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The U.S. remains the largest search market worldwide, while Google holds on to a commanding position in the global search market, according to a new study from comScore.

"The global search market continues to grow at an extraordinary rate, with both highly developed and emerging markets contributing to the strong growth worldwide," said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president.

"Search is clearly becoming a more ubiquitous behavior among Internet users that drives navigation not only directly from search engines but also within sites and across networks. If you equate the advancement of search with the ability of humans to cultivate information, then the world is rapidly becoming a more knowledgeable ecosystem."

The total global search market had more than 131 billion searches conducted by people 15 or older from home and work locations in December 2009, representing a 46 percent increase in the past year.

Broken down, it represents more than 4 billion searches per day, 175 million per hour, and 29 million per minute. The U.S. is the largest individual search market in the world with 22.7 billion searches, or about 17 percent of searches conducted globally. China landed in the second spot with 13.3 billion searches, followed by Japan with 9.2 billion and the U.K. with 6.2 billion. Among the top ten global search markets, Russia had the biggest gains in 2009, growing 92 percent to 3.3 billion, followed by France (up61% to 5.4 billion) and Brazil (up 53% to 3.8 billion).

Google sites were the top search property worldwide with 87.8 billion searches in December, or 66.8 percent of the global search market. Google sites saw a 58 percent increase in search query volume over the past year. Yahoo sites ranked second globally with 9.4 billion searches (up 13%), followed by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8.5 billion searches (up 7%).

Microsoft sites saw the largest gains among the top five properties, growing 70 percent to 4.1 billion searches, on the strength of its new search engine Bing. Russian search engine Yandex also saw solid gains, growing 91 percent to 1.9 billion searches.
 

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Five reporters from radio stations in in Canada, France, Belgium, and Switzerland are going to spend five days locked in a French farmhouse with only Twitter and Facebook to get their news. It’s not a lame reality show, but an experiment looking at the quality of news from social media.

This experiment may be flawed from the start. One can almost imagine that people will purposely put out false information via Twitter and Facebook just to mess with these people (they can be followed on Twitter [updates in French]). Reporting on this story, AFP’s Marie-Dominique Follain asks if social media is really a serious threat to established media.

Is this a worthwhile experiment? Tell us what you think.

It appears that the credibility of social media as a way to get news is what is coming into question (not that this is the first time that has happened). "People tweet about fake events. Social media is rife with hoaxes," people will say. Yes, that’s true.

People do put out false information, but what seems to be overlooked is that Facebook and Twitter are just the platforms for people posting their updates. They often are accompanied by links to blogs and traditional news sources. While the group have agreed to only connect to the outside world through Facebook and Twitter, and no web surfing, they are reportedly still allowed to follow links to outside sites from these social networks. With the 140-character limit of Twitter in particular, linking out is often very necessary in getting the whole story across, or at least gaining access to that story from the reader’s perspective.

Maybe I will be proven wrong, but I don’t see any possible result coming from this experiment that indicates social media is not useful for finding news. I don’t believe social media threatens traditional media. It compliments it, in a variety of ways.

Sometimes stories break there before they are reported by a traditional source…that’s a source for that traditional channel. It could just as easily come from someone saying something in a crowded bar. If it’s newsworthy, it might be worth covering, but it might be a lie, and facts are worth checking. It’s just that with channels like Facebook and Twitter, those bars are as big as the entire world, and the patrons aren’t all there to relax, drink, and have a good time (though some of them certainly are). Some of them are there to spread news. And people know that they can get news there because of that very fact (a study last year found that news was a top priority of Twitter users).

Not all news breaks on social media (although the ever-increasing accessibility to social media through mobile seems to be greatly narrowing the margin), but social media is always there for open discussion about the news, which tends to make for a more rounded outlook on any particular event. It doesn’t eliminate the bias, but it provides a means for all biases to come together to form a more complete view of the story. Open discussion allows for points to be made that wouldn’t necessarily be made by a traditional news outlet because maybe that outlet does have some kind of bias, even if it strives not to. Some say everyone has some bias.

The fact that people do turn to social media for news emphasizes the fact that they do want a look at the whole picture, and do want to have open discussion on matters. True, some of that is pointless noise, but strewn throughout that are often important facts and otherwise unconsidered viewpoints.

So what can this experiment really prove? That you can limit yourself to social media for news sources if you want? Isn’t the point of social media (at least in the news sense) to strip away the limitations? Share your thoughts.

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Amazon has released an iPhone app for the Kindle to over 60 countries. Now users in a total of 64 countries can read Kindle books on their iPhones and iPod Touch devices.

"We are excited to make the Kindle for iPhone App available to iPhone and iPod touch users in more than 60 countries, allowing them to access the vast selection of the most popular books, all available wirelessly from the Kindle Store," said Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle. "The Kindle for iPhone App is the perfect companion for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX, and a great way for customers around the world to download and read books even if they don’t yet have a Kindle."

