Google dominates ad server market, study shows

Posted by Natalie Weinstein, CNET News

It will surprise no one that Google accounts for a lion's share of the ad server market. However, it may come as a shock that Microsoft holds only the equivalent of a lion's paw. 

Attributor, a content-tracking company, analyzed ad server calls across 75 million domains in October. According to the data Attributor released this week, Google--through DoubleClick and AdSense--accounts for 56.5 percent market share. 

Meanwhile, Microsoft's equivalent figure hovers at 3.8 percent. Yahoo came in behind Google with 9.7 percent. If Microsoft and Yahoo ever end up combining forces, they still wouldn't touch Google. 

A server call, by the way, is the "moment when a Web site requests an ad to serve up to a user. The study examined whose ad code was on that page," according to AdAge.com. 

Here is Attributor's breakdown of the ad server market, as of October.

(Credit: Attributor)

DoubleClick and AdSense are definitely playing to different markets, according to Attributor's figures. DoubleClick dominated with larger sites, while AdSense did so for smaller sites. 

It's not all good news for Google, though. Back in January, when Attributor last took a look at ad server calls, Google's AdSense and DoubleClick accounted for 69.7 percent share. That's a drop of more than 13 points. 

Google didn't lose out to Microsoft or Yahoo, though. They also lost share. Instead, Google lost little bits to a lot of other players, including AOL and Revenue Science. The latter shot into the top five with 6.7 percent market share in October.

Natalie Weinstein is an associate editor who works out of Austin, Texas. She spent a decade as a reporter and editor in the newspaper industry before joining the CNET News staff in 2000. E-mail Natalie.

Severed cable disrupts web access

BBC News

Internet and phone communications between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia have been seriously disrupted after submarine cables were severed.

It is thought the FLAG FEA, SMW4, and SMW3 lines, near the Alexandria cable station in Egypt, have all been cut.

A fault was also reported on the GO submarine cable 130km off Sicily.

Experts warned that it may be days before the fault is fixed and said the knock on effect could have serious repercussions on regional economies.

Jonathan Wright - director of wholesale products at Interoute which manages part of the optical fibre network - told the BBC that the effects of the break would be felt for many days.

"This will grind economies to a halt for a short space of time," he said "If you look at, say, local financial markets who trade with European and US markets, the speed at which they get live data will be compromised."

"If you think how quickly trades can be placed, if they are suffering from bad latency times, then by the time a trade is placed, the market may well have moved on."

The cause of the break is as yet unknown, although some seismic activity was reported near Malta shortly before the cut was detected.

In a statement released in relation to one of the breaks, France Telecom said: "The causes of the cut, which is located in the Mediterranean between Sicily and Tunisia, on sections linking Sicily to Egypt, remain unclear."

The French firm said it was sending a ship out to fix the line between Italy and Egypt, although it could take until 31 December to fully repair the line.

The main damage through is to the four submarine cables running across the Mediterranean and through the Suez Canal.

It is thought that 65% of traffic to India was down, while services to Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Taiwan and Pakistan have also been severely affected.

Earlier this year, the same line was damaged in the same area - off the Egyptian coast - although only two lines were snapped then.

"We've lost three out of four lines. If the fourth cable breaks, we're looking at a total blackout in the Middle East," said Mr Wright.

"These three circuits account for 90% of the traffic and we're going to see more international phone calls dropping and a huge degradation in the quality of local internet," he added.

"Normally you would expect to see one major break per cable per year. With four you should have an insurance policy. For this to happen twice in one year, on the same cable, is a serious cause for concern."

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LinkedIn CEO out, founder takes over

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - by Patrick Hoge 

LinkedIn Inc. founder Reid Hoffman has retaken the reins of the fast-growing online social network for professionals and Dan Nye, the man Hoffman recruited for the job in 2007, has resigned, the company said Wednesday.

In addition, Jeff Weiner, a Yahoo Inc. executive until the middle of this year, has joined LinkedIn as interim president, with responsibilities for overseeing day-to-day operations, the company said. Weiner, who will report to Hoffman, will remain in his executive-in-residence position at the venture capital firms Accel Partners and Greylock Partners during the transition. 

