Some interesting Web Tech news out today…
– Web giants ask for feds’ help
on censorship; mostly relating to US Big Internet Companies (Goog, MS and Y!) trying
to do business in China, although this CNET report suggests that about 25 countries
around the world are currently engaged in Internet filtering.
–
Yahoo Planning to Add 100 Web Sites for Entertainment; NY Times reports on Yahoo’s
Brand Universe strategy, which aims to “create environments where fans of brands can hang
out when they are online.” The first example is the Nintendo Wii site, which R/WW
covered in November. I think it’s a good way to drive more traffic and eyeballs, and
it utilizes the Yahoo ‘social media infrastructure’ (to coin an awkward phrase). In
essence Yahoo is shifting focus more to being a Web platform for externally branded
content – rather than creating most of the content itself.
– Google 4Q Earnings
Nearly Triple; The Googernaut rolls on, with the Mountain View company earning $1.03
billion during the final 3 months of 2006. Not wanting to appear over-confident, Google
CEO Eric Schmidt cautiously noted in his public announcement of the earnings: “To be
growing this fast at this stage is phenomenal”.
– comScore Networks
Releases Top Web Properties Worldwide for December; this is interesting, as Google
sites are now ranked number 2, just behind Microsoft sites and ahead of Yahoo. Also check
out the top-gaining categories worldwide in 2006: Multimedia (up 37 percent, mostly due
to YouTube), Community (up 33 percent, including MySpace and Blogger.com), E-mail (up 16
percent, thanks largely to Google Gmail – up 71 percent to 60 million visitors
year-over-year), News/Information (up 15 percent) and Games (up 14 percent).