Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Yahoo! Board, said, “The Board sees enormous growth opportunities on which Yahoo! can capitalize, and our primary objective is to leverage the Company’s leadership and current business assets and platforms to execute against these opportunities. We have talented teams and tremendous resources behind them and intend to return the Company to a path of robust growth and industry-leading innovation. We are committed to exploring and evaluating possibilities and opportunities that will put Yahoo! on a trajectory for growth and innovation and deliver value to shareholders.”

Bostock continued, “On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Carol for her service to Yahoo! during a critical time of transition in the Company’s history, and against a very challenging macro-economic backdrop. I would also like to express the Board’s appreciation to Tim and thank him for accepting this important role. We have great confidence in his abilities and in those of the other executives who have been named to the Executive Leadership Council.”

(The internal memo sent from Jerry Yang and the Board to Yahoo! employees moments after the announcement can be read in its entirety here.)

The troubles at Yahoo! have been well-documented over the last five years, and the tune did not change under the tenure of Bartz. The revelation by Bartz that her firing was executed over the phone is symbolic of the disastrous corporate messaging and human resource mismanagement that has characterized the company of late. The company has endured one of the greatest brain drains in history, which has only accelerated its downward slide in recent years. The psychological impact of Bartz’s departure – both on investors and employees – will be intriguing to note in the coming days and weeks. Early reactions from the market are favorable – Yahoo! shares are up 5.7 percent in after-hours trading on the news.

It has been speculated that Yahoo! has been actively searching for a replacement for months. Will Yahoo! bring in another outsider or will it promote from within? There is a powerful argument to be made that the high-profile executive exodus over the last two years has left Yahoo! with no alternative but to bring in another outsider to attempt another turnaround.

Read more from the always insightful Kara Swisher at AllThingsD here.

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The figures are particularly encouraging for those in the mobile sector, who have had to deflect criticism about the current state of mobile advertising and its viability using current technology. The report projects mobile interactive advertising will enjoy a compound annual growth rate of 38 percent, reaching $8.2 billion in 2016. This best-in-class growth will be led by a growing mobile commerce market, consolidation of mobile ad networks and the implementation of rich media ad formats as smartphone technology advances.

Consolidation in mobile ad networks has accelerated in the past two years, as Google acquired AdMob for $750 million, Apple acquired Quattro Wireless for $275 million and ValueClick acquired Greystripe for $75 million, placing the full force of some of the most valuable companies in the world behind the mobile ad sector.

While display and search are projected to retain their dominance of most interactive ad budgets as rich media, text listings and online video components become budget staples, search engine advertising is expected to see a significant reduction in both its growth rate and its share of the overall interactive market. Search advertising is projected to experience a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent, nearly doubling from $18.8 billion in 2011 to $33.3 billion in 2016, but will see its share of the overall market decrease from 55 percent to 44 percent over the same period as other formats establish themselves as meaningful components of large scale media buys.

Forrester reports social media marketing will enjoy a healthy 26 percent compound annual growth rate, but will only reach $5 billion in total spend due to the inexpensive nature of many social ad platforms.

With the explosive valuations of literally thousands of VC-funded startups heavily dependent on advertising revenue for survival, let alone growth, these latest figures are encouraging. However, marketers appreciate (and are increasingly demanding) both security and results, which will likely benefit the largest and most established companies in mobile and social, including Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter. The industry should expect further consolidation as the large, cash and equity-rich players utilize critical acquisitions to expand their arsenal and take advantage of the rapidly accelerating growth in interactive advertising.

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Tim Cook, who previously served as Apple’s COO and as interim CEO during Jobs’ previous medical leaves of absence, sent a note to all Apple employees today promising them the company they knew under Steve Jobs won’t change under his leadership.

The note, originally obtained by Ars Technica, reaffirms Jobs’ commitment in his resignation letter that Apple will continue to be a successful and innovative leader in the always-competitive tech sector:

——

Team:

I am looking forward to the amazing opportunity of serving as CEO of the most innovative company in the world. Joining Apple was the best decision I’ve ever made and it’s been the privilege of a lifetime to work for Apple and Steve for over 13 years. I share Steve’s optimism for Apple’s bright future.

Steve has been an incredible leader and mentor to me, as well as to the entire executive team and our amazing employees. We are really looking forward to Steve’s ongoing guidance and inspiration as our Chairman.

I want you to be confident that Apple is not going to change. I cherish and celebrate Apple’s unique principles and values. Steve built a company and culture that is unlike any other in the world and we are going to stay true to that—it is in our DNA. We are going to continue to make the best products in the world that delight our customers and make our employees incredibly proud of what they do.

I love Apple and I am looking forward to diving into my new role. All of the incredible support from the Board, the executive team and many of you has been inspiring. I am confident our best years lie ahead of us and that together we will continue to make Apple the magical place that it is.

Tim

——

Cook is no stranger to the tech community, often appearing alongside Steve Jobs at Apple events and giving important keynote speeches in Jobs’ absence. Cook has been a part of the Apple team since 1998, joining as Senior Vice President of Global Operations, and rising to his previously-held position of Chief Operating Officer in 2005.

Cook’s execution of supplier contract negotiations has made it virtually impossible for competing firms to deliver comparable products at a competitive price. Cook previously held executive positions at Compaq and IBM.

With Jobs remaining as Chairman, and a suite of Jobs-era products in the pipeline, Apple likely won’t even see a hiccup for the next few years. Jobs created a system of excellence and creativity and instilled these values in every Apple employee, and Tim Cook will continue to execute Apple’s mission of innovation and growth. Investors and insiders are confident in Cook’s ability to lead – Apple stock is down just 1 percent through midday trading Thursday.

—–

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

—–

After-hours trading of $AAPL resumed shortly thereafter, sending Apple shares down a relatively modest 5 percent. The move would likely have had much greater impact two years ago, as investors have recently priced Jobs’ impending departure into the stock. Business Insider’s Henry Blodget projected the announcement would have sent Apple shares tumbling 25 percent or more just two years ago.

Art Levinson, Chairman of Genentech, released a statement on behalf of Apple’s board: “Steve’s extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world’s most innovative and valuable technology company.”

