Microsoft-Backed Green Search Engine (Ecosia) Attacks Google

Ecosia is being endorsed by the WWF and billed as an “eco-friendly” search engine but it is also based on Microsoft technology.  A search engine project backed by the World Wildlife Fund, and based on technology from Microsoft and Yahoo, heavily criticises the carbon intensity of Google’s search infrastructure and also contains a sly dig at Apple. The Ecosia search engine announced this week in the run up to the UN climate talks in Copenhagen is being billed as an environmentally friendly application which donates 80 percent of the income generated from sponsored links to help preserve rainforests. However, while the search site appears to have the highest of environmental aims, a video created to promote its launch is more partisan. The site is based on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, and its video depicts Google investors as fat, cigar smoking figures while also criticising the search giant for the carbon intensity of its technology.

 “Google has grown into one of the most profitable businesses in the world and its investors have made a fortune. But although Google’s investors might be happy to keep counting out their money, maybe they should take notice of a few unresolved issues in the search engine universe,” the video states. “For example there are a lot of C02 emissions caused by the search engines and their massive server networks. Some experts claim that a single Google search causes the same amount of emissions as a lightbulb does in an entire hour.”

The video goes on to depict the CO2 emerging from the “massive server networks” by using images that clearly resemble Apple’s iMac desktop machines rather than any PC that could be construed to run Microsoft’s Windows.

The project is also being supported by the WWF but the exact make-up of its management and funding is not clear at this point as the FAQ section had not been completed at the time of writing. WWF and Ecosia were contacted for comment but did not reply in time for this article.

“There might be a more eco-friendly way to use the profits from search rather than simply stuffing more cash into the pockets of investors,” the video continues. “With that in mind a bunch of like-minded people came together to think about how to make search engines more environmentally friendly.”

According to a statement released by the WWF the site is being tested publicly ahead of its official launch on 7 December to coincide with the UN climate talks in Copenhagen. “The same day the conference begins on Dec. 7, web users can start using a new green search engine called Ecosia,” the organisation states. “The new application, powered by Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing search engines, will allow internet surfers to protect about 2 square meters of Amazon rainforest just by clicking on sponsored links.”

Ecosia’s backers also claim that the search site is more eco-friendly than its competitors. “By using the green search engine internet users also reduce their own carbon footprint as the servers of Ecosia use eco-friendly electricity,” the organisation stated.

Commenting on the Ecosia launch, a spokesman for Google made reference to the fact that the video was being hosted on the Google-owned Youtube and cited the search giant’s own statistics on the carbon intensity of its search infrastructure which while different to the light-bulb comparison used by Ecosia, appear to be comparable in terms of total energy used.

“Gotta love open platforms like YouTube!,” he said. “Our stat is that a search on Google produces 0.2g of carbon–which means if you do 5 searches a day, your Google use creates less CO2 than a single load of washing.”

According to the Carbon Footprint site, a single load of washing at 40C in an A-rated machine produces around 273g of CO2, so we’re guessing the Google figure is talking about a whole year’s searches, and assumes 500g per load in a less-efficient machine.

 Earlier this year, a Harvard University physicist made news by stating that executing two Google searches on a computer can generate nearly the same amount of CO2 (carbon dioxide) as boiling a kettle. Google moved quickly to refute those findings, arguing that the speed of its search processes prevented it from burning so much energy. “Our engineers crunched the numbers and found that an average query uses about 1 kJ of energy and emits about 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide,” Urs Holzle, senior vice president of Operations at Google, wrote in the 11 May posting.

 Google is aiming to produce its own renewable energy according to Google’s “green energy czar” Bill Weihl

 http://www.eweekeurope.co.uk/news/microsoft-backed-green-search-engine-attacks-google–apple-2663

Microsoft’s Achilles heel?

By Jed Murphy – Carlson Marketing

Only a matter of a year or so ago it would have been almost impossible to see the nature of Microsoft’s demise. Sure, Google was the new force dominating the world of search & display advertising with the will and resources to keep pioneering: ..Maps…Earth…Docs…Analytics …Wave. The list goes on.