The company did not give a reason for Nye’s departure, which will occur in the middle of January. The company said that “under Nye’s leadership, the LinkedIn network has grown by more than 400 percent from 8 million members to 33 million. The company was also able to establish a solid business model, achieve profitability and secure $80 million in funding from some of the world’s premiere investors.” 

In a statement, Hoffman praised Nye, saying he did what he was hired to do. 

“Dan joined LinkedIn with a mission to help us build a company that was strong and sustainable. In two years, he has succeeded in this objective, transforming LinkedIn from a young start up to a high growth business,” Hoffman said. “Dan deserves tremendous credit for his contributions to LinkedIn. His passion and commitment will continue in the efforts of the team that he’s helped build here.” 

Nye also issued a statement. 

“I am incredibly proud of all that we have accomplished. Our business model, balance sheet and infrastructure are strong. We were profitable in both 2007 and 2008, and have experienced outstanding network growth. Reid is a close friend of mine, and I have great confidence the company will continue to thrive under his leadership,” said Nye. 

The company said that the hiring this month of Dipchand “Deep” Nishar, who was recruited by Nye, as vice president of products will allow Hoffman “to renew his focus on the overall vision and strategy for the company in his role as chairman and CEO.” 

Weiner held leadership roles at Yahoo, most recently as executive vice president of the division responsible for the consumer web product portfolio, including Yahoo’s front page, mail, search and media products.

PC sales to fall, notebook demand to strive in 2009

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 12/15/2008 10:37 AM  

With notebooks becoming more popular and affordable, their sales grew this year by 65 percent and will continue strong next year, although this will not make up for an overall decline in sales of personal computers, an association says. 

Overall computer sales are expected to fall on the back of a drop in sales of desktops because of weaker purchasing power, despite continued growth in notebook sales, according to the Indonesian Association of Computers Business (Apkomindo). 

Potential buyers check out computers on display at a Jakarta shopping center. With notebooks becoming more popular and affordable, sales grew this year by 65 percent, with strong growth anticipated next year. This will not make up for an overall decline in the sales of personal computers. (JP/Arief Suhardiman)

Suhanda Wijaya, the association's newly elected chairman, said at the weekend that total PC sales in 2009 were forecast at around 2.2 million units -- of which 1.2 million would be desktops and 1 million notebooks. 

The sales forecast for notebooks represents 10 percent growth from this year's sales estimate of 900,000 units. However, the forecast for sales of desktops reflects a 20 percent decrease from the estimated 1.5 million units sold this year. 

Last year, a total of 1.85 million personal computers were sold with desktops making up the lion's share at 1.3 million units. 

In contrast to computer sales, sales of servers are expected to remain steady. 

The number of servers sold in 2007, estimated sales in 2008 and projected sales for 2009 are the same at 20,000 servers annually, Suhanda said. 

Suhanda said the drop in computer sales next year would be temporary because of the unfavorable global economic situation, but the long-term outlook for the industry remained positive. 

"The market penetration of computers in this country is still very low, around 3 percent, and with a population of 230 million this means the computer industry has a huge market to explore," he said. 

He cited as an example a large computer expo in November, which attracted thousands of visitors over five days, and at which sales increased by 30 percent to Rp 195 billion (US$16.25 million) from Rp 150 billion in the previous year's exhibition. 

Brands manufactured in Indonesia include Zyrex, Axioo, Mugen, and Byon. 

National growth in computer sales is usually at 20 to 30 percent every year, said Merry Harun, deputy chairman of Apkomindo. She said businesses had to strengthen their partnerships if they wanted to return to the regular annual growth in the near future. 

The association is working on building the industry by creating a more conducive business environment for its 2,500 members, Suhanda said. 

One way it supports the industry is by bridging communication with the government. 

Existing regulations require a computer business to have an industrial license even if the business is a small one and only sets up one or two computers a day. 

"This has slowed down the speed of the business cycle," he said. 

"But the government has listened to our comments, and they have come to realize that requiring a small business to have an industry permit is not helpful to the business sector." 

According to International Data Center (IDC), the computer market in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan) grew 12 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2008, reaching a record 20.2 million units. 