“Steve has made countless contributions to Apple’s success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple’s immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as Chairman of the Board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration.”

Following the announcement of Steve Jobs’ resignation, Apple promptly named COO Tim Cook as the new CEO. Cook led Apple in 2004 and 2009 during Jobs’ medical leave. Cook is known for his calm demeanor, astonishing work ethic and tendency to challenge subordinates with impossible-to-answer questions.

“The Board has complete confidence that Tim is the right person to be our next CEO,” added Levinson. “Tim’s 13 years of service to Apple have been marked by outstanding performance, and he has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in everything he does.”

Our thoughts are with Steve Jobs and his family, and we wish him well during these challenging times. As a small token of appreciation, we direct you toward Business Insider’s “The Life and Awesomeness of Steve Jobs.”

That means in addition to traditional TLDs like .com, .net, .org and .tv, for example, you could have domains like .techcrunch, .apple, .facebook, .hotel, .newyork, .coke, .cnn, etc.

These domains would come at an extremely high cost to publishers and advertisers, IAB says, and they will also provide the opportunity for cyber squatters to extort money from companies by registering domains in “bad faith.”

“ICANN’s potentially momentous change seems to have been made in a top-down star chamber. There appears to have been no economic impact research, no full and open stakeholder discussions, and little concern for the delicate balance of the Internet ecosystem,” said Randall Rothenberg, CEO and President, IAB.

“This could be disastrous for the media brand owners we represent and the brand owners with which they work. We hope that ICANN will reconsider both this ill-considered decision and the process by which it was reached.”

ICANN’s board members voted for the new TLD plan earlier this year, with an overwhelming majority in favor of the initiative. The vote was 13 to 1 in favor, with 2 abstaining.

Read the full article at TechCrunch.

Are new TLD opportunities ultimately good for businesses and consumers, or will the proposed TLD ecosystem fall prey to black hat domain traders and have the opposite of the intended effect? The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has criticized both the plan and the process by which it was implemented, saying it could cost marketers billions. ICANN refutes this claims, calling them “incorrect or problematic in several respects.”

Domains are still big business, and new TLDs open a huge market for sellers. ICANN has spoken, but will IAB’s call to action (so to speak) lead to new consideration?

Read: Why ICANN’s New Domain System Could Benefit Brands (AdAge)

CMOs are feeling increasingly comfortable diverting or devoting larger percentages of their budgets online, convinced that the benefits of online advertising are as revolutionary as promised. Brands spend tens of billions of dollars online, and they expect results.

How campaign performance is measured varies by brand or agency; some seek simple impressions, others seek clicks and conversions. One of the key selling points of online advertising is the ability to measure campaign performance against objectives in real-time. Tracking technologies record every visit and every impression, but the validity of these measurements have recently come into question. A major concern is falsely inflated impression counts, artificially inflating CPM prices for media buyers. Impressions are traditionally counted in tandem with page visits, which has proven to be a deeply flawed system of measurement.

AdXpose is changing everything.

Led by CEO Kirby Winfield, AdXpose verifies impressions by telling advertisers where their ad was placed on the page and, if below the fold, whether or not a visitor scrolled down to see the ad.

“If you’re counting every impression as viewable when only 50% are viewable, then every metric that you’re using to value your media is inefficient and inaccurate,” Winfield said. “You’re pulling in a bunch of impressions that have no chance to be viewed.”

The company also identifies the content the ad was placed next to, an important tool for CMOs demanding their ads be served beside “brand safe” content. Winfield argues the consolidation of advertising measurement data is vital if digital wants to slice into the holy grail of ad dollars, television.

“You have to go to one vendor to get viewabililty data. Another for survey data. A vendor to get audience verification. Another to get conversation data,” Winfield said. “You’re taking a buying process that is already 4-5x more difficult than buying TV and making it 4-5x more difficult to get metrics.”

comScore CEO Magid Abraham believes a pricing revolution is underway.

“Prices are going to adjust. All of the junk inventory is going to be significantly slashed,” Abraham said. “If you’re charging $.25/CPM but only 20% are visible, then the unit price is actually $1.25. We will move from a medium from where there is no scarcity to an industry where there is scarcity.”

comScore and AdXpose serve as a powerful duo at a critical juncture. As TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld astutely notes, “it’s not about clicks and conversions, it’s about attention.” Innovation in online advertising is at an all-time high; it’s no longer simply text and banner ads. Rich media, branded content and social solutions are transforming the industry with the aid of real-time exchanges.

Ferociously accurate data is the catalyst that can launch online advertising to the forefront of brand spending in the digital era. CMOs are demanding stronger performance, media buyers are getting smarter, auditors are more closely scrutinizing campaign performance, and this industry evolution is good for everyone. Brands get accurate, verified audience data, and publishers are able to charge premium CPMs through guaranteed, validated ad presentation.

The revolution has begun, and AdXpose is poised to create a shakeup with financial implications that will dwarf its $22 million price tag.

Lead Project Manager for Google+ Mobile, Punit Soni, revealed early this morning (on Google+, of course) that the App Store was serving early downloaders a test version of the Google+ iPhone app.

(Some users report the Google+ iPhone app is not showing up in searches within the App Store. Here is the download link for the app, accessible through your iOS device.)

The app allows users to access their Stream, comment on and +1 other user’s posts, but the current version of the app does not allow users to re-share posts in their Stream. Soni, in response to Robert Scoble’s post reviewing the app, announced an in-stream Share feature is in the works. The app provides access to Photos from your Circles, your personal albums and all photos stored on your iPhone, and allows you to upload and geotag photos to Google+. Check out the full Google+ for iPhone review from Mashable, which includes 20 in-app pictures.

One of the key features driving the Google+ iPhone app’s utility over the browser-based version is the mobile-optimized Huddle feature. The success of Google+ will be largely driven by its seamless integration between mobile and desktop, and the two-way or group chat Huddle feature enables Google+ to become a central hub of mobile activity, replacing text messaging and additional group chat applications if the app gains widespread traction.