Although Microsoft has tried and failed to compete in some of these areas, most especially in the search market with Bing, there has been no real threat to their overall stranglehold of the desktop operating system market with about 90% share (and with that, dominance in the office software market). But things are not quite as rosy in the mobile/handheld operating system market. Recent figures from Gartner show that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile lost 28 percent of its smartphone market share between the third quarter of 2008 and the third quarter of 2009. Microsoft is really being squeezed by open source operating systems (such as Symbian and Google’s Android) and the core proprietary smartphone operating systems of RIM’s Blackberry and Apple’s iPhone. To put this in context Blackberry gained a 20% market share in Q3 this year and the iPhone 17% .

However it’s the open source platforms that Microsoft has most to worry about. These are predicted to grow to around 62% market share by 2012, according to Gartner – and Android proves possibly the biggest threat. In under a year it’s grown it’s marketshare from zero to 4%. Handset manufacturers such as Samsung are attracted to Android as there are no software license fees – and this may ultimately limit Microsoft’s ability to charge license fees in this market. Considering around 80% of smartphone purchases are private, rather than corporate, Microsoft cannot bank on revenues from the lucrative business market here.

And it’s not only in the smartphone market that Microsoft faces a challenge from Google. Last week Google announced the open source launch of its Chrome Operating System (OS). Chrome OS will be based on the look & feel and architecture of the Chrome web browser. Chrome OS is specifically designed for notebooks and plugs into Google’s cloud computing vision – with applications and data stored on the internet.

The beauty of the Chrome OS is that again there are no license fees. Considering that the hardware manufacturers largest direct cost is the the Microsoft Windows license how long will it be before Google launches an assault on the Windows market?

Yes, this is a long way off. There’s no doubt about that.  But looking at the way the mobile operating system has evolved in the last 12 months, I wouldn’t bet against it.

http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/jedmurphy/archive/2009/11/28/the-chink-in-microsoft-s-armour.aspx

Murdoch makes waves. Microsoft provides paddle. Google sails into the sunset!

(From George Parker at Madscam)

With all the talk and media hype about the Wizened of Oz (Rupert Murdoch) deciding to put Google out of business and throw in his lot with the Borg of Bing (Microsoft), particularly as rumors abound that MS will pay the Dirty Digger dumpster loads of cash to block Google from indexing his news sites, you have to wonder how many pundits have actually thought this scenario through.

For a start, newspapers continue to demonstrate they have piss poor understanding of how Google works or of the many options they have for dealing with the 800 pound search gorilla. One of these is the “First Click Free” program, which allows them to have both a paywall and the traffic sent by Google.

As Google News exec Josh Cohen explains how it works: “If a publisher understands that quality, original content does best and therefore tries to create more, great. But there is still a lot of discussions taking place such as… ‘I have to make this content free or Google won’t index it,’ and that’s not the case. “First Click Free is only one example of the ways that publishers can make subscription content available. They can do previews, they can block it in different ways. I think there are a lot of those questions about the nuts and bolts of how you can work with us, subscriptions just being one of them.”

The funniest bit is that none of this addresses the “leaky back door” issue, whereby smart arsed users, like me, know all you have to do is copy the headline and paste it into Google Search and get the entire article placed behind the paywall for free.

Personally, I don’t think any of this *** will take place. It’s just a giant smokescreen from Murdoch, who has been known to do this kind of thing in the past. Threatening the search giant with the software giant to encourage some kind of financial deal, might just put a bigger smile on Wendy’s face when the Diggers will is finally read!

http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/madscam/archive/2009/11/26/murdoch-makes-waves-microsoft-provides-paddle-google-sails-into-the-sunset.aspx

Microsoft and News Corp discussing plot to stitch up Google

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company’s being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage

However, the Financial Times has learnt that Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google’s search engine. News Corp and Microsoft, which owns the rival Bing search engine, declined to comment.

