Google has delayed the IPO, investors are not excited at all over the IPO and in fact the entire IPO may be pulled. See the following articles for more. http://news.com.com/Google+IPO%3A+No+longer+a+sure+thing%3F/2100-1030_3-5299005.html?tag=nefd.top/ http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1631531,00.asp
Google who??????? who needs it anyway ?? Yahoo 37.7 % MSN 35 % Google 7.8 % (swapped places with Y over the last 4 month so what) Ask Jeeves UK 5.1 % AltaVista 4 % Tiscali 3.5 % Ask Jeeves 2.2 % Lycos 1.6 % AOL 1.4 % Mamma 0.6 % it's from a site that does 3k uniques a day of which only 54% is SE anyway so who needs G? M
I would say the same thing if that's what I saw, but I'm seeing this: Google: 95.71% Yahoo: 2.47% AOL NetFind: 1.47% Microsoft Network: 0.27% Excite: 0.04% AltaVista: 0.01% I have other (smaller) sites where it's pretty much an even split between MSN, Google and Yahoo, but they are non-technical. I think the content of the site has a big factor of the search engine you will get traffic from (because of the types of user demographic that is unique to each search engine).
Shawn, what's the general concensus/opinion regarding this then? You say Big G's a bit more tech oriented... ...so who gets a load of traffic from A0L then?
From my experience Google definitely has the most tech savvy users, with MSN and AOL having the least tech savvy, and Yahoo being about in the middle (that's just my generalized feeling based on my sites and experience). I'm guessing that a big part of MSN/AOL users not being tech savvy, is they rely on their users to use it simply because they are already there (like hotmail or AOL dialup users). Basically the users that have no clue that there even *are* different search engines, and simply use whatever is there already). That's also broad and generalized, but you get the idea.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/719b5192-e70c-11d8-aff8-00000e2511c8.html Another article of interest above. I can tell everyone the truth, right now Google (if they have your site in the index and have not banned you) is the best at crawling, the best at updating the fastest, it is giving 90% of referrals to most sites. They have their problems, have had their problems, but no one including me wants to see them disappear. I just would like to see some new management with more common sense come in to run the company. They have to find a different model (other than data mining spyware) to survive, the marketplace and lawmakers are turning on ADWARE/SPYWARE programs. So if Google does not find new direction soon, they will self destruct. That is what I see and have seen, their practices need to change in a hurry. Their secret algo's that favor Google advertising programs must change so that the company is fair to all in the search index or they really are doomed.
Shawn, I agree the example I gave is from a service / ecom site with strong referals. G is fine for sites with a technical slant and I do see similar results for such sites. Nevertheless I do not like the results from G in some areas. M
I agree with Shawn's reasoning. I think the only reason aol gets any search traffic is because of the general level of subscribers they cater to. I don't want to see G go away either. Until G came along, I was having a very hard time trying to monitize my website. While I'm not getting rich, I'm certainly doing very well. I also agree with Anthonycea, they need new management that help them pull their heads out of the sand and wake up to the real world. It's amazing to me how hard they seem to be working to alienate the very users that have made them so popular.
Here's what I see on our retail store mainly targeted at the Teen Vogue and older girl crowd. Google: 57.9 % Yahoo: 18.5 % MSN: 11.1 % AOL: 4.3 % Ask Jeeves: 1.2 % Netscape: 0.7% I think it does depend on the user type. Most people don't change their Internet Explorer default home page (MSN) or whatever another program changes it to, (AOL, etc.). I would bet that Google has much more specific/multiple word phrases searched than MSN, and AOL, although that might be changing.
Why would you sell it - the initial investment would have been small, I'd prefer the income from owning G rather than selling out of it... unless they think their percieved worth is at it's height and may fall in future? Maybe MS is nipping at their heals...?
The way this thing was managed in haste and the silly way they are selling shares (dutch auction) is really a wonder to me. How a company with as much going for it as Google (bungle a sure thing like they had is amazing) could make such major mistakes simply makes me think that being overly greedy and selfish (holding majority and absolute control, two classes of stock) is the main reason for this failure. This thing is already a major flop in the marketplace and in the press, confidence is everything to investors and Google destroyed most of that with the way this was handled. I would say that they have lost at least 20 Billion dollars in potential market capitalization just on the way they created and managed this sale of shares. ONE HELL OF A STORY IS LINKED BELOW, one of the best ever http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid={0978E7AD-4BB0-4478-BC8B-353DA0108C7D}&siteid=mktw&dist=nbk
UPDATE August 9th, 2004 Underwriters are questioning the Google IPO, read all about it below and come to your own conclusions. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5648662/ We would like to hear what you have to say, so please leave your comments.
Actually some interesting links in this thread Anthony, I like Google, and certainly think they have a future. That being said, it seems to me the valuation of the IPO is quite high, so I will not buy into the IPO (if they go through with it...) Geir
GEIR, yes links are good, but if you want the knowledge you have to do the work This is one hell of a subject to study, I will say that Google has done more for the business press than any other company in history. These guy's are better than Wacko Jacko for the media industry. These guy's are good for 10 headline stories a day, they are the champions when it comes to making news. Good for DP forums business also. Keep having fun