The brief and uncharacteristic early hiccup was positively overshadowed by Google’s quick update, and the Google+ iPhone app paves the way for Google+ to further penetrate the mobile environment, a critical battleground in the heavyweight bout between Google+ and Facebook. If Google+ can continue the growth trajectory it has enjoyed during its invitation-only trial phase, and perhaps beat Facebook to the punch with a standout iPad app, the social networking landscape that seemed set in stone just months ago will be poised for significant transformation. This competition between two immeasurably smart and talent-rich companies will only lead to stronger products and a better user experience, and that is something we can all look forward to.

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This week, with the backdrop of LinkedIn, Pandora, Groupon and Zynga enjoying multi-billion dollar valuations, MySpace was auctioned off to Specific Media (and Justin Timberlake) for a paltry $35 million, shrinking into the shadows of the new era of online and social media. Facebook, once dwarfed by the size and power of MySpace, is poised to go public in the next 9 months valued at over $100 billion. It seems Mark Zuckerberg, now personally worth over $18 billion thanks to Facebook, isn’t the arrogant fool many perceived him to be.

Instead, Zuckerberg is hailed as a genius, a visionary and has been crowned the King of the Web. His company is expected to pull in $2.19 billion in revenues in 2011 and double- and triple-digit growth in annual display ad revenue has vaulted Facebook past Yahoo! and Google to the forefront of display advertising. Today, Facebook enjoys the company of over 700 million users, while MySpace continues to shed millions of users and traffic has fallen off a cliff.

Facebook is on a tear, and at times appears unstoppable. But if there is one thing Silicon Valley and the online world has learned, things can change in a heartbeat. As Google likes to say, the competitors are always just one click away, and in social networking, any exodus almost exclusively means a total exodus. When your friends flee, you flee. Facebook must learn from the mistakes MySpace made if it wants to avoid the same fate, especially considering how poorly regarded the company’s image is in spite of its massive size and success.

Mismanagement, a total disregard for the user, an onslaught of spam, fake profiles and spammy features and an ill-fated sale to a massive old media overlord are just a few of the missteps that took MySpace from a company that could have been worth billions to a nuisance happily discarded for pennies on the dollar.

Facebook’s first achievement on this path came years ago, when Mark Zuckerberg shocked the world and turned down a $1.6 billion offer for a company with little to no revenues. MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe noted to Bloomberg Businessweek that the News Corp. acquisition deprived his company of the start-up culture upon which the company was built and thrived. A relatively slow and simple introduction of advertising features on Facebook, partnered with a voracious focus on the user experience, has kept Facebook users from feeling exploited (at least not by ads, privacy concerns are another issue.) Partnerships with Zynga (which just filed to IPO valued at $20 billion and is hoping to raise up to $1B) and search giants Bing, Yahoo! and Google have made Facebook the core of the modern Web experience.

The potential for Facebook to succeed where MySpace failed is astounding, but rather than celebrating their victories over the fallen competitor, Facebook must treasure the opportunity to explore exactly how MySpace fell short, and how they can deliver mind-blowingly positive experiences to their users every step of the way.

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Img. Credit: Bloomberg Businessweek

IntoNow utilizes wavelength recognition to listen to and identify television programs with the tap of a button, and has become an important tool in Yahoo!’s previously-maligned foray into social. IntoNow combines the addictive check-in elements of Foursquare and the clever utility of Shazaam with the seemingly unstoppable power of Facebook and Twitter. While this conflagration of new media stars yields hordes of adoring users and Silicon Valley praise, IntoNow is poised to tap into the well-established mega-billions of the traditional media television industry.

The Internet is transforming television, and the first-glance value of IntoNow is obvious. Anything that gets users in front of television screens, especially if paired with live event coverage a la CoverItLive, holds immense value to television networks seeing more and more eyeballs transition to the smaller screens of laptops, tablets and smartphones.

However, the multi-billion dollar potential of IntoNow and Internet-connected televisions (including Yahoo!’s ConnectedTV) lies in the value these tools can deliver to brand advertisers and CMOs desperately seeking ways to integrate campaigns across the increasing number of platforms used by consumers. The possibilities are endless:

1. A consumer “checks in” to the live airing of the latest White Collar episode and receives a reward from USA Network (a badge, points, a sneak preview video, a behind-the-scenes look, etc.)
2. IntoNow utilizes a Pandora-esque algorithm to provide recommendations and offers brand advertisers the ability to provide highly relevant Sponsored Recommendations based on a user’s viewing habits
3. Yahoo! pairs ConnectedTV and IntoNow with its own real-time ad bidding and exchange technology to deliver contextually matched, highly targeted ads based on what a user is watching right now
4. A signed-in Yahoo! user receives time-sensitive television and movie recommendations from networks, Fandango, movie studios and the many advertisers Yahoo! already has relationships with based on their explicit IntoNow viewing habits and the inferred interests derived from them
5. A viewer “checks in” to American Idol and is given the option to “Like” the show’s Facebook page, read the Idols’ tweets or purchase and download a song from the night’s episode directly from iTunes

The power of IntoNow in the right hands makes Yahoo!’s purchasing price of $27 million seem like chump change, and paired with ConnectedTV and real-time ad delivery, may be the spark that ignites Yahoo!’s rebound. Matching advertisers and brands with consumers is a ceaseless quest, and IntoNow gives Yahoo! a plethora of options to deliver value to a vast range of customers while capturing the always-critical adoration of its users. Execution matters above all else, and we’ve seen dozens of hot, nimble startups fall victim to the oppressive tides within a large and entrenched public organization.

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The IAB reported 2010 online ad revenues of $26 billion, a 15 percent increase from 2009 and a new record. While search remains a dominant revenue generator – accounting for 46 percent of total spending with 12 percent YoY growth – relatively newer formats including sponsorships, mobile formats and site takeovers are experiencing massive growth. Many entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, with big valuation dollar signs in their eyes, are literally betting their fortunes on this growth trajectory continuing, hoping advertisers follow the paths of the hundreds of millions of users interacting on Facebook and Twitter every day.

Facing looming pressure to generate new revenues off their massive engaged user bases and hoping to disprove critics who argue social media advertising is ineffective, Facebook and Twitter have accelerated their monetization programs. However, the two social icons are tackling the same issue with two very different strategies.