One website publisher approached by Microsoft said that the plan “puts enormous value on content if search engines are prepared to pay us to index with them”. Microsoft’s interest is being interpreted as a direct assault on Google because it puts pressure on the search engine to start paying for content.

“This is all about Microsoft hurting Google’s margins,” said the web publisher who is familiar with the plan. But the biggest beneficiary of the tussle could be the newspaper industry, which has yet to construct a reliable online business model that adequately replaces declining print and advertising revenues.

In a possible sign of negotiations to come, Google last week played down the importance of newspaper content. Matt Brittin, Google’s UK director, told a Society of Editors conference that Google did not need news content to survive. “Economically it’s not a big part of how we generate revenue,” he said.

News Corp has been exploring online payment models for its newspapers and has taken an increasingly hard line against Google. Rupert Murdoch, News Corp chairman, has said that he would use legal methods to prevent Google “stealing stories” published in his papers.

Microsoft is desperate to catch Google in search and, after five years and hundreds of millions of dollars of losses, Bing, launched in June, marks its most ambitious attempt yet. Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, has said that the company is prepared to spend heavily for many years to make Bing a serious rival to Google.

Microsoft has sought to differentiate Bing by drawing in material not found elsewhere, though has not demanded exclusivity from content partners. Bing accounted for 9.9 per cent of searches in the US in October, up from 8.4 per cent at its launch, according to ComScore. James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corp Europe and Asia, hinted last week that the company was making progress with its online plans. “We think that there’s a very exciting marketplace, potentially a wholesale market place for digital journalism that we’ll be developing,” he said

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a243c8b2-d79b-11de-b578-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss

Twitter to offer paid for corporate accounts as added extra

A bit of a tweet deal for companies

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone today confirmed plans for paid-for corporate accounts on the microblogging giant. Within these new commercial accounts users will gain an enhanced experience with access to analytical tools and ways to gain feedback from their followers. In the interview with the BBC, Stone comments;  “One of the first things we’re going to do explicitly is commercial accounts and that is providing a special layer of access. Twitter will always be free to everyone whether it is commercial or personal, but you’ll be able to pay for an additional layer of access to learn more about your Twitter account to get some freed back to get some analytics to help you become a better twitter

Keen to stress the free and openness of Twitter, Biz also took a pop at Rupert Murdoch’s plans for paid content during the interview. He said that he “would love to see what happens” if Murdoch’s plans of banning Google were to happen. His take on the situation: “They should be looking at this as an opportunity to try something radically different and find out a way to make a ton of money from being radically open rather than some money from being ridiculously closed.” Stone was in the mood for talking having also tipped his hat at possible media company and search engine team ups in the near future, naming Google and Bing as companies that he would like to get involved with. Even with the possible commercial deals with Orange and Vodafone announced this week, the plans for the future and over 7 million users worldwide Stone believes “We have a lot of work to do”.

http://www.t3.com/news/twitter-to-offer-paid-for-commercial-accounts?=42371

Twitter chief tells Murdoch: internet paywall will not work

Charging to read news content is like ‘putting genie back in bottle’, says Twitter co-founder Biz Stone

The co-founder of Twitter today warned Rupert Murdoch that his plans to charge for online content, and block Google from using stories produced by his News International titles, were a vain attempt to “put the genie back in the bottle”.

In recent weeks Murdoch has launched a vitriolic attack on Google and other web companies, accusing them of “stealing” content created by his titles, including the Times and the Sun. Management at News International is working on plans to introduce an online paywall next spring and prevent stories from being linked to by sites such as Google News.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone today warned that Murdoch “should be looking at it as an opportunity to do something radically different and find out how to make a ton of money out of being radically open rather than some money by being ridiculously closed”.

Speaking at an event organised by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) in London, Stone added that the speed of change on the internet meant Murdoch’s plan was likely to “fail fast”. He was joined in his attack by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of networking site LinkedIn, who added: “I am sure that during the transition from horses to automobiles there were some people bemoaning the loss of horse transport.”