Amazon says that with the app, customers in over 60 countries will be able to: 

- Purchase, download and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store.

- Read the beginning of books for free before they buy them.

- Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read.

- Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free.

- Choose from six different font sizes and adjust words per line.

- Add and view notes and highlights marked on Kindle and Kindle DX.

- Read books in full color including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books, textbooks and graphic novels.

Countries where the app is available include: The United States, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finaland, France, Greece, Guatemala, Germany, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Malta, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Vietnam.

Amazon says that in the coming months, they will be releasing Kindle for Mac and Kindle for Blackberry. Amazon’s Kindle reached record sales in the month of November.
 

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European online Christmas shopping season got off to a strong start this year in the U.K., France and Germany, according to a new report from comScore.

Visits to retail sites were up 18 percent during the first week of November compared to an average week during the prior two months, and increased even more throughout the month to reach a 41 percent growth rate during the week ending November 29.

France saw solid gains, resulting in the same 41 percent growth rate during the last week of November, while Germany showed slight lower growth at 16 percent.

"That we’re seeing such strong growth in visitation to retail sites in three of Europe’s leading countries prior to the December pre-Christmas rush is, hopefully, a positive sign for the overall European economy," said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni.

"Right now the U.K. and France appear to be demonstrating the highest rate of traffic growth to retail sites, outperforming the U.S. by a considerable margin. While German growth has been slightly slower, the heavy part of the country’s online shopping season should begin in earnest during the first week of December."

During the month of November, average weekly visits to online retail sites grew 35 percent in the U.K. compared to the prior two months. Among the top 5 online retailers as ranked by average weekly visits, Play.com sites experienced the largest growth at 62 percent, closely followed by the Home Retail Group (61%) and Tesco (50%).

Visits to online retail sites in France were up 36 percent during the first week of the month and remained steady during November. Groupe PriceMinister has the fastest growth rate at 188 percent, followed by Amazon and Cdiscount, both at 40 percent.

In Germany, visits to online retail sites got off to a slightly slower start than in France and the U.K., but still showed 17 percent average weekly growth. Amazon was the fastest growing retail site during November, up 46 percent, followed by Neckermann Gruppe (up18%).
 

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If a French court has its way, eBay will soon have to fork over $2.6 million.  The fine stems from a ban on the sale (or purchase) of LVMH goods, and actually ties to a case that ended in eBay being told to pay LVMH $61 million.

LVMH, which is the entity behind luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Tag Heuer, and De Beers, won a major case against eBay in June of last year.  LVMH claimed to be concerned about the sale of counterfeit merchandise, and eBay was supposed to keep all related items off its French site as a result.

Apparently eBay wasn’t completely successful, however (misspelled listings may have created problems), hence the latest fine.

Now, Alex von Schirmeister, the general manager of eBay in France, has stated, "We believe that the higher courts will overturn this ruling and ensure that eCommerce companies such as eBay will continue to provide a platform for buyers and sellers to trade authentic goods.

von Schirmeister also said, "The fine itself is disproportionate given that eBay complied with the Injunction.  It is out of step with our legal victories in France, UK, Germany, Belgium and the U.S."

Look for further developments down the road, then, as eBay appeals the ruling.

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It seems like every month another news organization toys with the idea of charging for their content. But, we always rejoin, you’ll ultimately sacrifice your audience if you charge for news content. However, the Boston Consulting Group says that may not always be the case—in fact, even Americans are willing to pay for online news.

Well, sort of. The average amount an American was willing to pay for news was $3—and not $3 a day, but $3 a month. Not exactly the profits Rupert Murdoch dreams of, is it?

The survey also found that people were more willing to pay for news that was:

• Unique, such as local news (67 percent overall are interested; 72 percent of U.S. respondents) or specialized coverage (63 percent overall are interested; 73 percent of U.S. respondents)
• Timely, such as a continual news alert service (54 percent overall are interested; 61 percent of U.S. respondents)
• Conveniently accessible on a device of choice

And good news for newspapers: “consumers are more likely to pay for online news provided by newspapers than by other media, such as television stations, Web sites, or online portals,” especially since these other media have so much free competition. Interestingly, while Americans were more likely to pay for sites that offered access to multiple papers, only national and local—not major metropolitan-based papers—have that level of appeal. (I’m not sure which category The New York Times and Washington Post fall into here.)

Marc Vos, a Milan-based partner and leader of BCG’s media sector in Europe, tells newspapers that they “should be experimenting with paid online content. It will take trial and error to find what works.”

The prospects aren’t so bleak everywhere. In addition to 1000 US respondents, the survey also looked at results in Germany, Australia, France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Norway, Finland. While Australians also wanted to pay only $3 (USD?) for their news, other countries saw higher rates. The New York Times said that this may be because Western Europe has more consolidated news offerings, where news in the US is a very fragmented industry.

However, before Western European news sites get all excited, note that the highest amount on the survey, in Italy, was $7 a month.

What do you think? What would you be willing to pay for news?