Facebook, which enjoys healthy, highly profitable partnerships with gaming companies like Zynga, has exploded past Yahoo! to become the largest seller of online display advertising (in the United States, excluding Yahoo! media network partner sites.) While Facebook is home to the online “Pages” of virtually all of the world’s largest brands, the company’s automated ad-buying system is targeted toward smaller advertisers, allowing them to custom-target based on a wide range of demographic and geographic variables.

Twitter, still several years behind Facebook in monetization development, is just beginning to build out its sales force and will not possess an automated ad-buying system until late 2011. Under the direction of Adam Bain, Twitter’s President of Global Revenue, the company has slowly rolled out advertising platforms including Promoted Tweets, Trends and Accounts that have been targeted exclusively toward the largest brand advertisers on the Web. As Twitter’s ad auction infrastructures develop further and the sales team grows in size, and if usage continues to skyrocket with the help of  key platform integrations like Apple’s iOS 5, the company’s $150 million in projected 2010 revenues will likely swell dramatically, helping to justify the reported $8-10 billion valuation.

The two distinct strategies employed by Facebook and Twitter are likely to merge and overlap as each company builds its sales and ad-serving infrastructure, but it appears each company understands how businesses of all kinds use their services and has structured their early monetization platforms accordingly.

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Kara Swisher has long been a source of unrivaled inside information at Silicon Valley icons like Yahoo! and Microsoft, and Walt Mossberg is widely considered one of the most credible gadget and technology analysts on the Web, so AllThingsD has greatly benefited from the respective personal brands of this powerful duo. However, with nine full-time columnists, each with their own column title, the AllThingsD brand name was often lost in the fragmentation of the site.

The site is now unified under the AllThingsD.com domain, and is vertically categorized (i.e. News, Social, Mobile, Media, etc.) in an effort to provide better context for its users. More than any other element, context is the most vital component of the AllThingsD redesign. The site had consistently increased the quantity of content it produced daily, and the new design utilizes verticals that combine content from all nine columnists, providing users an all-encompassing resource from multiple perspectives. To appease the die-hard fans of any particular columnist, the new design still allows users to search by writer, acknowledging the continuing importance of each writer’s personal brand even in the new era of AllThingsD brand unity.

Beyond the functional and strategic elements of the redesign, the new AllThingsD is simply better looking. The much-wider layout helps cater to the higher-resolution videos and images the site has been sharing more frequently, and allows for much more aesthetically pleasing featured posts on the homepage.

Congratulations to Kara, Walt and the rest of the AllThingsD team on the beautiful redesign and your continued success as a leading voice on All Things Digital!

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(My take? We’re not in a bubble. Not yet. The lessons from a decade ago are fresh enough in the minds of VCs and investors, and the simple fact that we are being cautious and asking questions proves we are eons away from the insanity of 2000.)

The promise of the new media era is dependent on a new era of advertising, one that is integrated across many platforms, channels and formats. The booming success of Google and others dependent on online advertising may lead some to think that the market is saturated, leaving little opportunity for new entrants or growth for existing players. However, the data paints a dramatically different picture. The IAB projects double-digit growth in global online advertising spending for each of the next four years, reaching nearly $100 billion by 2014, or 17.4% of combined global ad spending.

There is a significant trend that one doesn’t need to dive through troves of data to recognize: people across the world are spending more time online. The time spent online on computers, tablets and smartphones is dramatically increasing year over year, but even these markets are relatively under-served. Just 82 million of more than 330 million Americans access the Internet on their mobile phones, and just 31% of wireless subscribers own a smartphone. Even with the billions of dollars in profits enjoyed by Apple, Google, Nokia and Microsoft in the mobile sector, the market is just getting started. More users with more Web-enabled smartphones means more ad dollars flowing to Web companies from the world’s biggest spenders.

So does this mean the tens of billions of dollars spent on television advertising will magically flow online? No. New value is created by reaching consumers online, and that means new dollars will be spent. Television advertising offers benefits that the hottest social media and branded content companies could never provide, and vice versa. It is the value of connecting and conversing with consumers in the new media era that will entice advertisers to direct new dollars from their ad budgets toward online campaigns.

The power to connect brands and consumers where the conversations are happening (social) and at the point of intent (branded content, action-oriented content) provides the opportunity for companies that offer these services to capitalize on the significant upside potential in the online advertising market. Online advertising isn’t just text links and banner ads. The new formats enabled by tablet and mobile technology and revolutionary business models ensure Silicon Valley’s best executors will reap the rewards of a booming online advertising market in the coming years.

Hat Tip: AdWeek – The Changing Scope of Online Advertising 

IAB Report: 2010 Internet Advertising Reveneus Increase 15% to $26 Billion, A New Record

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Today, the Santa Monica, CA-based content and social media company announced 48% growth in revenues and a 121% increase in adjusted net income year over year. (A full review of Demand Media’s Q1 2011 financial results can be viewed here.) Well-received redesigns of flagship Demand Media properties like eHow, LIVESTRONG.com and Cracked and high-profile celebrity partnerships with Rachael Ray for eHow Food and Tyra Banks for typeF.com are driving continued growth in content and media revenues (77% increase YoY.)

The increased scrutiny that comes with being a public company has manifested in investor worries about the impact of Google’s “Panda” algorithm tweak, but Demand Media has fought hard to reaffirm its continued commitment to producing high quality content. As a writer for Demand Media Studios and a member of the Demand Media Blog Distribution Network, I can attest to the validity of these assertions, and I am continuously impressed by the quality of content being produced by my fellow freelancers.

My team and I created an infographic that presents the detailed content creation process of Demand Media using text, graphics and images repurposed from OnlineMBA and Demand Media’s Content Matters. (Click on the infographic to view the full-size version.)

This infographic portrays how Demand Media utilizes a network of proven professional writers and copy editors, with every piece of content run through a rigorous quality control and review process. Articles that do not meet the strict Demand Media content quality standards are rejected and never published.

The continued efforts of Demand Media to improve content quality and focus on the creation of compelling, actionable content on its growing platform of top-rated properties are delivering strong financial results and positive user responses, and are a strong sign for scrutinizing investors.

Related: Learn more about how Demand Media offers advertisers a unique opportunity to reach action-ready consumers through intent targeting.