The main portion of market share in the Asia-Pacific region was held by Lenovo, with 18.2 percent, followed by HP and Dell, with 14 percent and 8.9 percent, respectively, according to IDC. (iwp)

Revving China's auto industry

Cars leave me cold, but not the BYD F3DM. I drove it the other day, and it really is remarkable.

By Peter Day, Global business correspondent, BBC News

In one way, it is a rather ordinary compact saloon car, though it did have exceptional acceleration when I put my foot down zooming round the factory grounds in Shenzhen, the vast new Chinese city just north of Hong Kong. 

This is a plug-in electric car, hence the acceleration, but when the electric battery runs out after 80 miles (128km), the petrol engine switches in seamlessly. 

"Oh, just like one of those new eco-friendly hybrid cars," you may think. 

But the makers argue that hybrids are more gas-guzzler than battery driven, whereas this model tries to be half and half. 

And the makers? Well they are called BYD, a Chinese company which has been in existence for a bare 13 years, and which only recently started making any kind of car at all. 

This new dual mode rechargeable car makes its launch appearance in China on 15 December, but BYD's Paul Lin let me have my test drive the other day. 

And then when he showed me the company museum, he really set me thinking.

What is a business only 13 years old doing with a museum anyway? 

Because the company has such enormous ambitions it wants to tell the world how far it has come and how much further it intends to go. 

Rapid growth 

Paul Lin showed me how BYD has evolved, starting with rechargeable batteries that soon became standard parts for one third of all the world's mobile phones, following the research speciality of the founder and chairman Wang Chuanfu. 

And the modest battery making company grew and grew. 

Wang Chuanfu soon saw that battery powered cars might be the future. 

BYD knew a lot about batteries, and it was not daunted by the complexities of car-making either. 

Six years ago, it bought two established Chinese car firms, and now BYD has seven huge plants with 130,000 employees. 

The car I drove is made at the new headquarters factory - a giant one in Shenzhen, a city which was just a fishing town 30 years ago, with some 70,000 inhabitants. 

Thanks to China's rush to modernise, Shenzhen is now part of the global manufacturing powerhouse in the Pearl River Delta, with an estimated population of 14m. 

Wheel of modernization 

BYD's vast new factory did not exist 15 months ago, and they had to level several hills and fill in several lakes to create the site. 

The workers mostly live in vast dormitories close by. 

Like most of the Shenzhen workforce, they have migrated into the city from distant country places, moving from poverty in search of the fabled better life, spinning the great wheel of China's modernisation.

The size and scale of what BYD has already achieved is breathtaking, but that is nothing compared to its ambition. 

This company has already made public its aim to be the number one car firm in China by the year 2015, and then - deep breath - number one in the whole world in 2025. 

Despite my scepticism, Paul Lin had no doubt about this. The current fate of the American car industry suggests there may be room at the top some time before that date. 

But to Paul Lin and the company he is part of, this ambition is entirely natural. 

Car making is less difficult than high technology, they argue, and many of the techniques they have learned in high tech can now be applied to the automobile. 

Remarkable endorsement 

I put my foot down and revved almost silently across the factory campus in my (sample) new car, and wondered about the future. 

As an exporter, China is going to be badly hit by the global recession, but already the best factories are evolving up the technology chain in much the same way as BYD has transformed itself from a supplier of other people's mobile phone batteries into a car maker with its own name on the front. 

Critics say this is a copycat car, but that is how the Japanese auto industry started. 

And in September there was a remarkable endorsement of BYD when even as global stock markets were plunging, the canniest American investor of them all, Warren Buffet of Omaha, Nebraska, paid $230m (£155m) for a 10% stake in the Chinese company. 

Mr Buffett is a quite notorious investor for the long-term, not the quick buck, so he must recognise something in those initials BYD. 

The company says they stand for "Build Your Dream", but they could mean absolutely anything.

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Climate change 'largely ignored' by many big firms: report

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Corporate America is making progress on addressing climate change but many company executives are "largely ignoring" the issue when it comes to making business decisions, a report released Thursday said. 

Global technology titan IBM scored highest, 79 on a scale of 100, when it came to the fight against Earth-warming gases, according to a report titled "Corporate Governance and Climate Change: Consumer and Technology Companies." 

