YouTomb Lists YouTube Removals

YouTomb is a research project by the MIT “that tracks videos taken down from [Google-owned] YouTube for alleged copyright violation,” as the site explains.

Nielsen: Google Hits New Search Share High

Another ratings service shows Google hitting an all-time high for search share in the United States. This is according to April 2008 search share stats from Nielsen Online that were released (PDF) today. Last week, Hitwise also reported Google hitting a new record. Microsoft also dips below the 10 percent mark for the first time.

Here are the percentage shares for the top five search engines shown in the pie chart above:

• Google: 62.0%
• Yahoo: 17.5%
• Microsoft: 9.7%
• AOL: 4.3%
• Ask: 2.1%

Note that in the chart above, traffic from Ask.com-owned My Web Search is not combined by Nielsen with the Ask figure. If it were, the Ask figure would rise to 2.8 percent.

The trend over time? Here's data going back to November 2007 (data from previous periods doesn't compare because Nielsen changed its methodology):

Google hit a new high, up from its previous high last month. Both Yahoo and Microsoft hit new lows after previous lows last month, but Microsoft's was more dramatic.

How about number of searches versus market share?

• Google: 5.1 billion
• Yahoo: 1.5 billion
• Microsoft: 796 million
  AOL: 352 million
• Ask: 172 million

The trend:

Caveat Time!

As a reminder, my general rules when evaluating popularity stats:

• Avoid drawing conclusions based on month-to-month comparisons. Lots of things can cause one month's figures to be incomparable to another month. It's better to see the trend across multiple months in a row.
  
• Avoid drawing conclusions based on one ratings service's figures. Each service has a unique methodology used to create popularity estimates. This means that ratings will rarely be the same between services. However, a trend that you see reflected across two or more services may give you faith in trusting that trend.
  
• Consider Actual Number Of Searches: While share for a particular search engine might drop, the raw number of searches might still be going up (and thus they might be earning more money, despite a share drop). This is because the "pie" of searches keeps growing, so even a smaller slice of the pie might be more than a bigger slice in the past.

The Yahoo Search Marketing have released several minor updates to make the use of the search ad console easier for advertisers to work with. Here is a list of changes and enhancements made to the system:

* All names of objects (campaign, ad group, keyword, etc.) that are offline are displayed with red text for easy recognition.
* The "Top Campaigns" and “Watched Campaigns” tables on the Dashboard page now include a “Status” column to help you identify if and why any campaigns are offline.
* Minor updates to the "Campaigns" page have been made, including a new “Status” column, the ability to filter by “Status” when using the Advanced Search function, and replacing the “Campaign On/Off” button with individual “Pause” and “Unpause” buttons.
* We made minor tweaks to the Ads table on an Ad Group page, including adding a “Status” column, and replacing the “Campaign On/Off” button with individual “Pause” and “Unpause” buttons.
* New status settings have been added on the Search page, under the Campaigns tab.
* The addition of the “Status” column to the Ad Group, Ad and Keyword Search screens under the Campaigns tab.
* The ability to export (using the “Download” button) account information has been added to account-level Ad Group and Keyword pages, under the Campaigns tab.

-> Y!

What's New

Here are the latest features and enhancements to help you manage your ad campaigns.

• Account Display Enhancements
• Pricing Update
• Click Filter Report

Account Display Enhancements

Areas in which we made small enhancements to your account interface include:

• Status for offline objects (campaign, ad group, keyword, etc.) displays in red. Objects that are online are displayed in blue or black letters. Learn more about status display.
• The "Top Campaigns" and "Watched Campaigns" tables on the Dashboard page now include a "Status" column. Learn more about Top and Watched Lists.
• Minor updates to the "Campaigns" page, including adding a "Status" column. Learn more about Campaign status.
• Minor updates to the Ads table on an Ad Group page. Learn more about Ad status settings.
• The ability to export (using the "Download" buttons) at the account-level Ad Group and Keyword pages, under the Campaigns tab. Learn more about downloading ad groups for export and the column specifications for the bulk export spreadsheet.

Pricing Update

Our goal is to improve search users’ experience, while also improving the value of traffic to you. Last year, we launched several initiatives that have directly impacted the way we price the leads we provide you, including:

• A new ranking model, based on both the ad’s quality—or relevance—and the bid amount.
• Pricing discounts, which can discount your cost-per-click on clicks on our partners’ sites based on our assessment of the quality of traffic delivered by those sites.

Now, we've changed the way we set the minimum bid required to participate in a Sponsored Search keyword market. Previously, the minimum bid for any keyword in our system was $0.10. With this update, your minimum bid required to participate in a keyword market can be higher or lower than $0.10. The amount set as your minimum bid on a keyword can vary depending on multiple factors, such as the relevance of your keywords (as measured by the quality of the ads associated with them in an ad group), and the number of bidders and their bid amounts in the particular keyword market. Currently, Content Match minimum bids remain at $0.10