Seperate bids for adwords on search sites v content sites.
Netimperative - Google refines content bidding for AdWords advertisers: "Google has launched a separate content bidding for AdWords, as the search giant aims to expand its paid-for search services.
The move lets advertisers place one bid for ads that run on content sites and a separate bid for ads that run on search sites within the Google Network. The move could give advertisers greater control in maximising return on investment from search campaigns. Previously, the single keyword bid placed by advertisers was applied to their ads on both search and content pages. In addition, the minimum bid for content is now a static $.01 in the U.S"
Monday, November 28, 2005
Googling For Gold How Google changes the world
Googling For Gold: "With a market cap in orbit and more cash than a small nation, Google's heft is altering the tech industry's behavior....
The Google effect is already changing the delicate balance in Silicon Valley between venture capitalists and startup companies. Instead of nurturing the most promising startups with an eye toward taking the fledgling businesses public, a growing number of VCs now scour the landscape for anyone with a technology or service that might fill a gap in Google's portfolio. Google itself and not the larger market has become the exit strategy as VCs plan for the day they can take their money out of their startups. Business founders have felt the tug as well. "You're hearing about a lot of entrepreneurs pitching VCs with their end goal to be acquired by Google" ...
There's one snag in this planetary realignment: Google has shown little interest so far in doing big deals with anyone. Although it briefly sniffed around Web-phone giant Skype Technologies, Google blanched at the eventual price of $2.6 billion ponied up by eBay Inc. (EBAY ) in September. In fact, Google's biggest deal to date is the $102 million it paid for online ad upstart Applied Semantics Inc. in 2003. For now, at least, Google is passing on big, bold deals...
But if dot-com history is any indication, the risks of doing nothing could be substantial. Google could be sitting on an ephemeral asset. In 1999, Yahoo Inc. (YHOO ), Google's closest publicly traded equivalent, had a $115 billion market cap but passed up the chance to buy eBay. Today, eBay is worth more than Yahoo, whose value has since nearly halved. At its 1999 height, Doubleclick, the big online ad player of yesteryear, had $14 billion in market cap. It didn't put it to work, though, and in April this year was bought by a private equity firm for just over $1 billion.
in Google's prospectus when it first sold shares to the public 15 months ago. "We would fund projects that have a 10% chance of earning a billion dollars over the long term," wrote founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And then they added: "Do not be surprised if we place smaller bets in areas that seem very speculative or even strange. As the ratio of reward to risk increases, we will accept projects further outside our normal areas, especially when the initial investment is small." ..
In the Silicon Valley food chain, the first to lay bets on which way things will shake out are the venture capitalists whose fate is now firmly entwined with that of Google. It's not a very comfortable position for VCs, who view Google with a mixture of disdain and envy...
luxuries aren't the real problem. It's what the VCs perceive as arrogance and a lack of respect for the role they play. VCs, after all, have at some point identified, believed in, nurtured, and funded -- not to mention made huge profits from -- the biggest names in techdom, from eBay to Cisco Systems and Google itself. Yet many feel that Google accords them roughly the same respect as it does vendors bidding on the groundskeeping contract.
Startup Day
Many VCs, for example are still fuming over the "Google Startup Day." VCs, who are used to making elaborate and proprietary pitches to potential investors, were instead summoned as a group to take turns making their spiels to Google's 10-person corporate development group. "Check out the gall," says one, sharing an Aug. 3 e-mail from Google's in-house M&A team. "Hi Very Senior Partner," the mass memo says by way of salutation. After explaining the hoops through which the VCs would have to jump to go to Startup Day, it asks those interested to "please fill in the attached spreadsheet with a brief description of each company and its business/technology, an overview of the team, any data points you would like to share, and a perspective of why the company might work with Google." Says the aggrieved VC: "Did it ever occur to them that this was like asking us to do their homework for them? It's the height of arrogance." Not so, responds Google's Drummond: "This was an attempt at outreach," he says. "Most VCs do like to talk to us. Google is very much involved in the venture community -- a lot more than people understand."
VCs have another more concrete reason to resent Google: With its deep pockets and its unwillingness to give quarter to outside professionals, it's now a growing competitor to Valley VCs. Google can easily afford to swoop in and outbid any VC for a startup..