Britain-based grocery giant Tesco was ranked second most climate-conscious firm with 78 points and US computer maker Dell was third with 77. 

More than half the companies evaluated scored less than 50 points. 

While some companies were adapting the way they do business, many others "are still largely ignoring climate change, especially at the board and chief executive officer level," said the report authored by RiskMetrics Group and for the Ceres investor coalition. 

It scrutinized governance practices at 63 of the world's largest consumer firms in arenas including retail, pharmaceutical, technology, and clothing. 

"Overall responses among these companies are very spotty, especially in the restaurant, real estate and travel & leisure sectors where climate change is barely on their radar," said Ceres president Mindy Lubber. 

The median score was a dismal 38 out of 100 on a scale weighing factors such as boosting energy efficiency, increasing reliance on renewable power sources, and setting goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

"With or without a recession, climate change is a core business issue that all consumer and tech companies should be focused on," said Lubber. 

Technology and pharmaceutical firms were among those best factoring climate change into business strategies, she added.

Final Chrome Version Boosts Speed, Compatibility

By Michael Muchmore, PC Magazine, 12.12.08 

PC Magazine has performed follow-up tests of Google Chrome to see how much progress the browser has made since coming out of beta. The results show that its already fast JavaScript performance on the respected Sunspider benchmark has gotten even faster and compatibility with popular sites such as Facebook has improved.

The retest shows a 24 percent speed improvement, bringing this released browser to the same level of performance as Firefox's second beta 3.1 version. The new numbers far outstrip what Microsoft's Internet Explorer was capable of, by a factor of nearly 100, and even bested the released version of Firefox 3.0's results more than threefold. 

However, there are still sites that kick back an "unsupported browser" message when a user attempts to view them using Chrome, such as Microsoft's Office Live site. Chrome has added a separate bookmarks window, though it still lacks many capabilities found in the competition, such as bookmarking multiple sites at once (also known as tabbed groups) and tagging. 

In memory usage, Chrome still holds up the rear, using somewhat more RAM than Internet Explorer, and more than double what Firefox consumed in testing with the same set of ten content rich sites. In standards support, Opera is still the leader, garnering 85 out of 100 possible points on the Acid3 Browser Compatibility test from the Web Standards Project. 

To read the full review, with more details of how the browser differs from the better-known web browsers, read PCMag.com's full review of Chrome 1.0.

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Intel works on tiny devices for eco-technology

Some of Intel Corp.'s tiny devices could one day have a big impact on the environment. 

David R. Baker, Chronicle Staff Writer, Friday, December 5, 2008 

The computer chipmaker on Friday offered reporters a glimpse of its research into products such as chip-size sensors that monitor air quality while riding piggyback on street-sweepers. Or cell phones that recharge themselves with energy "scavenged" from the environment. 

Sensing 

Intel has designed tiny sensors that can continuously analyze pollution. The company has tested a version of this technology in San Francisco, putting the sensors in small boxes attached to street-sweeping machines. A transmitter connected to the sensor relays the data to whoever needs it. Distributed around the globe, these devices could give scientists up-to-the-minute details of air quality worldwide. "We could, in fact, litter the planet with these things," Rattner said. "Why can't we have these sensors on your cell phones?" 

'Free' energy 

Intel is developing devices that can tap the energy in the environment around them. Sunlight is one possibility, but so are television signals, cell phone towers and body heat. The amounts of energy captured at any one time would be very small, so the devices would need to act as "scavengers," storing up energy until they had enough to perform a specific task. 

Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) 

This concept merges sensing and energy scavenging. Intel is researching sensors that would store up energy until they had enough to run a built-in data transmitter. Again, because the amount of power involved would be small, the transmitter would have very limited range. But it could still be useful. Rattner gave an example of a medical implant monitoring a patient's health and transmitting data to a doctor by shipping that data to a cell phone near the implant. 

Adaptive power 

Energy demand in a computer or a data center isn't constant - it increases or decreases depending on what tasks the gear is performing. Intel is trying to develop processors that can follow changes in energy demand microsecond by microsecond (one millionth of a second), minimizing the amount of electricity lost to idling. 

E-mail David R. Baker at dbaker@sfchronicle.com.