Following the company’s release of Google +1, this release will do little to calm the fears that Google is resorting to a “copy-cat” strategy as it falls further behind in social and perhaps is even losing its dominance in search. Further hampering Google’s progress is Groupon’s poaching of Google VP of Sales Operations Margo Georgiadis to fill the role of COO. With virtually zero differentiation in the company’s plunge into local deals, what makes Google believe it can compete with established heavyweights like Groupon and LivingSocial?

——————————————-

More than a month after Groupon spurned a $6 billion acquisition offer from Google, the worldwide search engine leader is preparing to announce its own local deals service, Google Offers. According to Mashable, “Google will pay out 80% of a business’ revenue share three days after its deal runs. Google will hold the remaining 20% for 60 days to cover refunds before sending the rest.”

Groupon holds a dominant share of the local deals market, with LivingSocial trailing in a distant second and dozens of clones controlling minuscule shares. Reports of a similar service from Facebook have surfaced recently, and with Groupon supposedly preparing for a $15 billion IPO, questions are arising whether the market is saturated and if it can sustain another large competitor this late in the cycle.

The local deals market is by no means mature, and traditional marketing laws call for a strong number one versus number two competition over the long run, but the rules of Silicon Valley reward the first market entrants above all else. So with an established leader in Groupon controlling a heavy share and runner-up LivingSocial fresh off their blowout Amazon deal (which garnered over one million downloads), is Google Offers too late?

With little room for differentiation in the basic deals platform, Google’s opportunity to steal share from Groupon lies in its ability to integrate search, social, maps and location, and capitalize on the power of its online reach under the rejiggered executive management team led by some familiar faces. Pre-loaded mobile applications on its Android platforms and packaged search and local deals are likely components of Google’s strategic plan. It will take time to build these features out, but perhaps more than any time in the company’s history since its IPO, this is a critical inflection point for Google.

Google’s official response to a Mashable inquiry reveals the early development efforts of Offers:

“Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted.”

The potential viability of Offers is a snapshot into the current environment at the still highly regarded online behemoth. It is widely known that more than 90% of Google’s revenues come from search engine advertising, and a recent string of disappointing product failures has some industry insiders questioning the company’s ability to create new and sustainable innovations.

After announcing a record-breaking quarter, with profits jumping to $2.5 billion, Google is hardly faltering. Google’s efforts in display advertising and mobile are paying off, and search is as powerful as ever. But with news that Eric Schmidt will step down on April 4th and co-founder Larry Page will take over as CEO, investors and insiders will be keeping a close eye on Google over the next year. As one blogger questioned, will Page’s return to the helm be similar to Steve Jobs’ triumphant reclamation of the Apple throne in 1997, or more like Jerry Yang’s short-lived return to Yahoo! in 2007?

Image Credit: Mashable

As the company matured, growth stabilized and new tech darlings like Google stole the spotlight. Delayed product launches of centerpiece operating systems, failed products and advertising campaigns, broken acquisition deals and an apparent lack of internal innovation gave Microsoft a reputation as a “has been” that had passed its prime, and current CEO Steve Ballmer lost the confidence of many investors.

However, new data is showing that Microsoft may be experiencing a reversal of fortunes, as the company’s investments in search are beginning to pay off. The brutally competitive search engine market has had one dominant player for the last decade – Google – which has held as much as 80 percent of the United States search market.

In October 2010, the U.S. search marketshare breakdown was as follows: Google (72.15%); Yahoo + Bing (23.64%). The most recent Hitwise data shows Bing has made substantial gains at the expense of Google and Yahoo. Bing-powered search now controls 30.01% of the U.S. search market, while Google’s share has fallen to 64.42%. (See below: Image courtesy of Mashable.)

These gains may be the result of a major multi-platform ad push by Microsoft for Bing, but the trend is a positive sign for investors and spectators that have remained loyal to the company.

Strong performance in search, high expectations for tablet and PC versions of the upcoming Windows 8 platform, new developer confidence in the Windows Phone platform following the recent Nokia partnership announcement, the smashing success of Kinect and Xbox 360 and widespread adoption of Microsoft’s iPhone and iPad apps are powerful indicators of a possible Microsoft mindshare and marketshare resurgence.

Less than a decade after Wall Street and Silicon Valley critics alike pronounced the death of Apple as a legitimate player in the lucrative personal computer market, the world has witnessed the resurgence of the Cupertino-based company as the dominant force in the rapidly-growing world of consumer electronics. Could we be seeing the beginning of an Apple-esque Microsoft turnaround? Critics will call it wishful thinking, but with Google in the process of a massive leadership change, Yahoo! undergoing a drawn-out transition phase and the tenure of Apple CEO Steve Jobs uncertain, the competitive landscape is changing and Microsoft has substantial opportunities in search, PCs and mobile.

Wordle is a clever tag cloud tool that automatically creates a custom text cloud from a slate of creative templates. Users can enter text manually, copy/paste text blocks, or allow the program to crawl any website and Wordle will create a custom word cloud with the given text. Users can then edit word orientation, edit text colors, alter color variation and access a host of other customizations.

(Click to enlarge.)

To create your own custom text cloud for free, visit www.Wordle.net.

What are your favorite free tools from around the Web? Share with a comment below.

Could this be the product & morale boost Yahoo! needs? It just may be. After months of public hits and high-profile executive departures, Yahoo! has taken a significant step forward in reversing the company’s downward trend. Competition from Google, Facebook, Twitter and others have put pressure on Yahoo! to release an innovative, revolutionary product to capitalize on the company’s massive Web audience.

Search Direct is clearly an effort to make Yahoo! Search more of a destination and less a sea of links. Search is about content and information discovery, and reducing the number of steps it takes to get a user from query to information is vital.

View and test Search Direct here.

Google Instant was a start – it brought links to users faster. Yahoo! Direct Search takes it one step further, providing a richer experience and faster, more comprehensive access to answers, not just links to answers. It’s early and the product is still being refined, but it has big potential.

