Replies to post #3852 on Alphabet Inc (GOOG)

[SeriousMoney]

Google Travel Coming Soon?
SearchEngineWatch
Posted by Barry Schwartz on Apr. 17, 2006

Russell Shaw feels that Google is making a play at the travel vertical. Russell spotted a Google job posting for a "Google: Senior Account Executive, Travel Vertical." Russell explains that the job posting details "sounds" that "Google is building a Google Travel brand." I personally do not see the wording suggesting more than Google sending more leads on a PPC or CPA basis to the major travel search engines. However, it would not surprise me to see Google release a http://travel.google.com/ some day. Last October they added a travel OneBox that brings you to travel engines such as Expedia (the default), Hotwire, Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity.

Russell believes Google may partner or buy Orbitz, since it is currently fairly available to be bought and it is based on Chicago, just like the Google job opening. Time will tell on this, until then, you can search at Google using JFK to YYZ style searches to get the travel OneBox results from Google.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060417-091220

[SeriousMoney]

Google Maintains Lead In Search, Ad Growth
Forbes.com, Maya Roney, 04.17.06, 12:31 PM ET

Global advertising could grow 35% in the first quarter of 2006, with search advertising growth continuing to outpace branded and Google continuing to lead in market share gains, according to a recent Merrill Lynch report.

"Checks with advertisers and agencies have indicated ongoing strength in the Internet advertising market, with no major disruptions during the quarter," said analysts Justin Post and Lauren Rich Fine.

The analysts expect Google to increase its advertising share in the first quarter to 30%, up from 28% in the fourth quarter of 2005. Yahoo!, Time Warner AOL and Microsoft MSN will likely lose advertising share as the first quarter is not a strong branded quarter, they said.

According to recent worldwide search query data from comScore, Google steadily gained share in the first quarter of 2006, while Yahoo! and Time Warner maintained market share, and the Ask network and MSN lost share.

The analysts attribute Google’s continued search query share growth to the company's diverting small amounts of search traffic to content sites like Google Finance, which is the top sponsored listing for search results on the term "finance," according to comScore.

The Merrill analysts have "neutral" ratings on both Google and Yahoo!, but favor Google near term.

http://www.forbes.com/2006/04/17/google-0417markets08.html?partner=yahootix

[SeriousMoney]

Google's Ad-Price Puzzle
By Jonathan Berr
TheStreet.com Senior Writer
4/17/2006 1:04 PM EDT

With the Internet's heavy hitters on deck for first-quarter earnings, investors are taking a close look at Net ad pricing trends.

So far, the results are mixed, though observers agree that prices have been reasonably stable, which is good for the big advertisers who are increasingly leaning on Internet search to get their message out.

Net-search keyword prices fell 3% in the first quarter following a dropoff in advertising from the holiday season, according to a survey by Fathom Online. Meanwhile, a separate report from a Google (GOOG:Nasdaq) fan says keyword pricing is rising at least a bit.

The average advertiser keyword bid was $1.39 per click in the first quarter, compared with $1.43 at the end of last year, according to Fathom. Prices have risen 1.4% since Fathom started its survey in September 2004. Most search advertisers are charged every time a user clicks on their ad.

"Search marketing is growing at a robust 25% this year, and price stability helps that growth," says Matt McMahon, vice president of marketing services at Fathom. "As advertisers see a more predictable keyword bidding environment, confidence in the channel grows and advertisers continue to invest further in search marketing."

Investors awaiting this week's results from Yahoo! (YHOO:Nasdaq) , eBay (EBAY:Nasdaq) and Google will pay close attention to keyword prices. Google gets most of its earnings from search. Yahoo! is trying to reverse its declining market share in search, while eBay is one of the largest keyword advertising buyers.

Since there are a huge number of variables, it's difficult to generalize about keyword prices. Fathom's index includes data from 20,000 generic keywords across 12 categories. Other reports reached similar conclusions.

A joint survey by Deutsche Bank, Media Post Communications and Insight Express finds "modest pricing growth." Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Raftschy, whose $600 price target on Google is the highest of any analyst, was more optimistic. He says the "pricing environment continued to trend positively in the first quarter." He rates Google a buy.

Search continues to be appealing for advertisers because it allows them to precisely measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Companies including General Motors' (GM:NYSE) Pontiac division are integrating search into other types of advertising, and local companies are increasingly using the engines.

"Our recent survey of search engine advertisers also indicates that the search advertising market is very healthy, the pricing environment continued to trend positively in the first quarter, and existing advertisers are increasing spending with Google at a robust rate," writes Rashtchy, who has a buy rating on Google.

Though search remains popular, there are signs that its explosive growth is starting to ease, which is one of the reasons why Google has lately been adding new features like a digital calendar and financial news. This will help Google attract rand advertisers who do their spending on Yahoo! Most Google users don't stay on the site long after they do their search, which makes the site less desirable for brand advertisers.

Google is due to report first-quarter earnings Thursday. Yahoo! results are due Tuesday, with eBay coming Wednesday.

http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/tech/internet/10279497.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=...