Search Engine, Online Advertising | featured news

Google Inc's revenue increased 21 percent as strength in its Internet advertising business offset a persisting drop in ad rates, stirring hopes among investors the Web search leader is close to slowing that decline.

Google, of Mountain View, Calif., issued a fourth-quarter report in January that largely fell flat on Wall Street, as profit came in well below expectations. During a subsequent conference call, executives were peppered with questions about an 8% decline in prices paid by advertisers during the period every time a user clicked on their ads.

Google Inc's quarterly results fell short of Wall Street's heightened expectations for the holiday season as declining search advertising rates contributed to a rare miss, triggering a 9 percent slide in its shares.

Competition's all relative. Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL all compete for ad dollars, but they all agree that marketers ought to put their budgets into premium content, not search or social.

Internet company Yahoo Inc. has agreed to buy online advertising network Interclick Inc. for $270 million in cash. The deal announced Tuesday is expected to help Yahoo target advertisements to its online audience. Interclick's technology will allow Yahoo to "to expand its targeting and data capabilities to deliver campaigns" more effectively, Yahoo said.

Chinese search engine Baidu reports an 80% surge in profits for the third quarter, boosted by increased advertising sales.

Google’s core business, search advertising, seems so far to have weathered the economic doldrums that have hurt other sites and publications relying on ads.

As search spending continued to rise in the just-ended third quarter, Google regained market share lost during the last couple of quarters to Microsoft's Bing search engine, according to a new report to be released Tuesday morning by Efficient Frontier, which manages about $1 billion in search, display, and social advertising for agencies and advertisers. ...

Google Inc will pay $500 million to settle government charges that it showed ads for pharmacies that operate illegally, regulators are expected to announce on Wednesday, according to a report in the New York Times.

Most Internet analysts suggest that MySpace fell from grace because it crumbled in the face of stiff competition from Facebook. But a Reuters report suggests that it may have been Google that dealt the fatal blow by accident as long ago as 2006.