Here is the press release from Yahoo! announcing Search Direct:

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced Search Direct, which delivers answers and direct access to websites before you complete a query, hit the search button, or go to a search results page. This search innovation supports Yahoo!’s strategy to fundamentally shift the way people experience the Web – by providing the richest, most integrated content faster and more efficiently.This new feature, currently in beta, taps into Yahoo!’s unique opportunity to combine content and structured data and to provide a rich search experience. Search Direct predicts search results as fast as a person types, character by character, and presents those results dynamically, generating a fast, simple search experience that goes beyond a list of blue links.  Search Direct rolls out in a public beta to Yahoo! users across the U.S. today, and will be available in other Yahoo! products and markets later this year.

“With today’s launch, direct answers – not the search results page – is the primary focus. We are redefining the search process and prominently displaying direct answers where search decisions are being made,” said Shashi Seth, senior vice president, Yahoo! Search and Marketplaces. “Search Direct is evidence of Yahoo! continuing to lead innovation in search, enabling people to take action faster, find what is most important, and sample what is possible with the next stage of search technology.”

With Search Direct, Yahoo! content is combined with information from the Web to provide rich answers, not just links, and to give people the option to immediately engage or continue to a traditional search results page. In this beta release, coverage includes top trending searches, movies, TV, sports teams and players, weather, local, travel, stocks, and shopping categories now available at search.yahoo.com.

·         Trending Searches – The moment the cursor hits the search box, top search trends appear and are updated every 10 minutes to display the latest and greatest search trends.

·         Search Previews – Search Direct predicts the search term as you type, providing the 10 most likely searches. You can then easily scan each option to see the related top results and find the best match for your needs.

·         Direct Answers – For many common searches, Search Direct provides instant answers before you click the Search button. Find an address or phone number, a three-day weather forecast, financial stock performance, the top trending stories at Yahoo! News, or when and where a movie is playing – all without going to a results page.

·         Direct Results – When you scan the search options and find the site you need, Search Direct provides exactly that – direct access to the site. No more overwhelming pages of links.

·         Rich Content – For all top searches about sports, top news stories, and finance, Search Direct displays rich content that only the world’s largest digital media company can provide. For example, type “n” to get the Yahoo! News display, which always shows the top two trending stories.

Yahoo! will continue to enhance and update Search Direct with new content, such as popular music and local listings.  For more information and a demo video of Search Direct from Yahoo!, visit search.yahoo.com and our company blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

For more insight, check out the live blogs and analyses from Business Insider and All Things D.

Hollywood was among the first industries to recognize that even the best stories need great packaging to become the mega-hits that bring swarms of people to theaters in costumes and tents, waiting for hours to experience the story. Avatar was not a multi-billion dollar smash hit because the story was particularly exceptional or because audiences were deeply committed to the film’s message of environmentalism. The film attracted an enormous and diverse audience of moviegoers craving to immerse themselves in the engrossing experience James Cameron expertly crafted. The impressive 3D effects, captivating majesty of Pandora and exceptionally-directed audio throughout the film catapulted audiences into a foreign world, allowing them to experience the story in a way that simply was not possible even twenty years ago. James Cameron isn’t just selling movie tickets. He is selling an experience. Entertainment locations like Universal’s Harry Potter theme park and Disneyworld don’t sell roller coaster tickets and concessions. They sell an experience. Starbucks isn’t selling coffee and pastries. It is selling an experience.

The entertainment industry was a pioneer, but new players are encouraged by the success they’ve seen and are increasing their efforts to weave the overall consumer or experience into every decision they make.

The resurgence of Apple as a beloved consumer and cultural icon can be directly linked to its insistence on providing unique and powerfully positive experiences to its customers. One only needs to step inside an Apple retail store to understand how well this strategy has caught on. Flocks of current and would-be customers seem suspended in a perpetual state of bliss and fascination as they explore and tinker with the latest iPhones, iPads and MacBooks. Even months after a product is released, Apple stores are bustling with activity and energy. Why? Because Apple created a hands-on experience and instills a sense of ownership in its customers.

But what makes Apple such a unique and powerful example of experience-driven strategy is its array of products designed to wow the users’ senses. The touch, audio and visual interactions that characterize the company’s most successful products have taken a company that was once a quarter or two away from a low-ball acquisition and made it a beloved symbol of quality, innovation and excellence. (Author’s note: I give high praise to Apple, but I’m no ‘fanboy’ – I have happily used a PC for 15 years and will critique Apple if/when necessary.)

Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and others are carefully crafting new and addictive user experiences that have led to astounding engagement and interaction metrics. The genuinely positive experience of interacting with your social connections and having the ability to share your own story is an experience we – as humans – crave.

From luxury car dealerships and IMAX theaters to retail stores and theme parks, business are trending toward products and services driven by a foundation of selling experiences. These experiences are powerful, and as technology advances even further, the experiences will become deeper, more interactive and more compelling. An incredible, truly wowing experience with a product or service is rare, but if businesses can deliver one, they are poised for transformative success.

NOTE: Visit www.letschatbusiness.net on your iPad for a unique, Flipboard-esque experience driven by Onswipe and WordPress.

For nearly a century, technology has purportedly brought together the fragments of society. With universal access to common information, previously disconnected groups can unite. History has proven, however, that this initial period of universality eventually trends back toward fragmentation. Can the social Web fight history and survive the seemingly inevitable re-fragmentation?

After Dark Ages, the explosion of printing and publishing in the 15th century led to a significant spread of knowledge and the rebirth of intellectual curiosity. Knowledge was no longer exclusively based on hearsay, and people sought information from trusted academic and historical resources. Outside academic circles, media sources like newspapers and general information magazines boomed in popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries. For the first time in generations, people could discuss common events and share their opinions on similar topics. Previously fragmented societies were unified. The world’s longest running magazine, the general information-focused Saturday Evening Post, lasted 148 years. Over time, however, general interest publications died out as public interest waned, and niche publications that catered to unique, specialized interests became the only sustainable media outlets. (There are nearly 7,000 special interest magazines in publication today.)

Radio, commercialized by RCA’s David Sarnoff after World War I, removed some of the adoption barriers that characterized print media. The famous voices of Edward R. Murrow and Franklin D. Roosevelt – for the first time in history – were broadcast to millions of people at a time across the airwaves. Radio was a national phenomenon, and the medium had a powerful unifying impact on society. Millions of people shared common listening experiences and had access to the same information. For twenty years, the country was bound together by radio until a new medium came along: television. Television forced radio programming to cater to niche audiences, and the medium that once unified society fragmented it once again. (See also: How the Internet is Transforming Television.)