Google strongly prefers to gobble up startups before they have embarked on a sales and marketing strategy, viewing companies that are completely tech-focused as a better cultural fit. It prefers to acquire small, local technology teams that it can simply plug into its headquarters. "Two guys in a garage with nose rings and a dog trying to catch lightning in a bottle" is how banker Smith characterizes the bias. Case in point: Last year Google snapped up Keyhole, a digital mapping company based next door in Mountain View, for an undisclosed sum. Its team moved down the road and within six months, Keyhole was providing the satellite technology behind Google's celebrated mapping tool. Conversely, Google has passed on larger, out-of-town deals, in large part because of integration worries.
Google is creating a whole new ecosystem for entrepreneurs, says Baris Karadogan of U.S. Venture Partners, a high-tech VC firm in Silicon Valley. Karadogan says he's closely watching a group of entrepreneurs who are designing a highly specialized online advertising tool, hoping to sell it to Google for $50 million. "Before," he laments, "you needed a VC. Now you can build a Linux-based data system for $100,000 and survive long enough to sell without ever raising a venture round."
The suits inside Google don't fare much better than the outside pros. Several current and former insiders say there's a caste system, in which business types are second-class citizens to Google's valued code jockeys. They argue that it could prove to be a big challenge in the future as Google seeks to maintain its growth. They deem the corporate development team as underpowered in the company, with engineers and product managers tending to carry more clout than salesmen and dealmakers.
A banker who interviewed for a Google corporate development job came to a similar conclusion. "They just aren't very focused," says the prospective hire, who didn't get the job. "They're biased against businesspeople, and their deal strategy is pretty much, 'O.K., if we see something, then we'll look at it."' The candidate, a Wall Street tech M&A specialist who was looking for a change of scenery and a more relaxed lifestyle, calls the experience "chaotic, bureaucratic, and very rigid."
Surprisingly for a company of Google's size, clout, and business needs, it doesn't yet have a thriving in-house VC arm. And that's despite some glaring holes in its product lineup. "We're clearly not going to do everything right," concedes Drummond. "There are areas we miss that others will fill out." For starters, Google has a long way to go to match the breadth, depth, and richness of Yahoo's portal. Ditto a peer-to-peer marketplace along the lines of an eBay, as well as Microsoft-like software applications.
Despite the hurdles they face, don't expect any of the legions of investment bankers, VCs, or entrepreneurs to fold their tents and go home. The stakes are too big, and everyone wants in. To steal a note from the Google home page: Feeling lucky?"
The Google effect is already changing the delicate balance in Silicon Valley between venture capitalists and startup companies. Instead of nurturing the most promising startups with an eye toward taking the fledgling businesses public, a growing number of VCs now scour the landscape for anyone with a technology or service that might fill a gap in Google's portfolio. Google itself and not the larger market has become the exit strategy as VCs plan for the day they can take their money out of their startups. Business founders have felt the tug as well. "You're hearing about a lot of entrepreneurs pitching VCs with their end goal to be acquired by Google" ...
There's one snag in this planetary realignment: Google has shown little interest so far in doing big deals with anyone. Although it briefly sniffed around Web-phone giant Skype Technologies, Google blanched at the eventual price of $2.6 billion ponied up by eBay Inc. (EBAY ) in September. In fact, Google's biggest deal to date is the $102 million it paid for online ad upstart Applied Semantics Inc. in 2003. For now, at least, Google is passing on big, bold deals...
But if dot-com history is any indication, the risks of doing nothing could be substantial. Google could be sitting on an ephemeral asset. In 1999, Yahoo Inc. (YHOO ), Google's closest publicly traded equivalent, had a $115 billion market cap but passed up the chance to buy eBay. Today, eBay is worth more than Yahoo, whose value has since nearly halved. At its 1999 height, Doubleclick, the big online ad player of yesteryear, had $14 billion in market cap. It didn't put it to work, though, and in April this year was bought by a private equity firm for just over $1 billion.
in Google's prospectus when it first sold shares to the public 15 months ago. "We would fund projects that have a 10% chance of earning a billion dollars over the long term," wrote founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. And then they added: "Do not be surprised if we place smaller bets in areas that seem very speculative or even strange. As the ratio of reward to risk increases, we will accept projects further outside our normal areas, especially when the initial investment is small." ..
