The dominance of Google's AdSense product is likely to increase after Yahoo! pulled the plug on its rival, Content Match, in Europe. Yahoo! said it was not prepared to invest any more resources in the contextual advertising tool and will close it down on 31 March. It has decided instead to concentrate on growing search and display. With Yahoo! having held talks with AOL about a display partnership, and Microsoft still sniffing around the search business, Yahoo!'s presence in Europe is clearly on the wane; which suits Google just fine.
It's not just Yahoo! making cutbacks though. More evidence emerged that Google cannot survive the downturn unscathed as it announced 100 staff cuts and the closing of three offices in Texas, Norway and Sweden. The staff cuts are in the HR department, with Google wielding the axe after identifying that it won't be hiring many people in the foreseeable future. Temporary staff are going too, and, lo, Google may even be closing some of its free staff cafes. The search giant has already shifted the time that its free cafe in Victoria serves dinner so that now staff have to stay later than before if they want a free feed, or go home early, leaving Google with fewer meals to pay for.
Ask anyone to choose between a cup of tea (even one from the Google cafe) and two Google searches, and the selection will most likely be the former. It's a strange proposition that cropped up after news reports quoted scientific research declaring that both have the same impact on the environment. Since then, the author of the report has stepped in to say that he was misquoted.But what about Larry and Sergey's Boeing 767? Not much mention has focused on the carbon footprint of the Google co-founders' so-called party plane.
WORLD DOMINANCE UPDATE
A study by AdGooroo found the number of keyword ads on the first page of Google's search results increased by 58 per cent in Q4 2008, suggesting more advertisers are getting on board. Microsoft's went up by 42 per cent; Yahoo!'s by 8.8 per cent.