Starting to notice a pattern? The Internet is a unique medium, allowing virtually anyone, anywhere to become a source of content. More than any other medium, the Internet has created fragmented user experiences. The social Web is, of course, founded on the platform of unifying users based on their social connections to create a more personal Web experience. So can it buck the historical trend that has re-fragmented user bases in previous media?

Absolutely.

Social media is the product of constantly evolving, improving and competing technology, and is heavily integrated in a range of Web content. Social products improve user experiences by taking into account a plethora of data and using this data to provide increasingly relevant content and people to share it with. Social media has exploded in popularity over the last five years, but it is easy to argue the market is still in its relative infancy. Mobile social products like Instagram, Foursquare and Twitter are connecting people across the globe in new ways, and social media has initiated a new Web paradigm. The transformational nature of new media technologies has united societies and re-fragmented them again and again, but social media has the opportunity to transcend the biting force of history and remain a powerful connecting force for many years to come.

Netflix boasts more than 20 million subscribers in North America and enjoys some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the country. CEO Reed Hastings has led Netflix to the height of corporate and consumer dominance, and in spite of the recent pullback in the company’s stock, the widespread growth is expected to continue. Netflix offers a massive media library of licensed content more than four times the size of Amazon’s, and with a growing number of instant streaming companies launching, the ability to host the most (and best) content is a key determining factor in the battle for customers. On the heels of the Amazon launch, Netflix announced a two-year, non-exclusive partnership with CBS that will bolster Netflix’s current content offerings.

Many agree that while Amazon’s new streaming service will be a valuable deal-sweetener on top of the unlimited shipping, Netflix isn’t currently facing a significant threat from the market newcomer. Perhaps more intriguing is the precarious partnership that exists between Netflix and Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, Amazon Web Services (AWS).

In early 2010, Netflix transferred a significant portion of its Web technology to AWS, a move that brought the streaming giant from massive data centers to Amazon’s massive cloud service. The transition freed Netflix from the massive financial costs and resource allocation demanded by the Oracle and IBM data centers it had previously used. Amazon’s cloud service allows Netflix to focus its engineering resources on customer-facing innovations and more importantly, allows the company to scale more efficiently. AWS offers a pay-as-you-go model that allows Netflix to add and subtract capacity as needed, eliminating contract commitments and resource-devouring depreciation costs.

In light of Amazon’s push into the instant streaming market, the two companies now face an intriguing competitive partnership. For Amazon Prime subscribers, the new perk will serve as an additional fringe benefit, but Netflix subscribers aren’t likely to abandon the company they so passionately enjoy and support. Neither the content offering nor the price point from Amazon are currently compelling enough to initiate the switch. Can Amazon leverage its impressive distribution channels and massive network of users to lure consumers to the company’s new video service? Will Netflix look to Rackspace or Microsoft for its cloud computing needs as competition from Amazon strengthens?

The ties between the two company are significant and will undoubtedly play a role in the future of the video streaming market, but the extent to which these two industry titans will co-exist or compete remains to be seen.

Twitter, the micro-blogging site that easily connects users across the globes with one-click follows and hashtags, has become a valuable real-time thermometer for networks to gauge viewer feedback during programs. What began as networks monitoring chatter on the main site feeds has evolved into the launch of enhanced microsites developed and powered by Twitter, and several major brands have already come on board. Visa and the NFL partnered with Twitter to launch a microsite covering the Super Bowl XLV. Women’s Wear Daily, Bobbi Brown and Bergdorfs sponsored a microsite for New York Fashion Week. HBO created a Twitter microsite for True Blood fanatics.

These microsites provide encompassing coverage of live events with real-time tweets, pictures and aggregated news. Brands can deliver real-time updates and become a destination for consumers to share knowledge and engage in active conversations on a particular topic with like-minded individuals. Most importantly, these microsites are a platform for branded content alongside user-generated content, integrating two incredibly powerful forces in Web 2.0 marketing. Brands can subsidize the costs of developing these sites by partnering with sponsors (i.e. “New York Fashion Week: Presented by American Express”) that obtain prime real estate alongside highly relevant content and engaged audiences.

For networks, these microsites encourage and facilitate real-time conversations that cannot occur on a comparable scale outside of the live program time slots. Networks can use these microsites to provide advertisers with more in-depth viewer metrics (i.e. 250,000 unique tweets, 50,000 hashtag mentions, etc.) that can command premium ad rates.

These microsites have significant potential beyond enhancing live, lean forward television viewing experiences. Imagine brands like Apple and conventions like CES implementing these sites for major product launches and events. It’s more important than ever to go where your customers and users are, and microsites offer networks and brands the opportunity to drive engagement and become a central online conversation destination.

Will more Twitter microsites pop up in 2011 and beyond? Would you use a microsite to tweet on your connected TV?

When I turned down my parents’ Tiger Mom-like ambitions in favor of journalism years ago, the technology and media industries were worlds apart. The best-known tech companies of my parents’ generation were plodding giants. Take Your Daughter to Work Day was kind of like this video of Conan O’Brien visiting Intel. Drab, gray cubicles. Rows of thousands of people staring endlessly into glowing black screens with command-line inte … Read More

via The Quora Review (By: Kim-Mai Cutler)

The incredible success of Facebook Connect has convinced the Palo Alto-based company that significant potential lies in its ability to forge partnerships with media and content producers that integrate social connections into a wide variety of Web experiences. (Facebook has recently taken steps in courting major media publishers like Time Warner in an effort to pursue new platforms of integration and penetration.) More than two million Web properties have taken advantage of Facebook’s “Like” function to drive traffic and increase user engagement, and a Facebook commenting platform will continue to grow that number.

To date, Disqus has been a fairly ubiquitous presence as the comment tool of choice for top publishers like TechCrunch, Mashable, The Wall Street Journal and many others. Users can give articles a “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down” and can comment via Disqus through their Twitter or Facebook accounts, but Facebook’s new commenting platform threatens to displace Disqus as the king of commenting.

