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• Google should send comScore flowers

  Posted Apr 18 2008, 01:12 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Advertising
  Rating:

  Google shares soared today after its first-quarter earnings report, and the company has comScore to thank for much of its good fortunes. That's because many analysts had lowered their revenue and profit estimates for the quarter after comScore's tracking data suggested paid-click growth was trending flat to down.

  The result? Google had the luxury of reporting earnings against diminished expectations. And it blew those expectations away. First quarter profit was $4.84 per share, way ahead of Wall Street's forecast of $4.53. Net revenue was $3.7 billion, ahead of the $3.61 billion analysts had forecast.

  How nice to have someone lower the bar so much that Google could just hop right over it and see its shares rise by 20%.   Read More...

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• Google tanks, but don't worry

  Posted Mar 04 2008, 12:24 PM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Advertising, Intel, Kim Peterson
  Rating:

  The Google freefall hit a notable mark today: its shares are trading lower than where they ended 2006. Shares slid as low as $435.78, but closed today at $444.60. That's down by a third since November; the company's market cap has dropped during that time to $140 billion from $232 billion.

  Give Intel some of the blame. The chipmaker lowered its Q1 profit margin forecast, and when Intel does that it drags the whole tech sector down. There was also news today that one of Google's top sales execs is jumping ship for social-networking darling Facebook.

  But bigger issues are felling Google -- concerns about slowing revenue and profit growth, and about the economy affecting Google's paid click business. A report out last week by research firm ComScore showed a 7% drop in the number of times people clicked on Google's advertising links in January. The number of paid clicks per Google search query fell by 8%.   Read More...

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• Google ads to become latest Web nuisance

  Posted Sep 19 2007, 09:49 AM by Kim Peterson
  Filed under: Google, Advertising

  Someday soon, we'll long for the days when Google ads behaved themselves. When they used to sit calmly on the side of search results, quietly hawking cheap airfares or brand name watches.

  Today Google said it's testing advertising widgets, officially known as Gadget Ads. These ads can be animations, videos and even mini Web sites, and are designed to interact with Web users. Advertisers can measure exactly how much video was watched or how long a game was played.

  You can see examples of the ads here. Be warned: the Sierra Mist one is so painful your eyes will need hours to recover   Read More...

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