In contrast, Stone said Twitter’s future lay in making more of the service available to application developers and other partners so they could build on the stream of “tweets” created by its users. The social networking site’s users post more than 500 messages per second. The service is increasingly being used by news organisations as a way of discovering breaking news.

“I don’t know what the future of traditional media is,” said Stone. “But from my perspective and Twitter’s perspective I think there is a wonderful co-operative alliance there in terms of the wisdom of crowds, and as we add things to Twitter… maybe we can help.”

Twitter, which was valued at more than $1bn just over a month ago, is looking to drive revenues and eventually start making a profit. It plans to introduce some new features over the coming months. Stone, who set up the company just two years ago, said that by the end of the year it would have begun to offer its corporate users a suite of new analytical tools to help them use Twitter to keep in touch with customers and keep an eye on their brands. An increasing number of corporations, from mobile phone companies to airlines, have added Twitter as a means by which customers can get in touch.

Twitter is also considering giving its users reputation scores, which would help traditional news organisations using the social networking service to spot breaking news stories. Twitter recently announced search deals with both Google and Microsoft’s Bing and the deals added fuel to recent speculation that the micro-blogging site might be a takeover target for either business.

But Stone emphasised a sale was not on the cards: “That was never something we were interested in talking about”. Instead, the company was interested in doing more partnership deals. “One of the things we are seeking to do as we have already done with Myspace as we have done with LinkedIn, as we have done with AOL, as we have done with Google, as we have done with Bing, is to share our data and form partnerships that are long standing… Twitter wants to work with social networks, with mobile networks, with TV networks with search engines… we want to put a little Twitter in everything.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/nov/19/twitter-murdoch-paywall-charge-content

Facebook becomes third most popular video site

YouTube might still reign supreme in online video, but the big surprise coming out of Nielsen’s VideoCensus release on Thursday is that Facebook is now the world’s third most popular place to view video online. According to Nielsen’s latest VideoCensus numbers, which look at the number of video views in October, YouTube serviced over 6.6 billion streams. In a distant second, Hulu offered up over 632 million video streams. But it was Facebook with over 217 million streams in October that easily beat out Bing, Yahoo, and several other online sites. In September, Facebook was ranked tenth in total streams. In October, Facebook placed second in total number of unique viewers: over 31.5 million. YouTube had almost 106 million unique viewers during October. Hulu placed fifth with 13.4 million viewers. According to Nielsen, the amount of time Web users spent viewing videos on social-networking sites increased 98 percent year over year. In October 2008, users watched 503.8 million minutes of video; they watched 999.4 million video minutes in October this year. That growth far outpaced growth in number of online video streams as a whole, which grew 26 percent year over year.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10401834-2.html

Bing moves out of beta for imminent full UK launch

Microsoft has said its Bing search engine is now out of beta in the UK and will be promoted in the mass media “in the coming days”.  Microsoft developer Cedric Chambaz announced the development on the Microsoft Advertising Community yesterday.

With a product now ready and a naturally growing momentum, it was time to increase Bing’s public exposure and accelerate its market penetration,” he said. “You will shortly see, and hear, more of our new search experience in the mass media in the coming days.” “This consumer outreach will combine brand building and education to highlight to consumers Bing unique selling proposition.” Chambaz said the work of 60 engineers had brought Bing’s listings to an acceptable level of relevance for the UK November 12, five months after its beta launch. He also claimed 35% more users for Bing in August than its predecessor Live Search in August 2008.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/966730/Bing-moves-beta-imminent-full-UK-launch/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNewsBulletin

Wolfram Alpha alliance will undoubtedly ‘rescue’ Microsoft’s ‘ailing’ Bing

Microsoft has teamed up with a web tool once hailed as a rival to Google to provide results for its search engine Bing

As statistics from renowned internet measurement groups show, every day, more and more people who are searching for valuable information or data (around 19% of all searches according to Neilsen) are moving away from classical search engines, which produce reasonable but random results of varying degrees of reliability. The “new search engines” are now to be found in the social media field, and are based more on ‘trust’ ‘authenticity’ and ‘confidence’ – so, for example,  recruiters now start researching a person on an application like Linked In or they examine his or her Facebook site, instead of just hitting Google and hoping.

