Sponsored search and economic crisis

What we have seen so far in online advertising is a shift from brand spend to direct response spend, i.e. from banner into sponsored search, affiliate marketing and the likes. It does make complete sense. Given the though economic environment, and the pressure in companies on controlling costs while maintaining revenues, a shift from brand […]

The economy slow down and online advertising

We surely are in an economic slowdown, if not in a recession. Some even say a depression. How long it is going to last isn’t easy to say. Some say months, some say quarters, some others (a few, in fairness) say years. I say at least quarters, and I say recession, without inflation.
So what is […]

Microsoft pays you to search: the war on margins has started

Recently Microsoft has announced the Live Search Cashback initiative. An interesting product that, if successful, can have far reaching consequences. And I am eager to see how it does.
Live Cashback gives you money back for shopping with selected merchants. Easy: make a search for a product (try here), select the appropriate result (or refine search […]

Don’t shoot Comscore

After Google reported strong Q1 earnings, people from all around the world started shooting at Comscore.
Quite wrongly, considering that Comscore numbers weren’t used in the most appropriate way. As Comscore points out in a blog post, it is necessary to compare apple to apple. And to know their product fairly well, before making any conclusions. […]

“Nobody will ever pay to show up on search”

A few days ago I was at some sort of networking event in London and met a couple of Italian guys. We started talking about our background, and when I said I was one of the two founders of Godado they came out saying they clearly remembered the search engine and used to use it […]