In the Silicon Valley food chain, the first to lay bets on which way things will shake out are the venture capitalists whose fate is now firmly entwined with that of Google. It's not a very comfortable position for VCs, who view Google with a mixture of disdain and envy...
luxuries aren't the real problem. It's what the VCs perceive as arrogance and a lack of respect for the role they play. VCs, after all, have at some point identified, believed in, nurtured, and funded -- not to mention made huge profits from -- the biggest names in techdom, from eBay to Cisco Systems and Google itself. Yet many feel that Google accords them roughly the same respect as it does vendors bidding on the groundskeeping contract.
Startup Day
Many VCs, for example are still fuming over the "Google Startup Day." VCs, who are used to making elaborate and proprietary pitches to potential investors, were instead summoned as a group to take turns making their spiels to Google's 10-person corporate development group. "Check out the gall," says one, sharing an Aug. 3 e-mail from Google's in-house M&A team. "Hi Very Senior Partner," the mass memo says by way of salutation. After explaining the hoops through which the VCs would have to jump to go to Startup Day, it asks those interested to "please fill in the attached spreadsheet with a brief description of each company and its business/technology, an overview of the team, any data points you would like to share, and a perspective of why the company might work with Google." Says the aggrieved VC: "Did it ever occur to them that this was like asking us to do their homework for them? It's the height of arrogance." Not so, responds Google's Drummond: "This was an attempt at outreach," he says. "Most VCs do like to talk to us. Google is very much involved in the venture community -- a lot more than people understand."
VCs have another more concrete reason to resent Google: With its deep pockets and its unwillingness to give quarter to outside professionals, it's now a growing competitor to Valley VCs. Google can easily afford to swoop in and outbid any VC for a startup..
Google strongly prefers to gobble up startups before they have embarked on a sales and marketing strategy, viewing companies that are completely tech-focused as a better cultural fit. It prefers to acquire small, local technology teams that it can simply plug into its headquarters. "Two guys in a garage with nose rings and a dog trying to catch lightning in a bottle" is how banker Smith characterizes the bias. Case in point: Last year Google snapped up Keyhole, a digital mapping company based next door in Mountain View, for an undisclosed sum. Its team moved down the road and within six months, Keyhole was providing the satellite technology behind Google's celebrated mapping tool. Conversely, Google has passed on larger, out-of-town deals, in large part because of integration worries.
Google is creating a whole new ecosystem for entrepreneurs, says Baris Karadogan of U.S. Venture Partners, a high-tech VC firm in Silicon Valley. Karadogan says he's closely watching a group of entrepreneurs who are designing a highly specialized online advertising tool, hoping to sell it to Google for $50 million. "Before," he laments, "you needed a VC. Now you can build a Linux-based data system for $100,000 and survive long enough to sell without ever raising a venture round."
The suits inside Google don't fare much better than the outside pros. Several current and former insiders say there's a caste system, in which business types are second-class citizens to Google's valued code jockeys. They argue that it could prove to be a big challenge in the future as Google seeks to maintain its growth. They deem the corporate development team as underpowered in the company, with engineers and product managers tending to carry more clout than salesmen and dealmakers.
A banker who interviewed for a Google corporate development job came to a similar conclusion. "They just aren't very focused," says the prospective hire, who didn't get the job. "They're biased against businesspeople, and their deal strategy is pretty much, 'O.K., if we see something, then we'll look at it."' The candidate, a Wall Street tech M&A specialist who was looking for a change of scenery and a more relaxed lifestyle, calls the experience "chaotic, bureaucratic, and very rigid."
Surprisingly for a company of Google's size, clout, and business needs, it doesn't yet have a thriving in-house VC arm. And that's despite some glaring holes in its product lineup. "We're clearly not going to do everything right," concedes Drummond. "There are areas we miss that others will fill out." For starters, Google has a long way to go to match the breadth, depth, and richness of Yahoo's portal. Ditto a peer-to-peer marketplace along the lines of an eBay, as well as Microsoft-like software applications.
Despite the hurdles they face, don't expect any of the legions of investment bankers, VCs, or entrepreneurs to fold their tents and go home. The stakes are too big, and everyone wants in. To steal a note from the Google home page: Feeling lucky?"
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