Therefore, tailored search apps that can ‘go beyond’ the normal limitations of search engine optimisation – a technique which web site ‘owners’ either know or don’t – and that restricts where on a final opening page list the ‘perfect’ search result will finish on a Google query, are now rapidly going to become the norm. Hence Microsoft and its decision to allign itself with Wolfram Alpha in order to increase the relevancy and accuracy of Bing – its new Google-targeting baby. 

Wolfram Alpha aims to answer questions directly, rather than display a list of links like a search engine. The “computational knowledge engine” is the brainchild of British-born physicist Stephen Wolfram. It will be used to bolster Bing’s results in areas such as nutrition, health and mathematics. The partnership will initially be rolled out in the US.

Bing has been gradually grabbing market share from other search engines since its launch in May. Figures from Experian Hitwise suggest its market share in the US rose from 8.96% in September to 9.57% in October. The figures put it well behind market leader Google which has 70.6% of the market.

‘Diet tool’

Wolfram Alpha differentiates itself from standard search engines by attempting to answer questions directly. The tool computes many of the answers “on the fly” by grabbing raw data from public and licensed databases. People can use the system to look up simple facts – such as the height of Mount Everest – or crunch several data sets together to produce new results, such as a country’s GDP. The data it consults is chosen and managed by staff at Wolfram Research who ensure it can be displayed by the system.

The Wolfram team said the new partnership with Bing would allow Microsoft to access “tens of thousands of algorithms and trillions of pieces of data” to incorporate into its results. Microsoft said that the nutritional and fitness data in Wolfram Alpha could be of use to the “roughly 90 million Americans” who choose diet to each year.

“When you search for specific food items on Bing, you’ll get a nutrition quick tab that allows you to learn more about it,” the firm said. “You also get a nutrition facts label at the bottom of the results page that summarises all information on that food item in a very familiar and friendly format.” The partnership was made possible by Wolfram’s decision to offer an API (Application Programming Interface) in October. APIs are a set of protocols and tools offered by a firm to allow third party developers to build tools and services for a platform. They have become increasingly common amongst web firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, who use them to extend their reach beyond their own website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8356217.stm

Microsoft delays UK launch of Bing until ‘sometime’ next year as beta testing backfires

Microsoft is putting back the full UK launch of Bing, its much-hyped rival to the Google search engine.

Sources close to Microsoft said the UK marketing activity for Bing would also be delayed until at least the first quarter of 2010, and possibly later. The site has been in beta testing since June, with no UK marketing activity since.

VCCP Search managing director Paul Mead said: ‘The user experience from the UK perspective is not living up to expectations, so they go back to Google.’ Bing is focusing on negotiating deals with media owners to direct search traffic from third-party sites.  In the US, Microsoft set aside $100m (£60.3m) to advertise the service.

 The company had said UK marketing for Bing would start once the site had been made more relevant to British users. Microsoft has been advertising for staff to join Bing to create UK-specific search categories. One senior search agency executive commented: ‘If the product is not localised enough for the UK, it won’t work. It is already losing share each month.’

 Mead agreed: ‘People will try it once, but they will run out of chances with users.’ Bing’s UK marketing appears to have taken a back seat to other products; meanwhile, Microsoft has apparently prioritised the high-profile TV and online campaign for Windows 7, its latest operating system. Separately, a deal for Bing to power Yahoo! search has also been pushed back to 2010. Microsoft declined to comment.

http://www.brandrepublic.com/BrandRepublicNews/News/965433/Microsoft-delays-UK-launch-Bing-until-next-year/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNewsBulletin