense program and that it must be attended to. At the moment, those sites that experience high levels of traffic are able to disguise IP addresses and fraudulently increase the amounts of clicks on their site. ‘Smart pricing’ is one tool that could keep click fraud from occurring. This tool allows a set value of clicks to be placed on any one ad. If that value is surpassed, no further revenue will be made.
The growth of AdSense is global, offline and online. Google is investigating ways to integrate AdSense into other forms of media. AdSense usage would be extended to newspapers, television, movie screens, etc. This may be technologically possible in the future, though right now it seems less factual and more fiction-based. Google currently has access to an array of over 150,000 international advertisers. These advertisers could be given the ability to penetrate offline markets in different countries. Likewise, offline distributors may be allowed to create an AdWords format to advertise in content, in search and offline. But the major wave-maker in advertising technology is RSS. This technology has the possibility to send targeted ads directly to users, without navigation away from their current site. ‘Interactive television’ and similar products have been attempting to perfect this technology for a while. However, the Internet serves as a more appropriate medium, because of the absolute interactive potential the Internet possesses.
Advertisers utilizing AdSense could see more available options. One of these would be the ability to control where your contact is being displayed. This option would translate into the ability to block your product from being displayed on sites that host AdSense ads if you feel that the content does not relate to your product. On the flip side, Google has already introduced site-targeted CPM. This allows AdSense advertisers to place ads on a site regardless of whether the content is related to the product or not.
Publishers who use AdSense are almost demanding more available options. Google could offer publishers the ability to specify their own keywords. If this were to occur, publishers would be in more control of the ads being displayed on their site. While Google has been reluctant to offer this option, it is technologically possible. Also, publishers have begun to request clear specifications of AdSense’s pricing policy. Google has yet to offer an explanation of why this information is not made public, but industry insiders do not believe that Google will release any specific pricing information in the near future.
Another feature that AdSense could eventually offer publishers is allowing them to view links generating clicks. Along with the links, publishers could also view the specific keywords that were used in the links when they were clicked on. But this feature could threaten the AdSense system. The issue that arises is an opportunity for AdSense-only websites to be created, with the obvious goal of generating revenue. These sites would be devoid, or ignore, any content which is supposed to be the backbone behind AdSense ads.
At the end of the day, most of the discussed applications, tools and techniques are nothing more than mere speculation. Google is bound to surprise the industry with new features, some that are anticipated and others that would have never been thought possible.
Most of the Internet marketing community is at least somewhat familiar with Google Adsense at this point. Google Adsense can be a very lucrative venture for some so having a better understanding of Adsense is worthwhile.
Google Adsense is small contextual ads that are published on web sites with the consent of the web site's owner. The ads are created by publishers that are selling products and/or creating brand awareness. The ads that are created are called Adwords and they are also a Google sponsored program.
Google Adwords and Adsense run hand in hand. Every time someone does a search on Google or one of their partner networks and clicks on one of the sponsored ads, then the person who created that ad will pay Google a predetermined price. This is where the term "pay per click" comes from.
Now the beauty of Adsense is that the person who owns or hosts the web site that the Adwords ads appear on will split the amount of money that Google receives from the creator or publisher of the ad. It is a well guarded secret what the percentage of the split is, and it does vary, but for our purposes let's say it's 50%.
If a publisher is willing to pay .40 per click for his Adwords ad, then the host of the website that welcomes Adsense can expect to see roughly .20 every time someone clicks on that ad that appears on their site. The other .20 is kept by Google. So basically it is a partnership of sorts between Google and web site owners.
Adsense is shown in the most relevant way possible. What does this mean? Well, probably the best way to illustrate this would be through an example. Let's say Mary had a website featuring women's clothing. If Mary wanted to monetize her web site with Google Adsense the ads that would be shown would all be related to clothing, and more precisely, women's clothing. If a page of her site was dedicated to shoes, then the Adsense ads appearing on that page would be for women's shoes.
So how is the price per click determined? This is where the Adwords side of the equation kicks in. Adwords publishers bid on keywords. The more lucrative or sought after a keyword is, the more the publisher will be willing to pay for each click. Keywords range anywhere from a few cents to in excess of $50 per click.
It is not very hard to see how someone with a web site that generates a decent amount of traffic can make some nice money by putting Google Adsense on their site. Many Internet marketers will create web sites with specific content for the sole purpose of attracting high paying Adsense ads. Top Internet marketers can earn in excess of $10,000 a month on Adsense, and you can too!
A huge revolution in location-based advertising is soon to take place, according to the chief exec of Google.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, Eric Schmidt said that mobile users could be affected by the soon-to-be truly mobile internet.
"It's the recreation of the Internet, it's the recreation of the PC (personal computer) story and it is before us - and it is very likely it will happen in the next year", he told assembled journalists.
At the moment, reports Reuters, analysts have been cautious about the future of mobile advertising, or advertising that targets where the phone users is, and consultancy Forrester predicting revenues of under $1 billion by 2012.
But, according to Schmidt, this is a massive underestimation.
He explained that Google wants to be a key player in this market by bidding for airwaves to launch an open US wireless network, which would see it competiting against established telecommunications players.
Analysts immediately responded by stating their concerns that Google would be over stretching itself as it would be a very expensive move tbut Schmidt dismissed this saying that location-based advertising - which could, for example, direct hungry travelers to nearby restaurants - would be "a very, very good business".
