This Week’s Industry Update
Compiled By Rocket Clicks Staff

comScore Data Reveals Google Widening Gap In Search Market

Despite a recent Hitwise report that Bing-Yahoo were closing the Google gap in the search market, comScore has found that Google’s share has actually grown over the past month.

Bing and Yahoo have combined to occupy about 30% of the market, with Bing growing by .3% (13.9%) and Yahoo falling by .4 points (15.7%) in March. Google matched Bing’s growth at .3% for the month.

Source: Wired

Google Expenses Trump Profits…For Now

Discussing Google’s expenses hindering its growth should elicit reactions similar to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog doing a weather forecast for Hawaii, but that doesn’t make them less interesting.

On Thursday, Google announced 18% and 27% profit and revenue increases, respectively, as well as a 57% jump in operating expenses. Most of those costs have come from spending millions to keep good employees in house, and expanding their research and marketing efforts.

Source: Wall Street Journal

The Cisco Flip Camcorder Is No More

In a surprising move, Cisco Systems announced it will cease production of the popular Flip camcorder in its efforts to focus on core products as a main business strategy. Cisco acquired the Flip camera from Pure Digital in 2009 for $590 million.

That is not a major expense for a multi-billion dollar company, but it leaves us wondering what’s going on behind the scenes and why Cisco is choosing to sit on the product instead of sell it to a company interested in keeping the Flip camera extremely popular.

Source: CNet

‘iSteve: The Book Of Jobs’ Set For Release In 2012

Steve Jobs’ official biography, iSteve: The Book of Jobs, is slated to be released in early 2012. This is a big deal for the most part because Jobs is known as a semi-recluse that rarely allows authorized glimpses into his private life. It’s a near certainty that this book will become at least as successful as author Walter Isaacson’s previous biographies of Ben Franklin (the man, not the store), Henry Kissinger, and Albert Einstein.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Facebook Comes Closer To Deal With Top Chinese Search Engine

Facebook is nearly a deal with Baidu, China’s biggest search engine, to combine their efforts into a joint Chinese social network. Because Facebook.com is blocked inside China, it will not be featured as part of this project.

Little else is known in the way of specifics about this development, which is expected considering the censorship affections of the Chinese government. But both sides stand to come out of this deal as winners because of China’s massive market of Internet-using consumers.

Source: Business Insider

Apple Steals Cloud Guru From Microsoft

Microsoft’s general manager of Datacenter Services, Kevin Timmons, has left the company to take a leadership position at Apple in the next few weeks. Timmons will undoubtedly bring his expertise to aid in Apple’s cloud computing plans.

Source: Computer World

Notable Commentary
Immeasurable By Analytics

Google CPC Formula Changes

Remember that old Budweiser “This Bud’s for you” jingle? That’s essentially what this piece of analysis is for anyone involved in paid search, except much more necessary and vital to your profession.

Analysis By: Richard Stokes, AdGooroo

Rand Fishkin Argues For Ethical SEO With Some Profanity

Kris Roadruck recently argued that white hat SEO is a joke and grey/black hat SEO is the only responsible way to help your clients. Naturally, SEOMoz white hat guru Rand Fishkin responded in a very strong way. This post is fairly long, but it’s well worth your time, especially if your client has questions about white hat SEO vs. black hat SEO.

Analysis By: Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz

You Can Still Get Lemonade From Bing/Yahoo Lemons

Yahoo and Bing search partners are well known for sending low quality/spammy traffic to sites, but Bonnie Schwarz argues that there is still value to utilizing non-Google search partners. In fact, there are a few niches where Bing/Yahoo outperform Google.

Analysis By: Bonnie Schwartz, Seer Interactive

Social Media Has Changed Link Strategy

Eric Ward argues that social media allows anyone savvy enough to use Facebook to give a link, and this democratization ensures the social media vote is the popular vote. It also gives a pretty accurate clue to the search engines that are trying to customize searches for a particular user.

Analysis By: Eric Ward

When Should You Post On Facebook To Maximize Engagement?

By timing content to post when consumers are poised to be on Facebook, companies have a greater chance of being seen in a fan’s newsfeed. Additionally, the study found that engagement rates are 18% higher on Thursday and Friday than the other days of the week.

Analysis By: eMarketer

Ghostery Is A Handy Plugin

The cross-browser plugin Ghostery shows you what sites are using what networks. It’s really handy and unobtrusive. I use it to show me what networks are being used and it can also block them. It’s kept pretty up to date.

Analysis By: Ghostery

Advice For Product Listing Ads

George Michie provides nine tips for maximizing the value of Product Listing Ads, and includes a brief overview of what PLAs are and why they can be significant in your ad campaigns.

Analysis By: George Michie, Search Engine Land

Internet Ad Revenue Ranks Second Only To TV

According to the 2010 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, Internet advertising revenue in 2010 reached $26 billion. That total was a 15% increase over a rough 2009, and makes Internet ad revenue the second most profitable form of advertising behind only television.

Analysis By: Frank Reed, Marketing Pilgrim