Facebook already has nearly 600 million users; no need to set up a new account, no need to give application permissions, no hassle. Publishers can’t drive engagement if they aren’t connecting with people, and a partnership with Facebook means instant access to hundreds of millions of users and their friends. Readers can “Like” and comment on a piece of content, and the power of social proof produces a snowball effect that increases traffic and extends online reach as those actions permeate onto users’ news feeds, boosting awareness and driving new traffic to the site. Reports indicate users will also be able to vote for and against comments in a stream, and a Facebook-run moderation system may be in the works. People.com is already using a version of Facebook’s commenting platform, and major online publishers like The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and TIME are prime candidates to adopt the service as it is rolled out.

As CNET pointed out, Facebook has developed a significant slate of new products in recent months, including Facebook Places, Facebook Deals and Facebook Questions, providing instant competition for companies like Foursquare, Groupon and Quora. While each of these products are still in their infancy, its conceivable that the rising prominence of social media in business and the utter dominance of Facebook within the social realm will force properties and publishers to adopt Facebook tools for fear of missing out on its massive and addicted user base.

The benefits of Facebook integration to publishers are clear, but why would Facebook continue to offer its API to these properties for free? In return for enabling social integration, Facebook often receives extensive data on a publisher’s audience, which can in turn be combined with Facebook’s knowledge of its users’ activities to improve ad targeting on its own network. Understanding user intent and preference is critical, and the ability for Facebook to better understand the behavior of its users away from its own network is a key factor in advancing the company’s efforts to monetize in a period of hyper growth and massive external investment.

Social integration has become a crucial part of the success of online publishers, and given the widespread popularity of early Facebook integrations, the release of a Facebook commenting platform is a significant threat to Disqus, Echo and the other startups that have led the way thus far.

The month of January marked a significant step in the development of LivingSocial, with the Washington, D.C.-based company receiving a $175 million strategic investment from Amazon. A wildly popular coupon that gave buyers a $20 Amazon gift card for $10 was purchased by more than one million customers, many of them first-time buyers.

On the day of the Amazon deal, mentions of LivingSocial on Twitter and Facebook skyrocketed, and the power of social proof helped the coupon spread across the Web like wildfire. An Experian HitWise report (seen below) indicates US traffic to LivingSocial jumped 80% during the week of the Amazon deal.

It’s likely that traffic will subdue in the coming weeks without another irresistible deal driving users to the site, but the Amazon deal put LivingSocial on the map as a formidable opponent to Groupon in a highly competitive market. Tens of thousands of new users registered to snag a 50% off Amazon gift card, and even if only 20% of those new users return to the site and purchase other deals, LivingSocial will have gained valuable ground against Groupon.

With the prospect of competing against such a well-established foe, not to mention the powerful forces of Google and Facebook, LivingSocial will benefit immensely from their new partnership with Amazon. The value of this partnership cannot be understated. Aside from the ever-important infusion of capital, LivingSocial now has an incredible resource of technical and logistics knowledge. The increased visibility provided by the Amazon partnership will help LivingSocial penetrate the market and gain all-important mindshare.

The trifecta of Groupon, Google Offers and Facebook Deals will ensure a long and hard-fought battle ahead, but with Amazon in its corner, LivingSocial could be a force to reckon with.

The most critical was the announcement that, for the first time in the site’s history, it will pay its contributors for the exclusive content they create for Seeking Alpha. For years, contributors have submitted and published articles on Seeking Alpha to increase their online exposure, develop their personal and professional brand, and drive traffic and leads to their businesses. However, not all contributors have business to drive leads to, and Seeking Alpha is now confident it can share “meaningful revenue” with its writers as an additional incentive.

Contributors will receive $10.00USD for every thousand pageviews, and payments will be distributed quarterly. Any of the site’s 4,000 contributors may choose not to keep their content exclusive to Seeking Alpha, and the site will  continue publish their non-exclusive articles in the same manner it always has. (Full program details here.)

This announcement prompted an obvious question: why would Seeking Alpha pay for content that it used to obtain and publish for free? The site has long been praised in many circles for its high-quality content and well-respected army of contributors. This reputation has been converted into more than 630,000 registered users and 40,000 comments a month. But is this audience enough to sustain the business in this new model?

With a stated average of 2,500 to 20,000 pageviews for each article on Seeking Alpha, the site will be shelling out an average of $25 to $200 per article. Even with the premium rates the site has been able to charge advertisers and the prolonged payment cycles that reduce overhead, that is a significant capital outlay for an uncertain return.

The argument for Seeking Alpha‘s bet is that by investing heavily in its valued contributors, the site is building mutually beneficial relationships that drive reciprocal traffic and continue to develop the reputation of the site and its contributors.

New content creation and distribution systems are often met with skepticism and criticism – especially when it involves paying for content that used to be obtained for free. Incentivized crowdsourced content almost always carries the risk of decreasing quality as quantity increases. VentureBeat also noted that pageview-driven financial incentives may encourage link bait and sensationalism, decreasing the value of the premium content that has built a highly sought-after audience at Seeking Alpha.

To combat this undesirable transition, Seeking Alpha announced a coinciding rollout of an expanded community ranking and contributor reputation system that qualifies writers based on a number of reader engagement metrics.

The long-tail content model often relies on fixed-fee payments and the cumulative value of evergreen content to produce sustainable returns. Pieces of content with longer usable lives have greater lifetime values, so after the fixed cost is covered, the returns are astronomical on quality content created in this model. However, the predictive and reactive nature of Seeking Alpha content largely prohibits the site from utilizing this fixed payment model.

Some of the fundamentals-based articles on Seeking Alpha covering general investment techniques and strategies may have longer life cycles and greater lifetime values, but the high daily turnover of the majority of investment and trading related content virtually eliminates the value of this strategy. Revenue sharing allows Seeking Alpha to compensate its contributors for the content they create while minimizing the risk of paying for content that has become obsolete before the fixed cost has been covered.

After more than a year of exponential user and pageview growth, Seeking Alpha is betting “all-in” that the quality of its content won’t decrease as submissions shoot through the roof, ensuring advertisers will still pay premium rates to advertise on the site.

Will Seeking Alpha’s new strategy succeed? Share your thoughts in a comment below.