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IBM Drops Two Bombs on Microsoft

Seeking Alpha, Joe Panettieri,   December 05, 2008   

More than a decade after IBM’s (IBM) OS/2 lost the corporate desktop wars to Windows, Big Blue is back. And this time, IBM is aiming to knock Microsoft (MSFT) Windows AND Microsoft Office off of corporate desktops. 

The strategy involves a partnership with Canonical (maker of Ubuntu Linux) and Virtual Bridges (a virtualization software company). The trio has developed a "virtualized" Linux release -- complete with productivity applications. The software system costs a scant $49.00 (US) per user for 1,000-user deployments. Prices fall further if customers buy in greater bulk. 

Moves like this have got to drive the folks in Microsoft crazy. The old per-seat PC Windows tax is on its death bed, folks. 

• In the consumer market, low-cost Ubuntu Netbooks (from Dell and others) are putting the squeeze on Microsoft Windows margins. 
  
• In the corporate market, thin clients from folks like Wyse and Novell (NOVL) are selling fast, and Novell’s year-over-year Linux sales are up more than 30 percent. 
  
• And now again in the corporate market, IBM is changing the rules of the game by placing all the horsepower on servers that deliver virtualized Ubuntu to corporate deskops. 
  

And it’s not just an attack on Windows. Remember, the $49.00 price point also includes Lotus Symphony productivity applications that compete with Microsoft Office. 

Will all businesses switch to virtual and physical Linux desktops? Certainly not. But some will certainly give IBM’s pitch a try. 

Microsoft Windows' market share recently fell below the 90% mark, according to The Raw Feed, a gadget blog I follow closely. (Full disclosure: I used to work with The Raw Feed's editor, Mike Elgan.) 

Are we looking at 85% market share for Microsoft Windows within three years? I sure think so. And even Red Hat (RHT), our resident blogger believes, must be starting to wonder if they should have found more aggressive or progressive ways to promote Linux desktops. 

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iPhone Beware, The Nokia N97 Is Coming

Daniel Ionescu, PC World, Dec 2, 2008 7:32 pm

 

After months of waiting, Nokia finally announced the N97, the company's second (unreleased) device to challenge the iPhone and revive to the N-series to their former glory. With a 3.5" touchscreen, 5-megapixel camera and 32GB of memory, the N97 is one phone worth waiting for in the New Year. 

Expected spring next year, the N97 features a kick-out QWERTY keyboard that is hidden behind the phone's 3.5" - 16:9 aspect ratio - touchscreen. As a worthy iPhone competitor, the N97 rocks a 5-megapixel camera on the back with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens and dual LED flash. Also, unlike the iPhone or the T-Mobile G1, the N97 can capture video in DVD quality in 16:9 aspect ratio. 

Storage-wise, the N97 does very well also. The phone comes with 32GB of on-board memory - that is twice the amount of memory the most expensive iPhone brings. As an extra, the capacity can be extended with microSD cards of up to 16GB, ranking up to a potential 48GB of storage on the N97. 

Priced at around $700 before carrier subsidies (simfree), the N97 i

s a 3G phone that can also do HSDPA speeds of 7.2Mb/s (obviously, if your carrier can handle it) and Wi-Fi. The usual flavor of A-GPS with an electronic compass is present, and if you plan to keep yourself entertained with this phone, Nokia says that the N97 can deliver up to 37 hours of music and 4.5 hours of video playback. 

Now, even with all these high specs, a good mobile phone would be nothing without software - and Nokia seems to deliver a good offering in this category. The N97 runs on Symbian S50 5th Edition and brings the familiar interface from the (yet unreleased) 5800 Express Music, previously known as 'Tube'. 

What's new from Nokia in the software side of things is the ability of having home screen widgets on the N97. Nokia says that these widgets will enable you to update social networks automatically with your status and location as well as related pictures or video. 

Nokia will also start competing with Apple's MobileMe service by launching new features for Ovi - the company's social portal. N97 users will be able to have their own free Ovi email account and will be able to enjoy push-like email as well as calendar and contacts synchronizing - T-Mobile G1 style. 

Check out this video Nokia released if you want to get a taste of how the software on the N97 will work.

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