Comments

The AT Internet Institute conducted a study comparing investments in online marketing campaigns among France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The firm’s findings are that the UK far exceeds the other three countries in this realm.

According to the AT Internet Institute’s findings, online marketing campaigns in the UK account for over 50% of visits to websites that have adopted such campaigns. The firm explains the methodology behind this study:

As part of this study we only took into consideration websites which declared the use of online marketing campaigns (affiliates and partners, marketing emails, RSS feeds, sponsored links or advertising) on their sites. In addition to this, these websites were visited on a daily basis by internet users who accessed these websites via online marketing campaigns.

Our study involved four different European countries: France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. For each individual country, visits to websites carried out within the specific country were only considered. The websites which were used as part of our study were those which could be measured by a specific AT Internet solution, and where the traffic to these websites tends to be mainly generated within the individual countries themselves.

Here are some stats:

- 53% of visits to these sites on average in the UK have been generated by online marketing campaigns

- 45.3% in Spain
 
- 40.3% in Germany
 
- 28.9% in France

The second source of visits so the sites in question came from affiliations and partnerships in Spain and in the UK. In France and Germany, marketing emails were the second source.

The flu is a hot topic right now, unfortunately. A lot of people have it, have had it recently, or will get it soon. Flu shots are all over the news – Who gets them first? How many are available? Should you even get one? These are all questions circulating through the news media.

Last year Google launched its Flu Trends tool in the United States, and has now taken the opportunity to expand it into 16 additional countries. The site is also now available in 37 different languages.

"By tracking the popularity of certain Google search queries, we are able to estimate the level of flu, in near real-time," says Google. "While some traditional flu surveillance systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google search queries can be counted immediately. Google Flu Trends provides an additional surveillance tool that may help public health officials and the public make more informed decisions about preparing for the flu season."

"In the past year, we’ve expanded our coverage to include Mexico, New Zealand and Australia and have continued to see a good correspondence between our estimates and official flu activity data. In fact, our analysis of last season shows that Google Flu Trends had a close 0.92 correlation with official U.S. flu data," the company adds.

Countries where Flu Trends is now available include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the US.

Don’t be surprised if you get a sense of dj vu while reading this article; except for a few details, the development it covers is the same as something that happened last week.  An RBC analyst has essentially followed in the footsteps of a Barclays analyst and improved his forecast for Google’s stock.

RBC’s Ross Sandler spoke to some industry sources, and Dan Frommer reports, "[H]e thinks Google’s overall net revenue could grow 5.5% quarter-over-quarter, up from his previous estimate of 3%."  That’s a pretty significant increase of about 83 percent.

There’s a considerable amount of evidence to support the idea of a revision, too.  For starters, you might just take a look at this Google Finance graph. 

Sandler also indicated that the UK search market is at least holding steady, Germany’s market is up "mid single digits," and France is doing better still.  Note: Google’s quite dominant in all three countries.

It’s shaping up to be an excellent third quarter for Google, then.  And if the search giant pulls off what analysts consider to be a "win," the achievement will be all the more impressive given that the overall economy still isn’t in such great shape.

Along with Yahoo’s big new "Y!ou" campaign, the company has begun rolling out the new Yahoo Search. They unveiled the new design last month, which compliments the recently launched redesigns of the Yahoo Home Page, Yahoo Mail, and Yahoo Messenger.

"The new page is designed to help you easily find and explore the things that matter most to you. The Yahoo! Search team is delighted to demonstrate our commitment to innovate in search technology and deliver an amazing user experience," says Larry Cornett, Vice President, Consumer Products, Yahoo Search.

Yahoo names the following as key highlights of the new Yahoo Search:

Intelligent Search Results – Allows you to explore results from key sites and narrow results using different types of SearchMonkey structured data. Over the past few months, even more enhanced results for product, local, entertainment, reference, social, and tech sites have been displayed automatically. With the new search page design, we have made it easier to see these riche results from an increasing number of sites.

Search Assist Expansion – With the new design, our powerful query assistance is still available directly below the search box, but we’ve also incorporated it into the left-hand column for quick access lower on the page, even when the Search Assist layer is hidden. You can use this column to easily explore and discover concepts related to your query. We have added Search Assist to the search box on every Yahoo! page in the U.S. with the launch of a new universal header.

Along with the change to Yahoo Search itself, comes a "revamping" of Yahoo’s image search and video search results pages. In the left-hand columns on these, you wil get links to related categories.

"Rather than building this new experience on top of our existing front-end technology, our talented engineering and design teams rebuilt much of the foundational markup/CSS/JavaScript for the SRP design and core functionality completely from scratch," says Cornett. "This allowed us to get rid of old cruft and take advantage of quite a few new techniques and best practices, reducing core page weight and render complexity in the process."

Yahoo says the new Yahoo Search includes improved page load time, improved perceived load time, and inline data URI images. It’s now available in the US, the UK, France, Spain, Mexico, and India.