The Strategy Chronicles #1

This is the first edition of a new series of blog posts that I will try to write regularly (no hardcore promises though). I will be calling it, for the lack of better imagination and because it's 3:09 in the morning, The Strategy Chronicles, or TSC. The primary purpose of this series is to help me keep track of what's happening each week. So whether you liked it or hated it, please let me know. So, let's get started.

Microsoft makes Yahoo! investors very unhappy: At least some of the Yahoo! investors are now worried about an increased Microsoft bid to acquire Yahoo!. The primary reason being that there are several Yahoo! investors who are also Microsoft investors. Separately, several share holders are blasting Yahoo! for rejecting Microsoft's bid.

Yahoo! losing another ground: Opera has now decided to dump Yahoo! in favor of Google for its mobile browser.
- "every month, Opera Mini users browse more than 1.7 billion pages"
- most of the page views were related to search. Yahoo! has a serious relevancy problem in addition to the problem of effectively monetizing its search traffic. I can see how easy it was for Opera decision makers to ditch Yahoo! in favor of Google.
- Google has been Opera's choice for desktop browser for 7 years.

Even more troubles for Yahoo!: Remember the time when Yahoo! handed over the information about its Chinese users to the authorities? Well, that issue continues to haunt Yahoo! as yet another lawsuit was filed against the company by its Chinese dissidents. Yahoo!'s submitted evidence lead to one year imprisonment of a plaintiff.

Finally!: Meanwhile, Google has finally re-launched JotSpot as Google Sites. Exactly how that will hurt Microsoft's similar initiatives is yet to be seen, however the outlook according to the media, doesn't look so promising as far as Microsoft is concerned.

Clean console!: Consumerist reports about an incident where a passionate Xbox user lost his beloved collection of autographs and custom artwork drawn on the console by prominent members of the gaming community. Perhaps, the Microsoft employee responsible for this thought the collectible autographs were making the Xbox unit look dirty.

Bill Gates now LinkedIn!: Facebook's loss is LinkedIn's gain. Bill Gates recently quit Facebook despite Microsoft's recent investment in the social networking powerhouse, and decided to start a profile on LinkedIn. Once his profile was created, Gates then asked a question that received more than 1,000 answers. Interestingly enough the same day I noticed the featured question, Facebook changed their site's theme.

Sliding the Social way!: Slide, the media and gadget distribution powerhouse announced recently that it will create new applications to for MySpace users using MySpace Developer Platform. This could increase Slide.com's profile and reach significantly. Earlier this year, Slide announced that it raised $50 million in its latest funding round.

Microsoft's hostile bid now jeopardizing Yahoo!'s future?

A lot of chatter in the news about the negative effects Yahoo! is experiencing because of Microsoft's hostile bid earlier this year. The bid left a lot of uncertainty as far as employees of Yahoo! are concerned.

In Yahoo!'s SEC filing, the company is not shy of explaining what Microsoft's bid is doing to the company. The filing

Microsoft’s unsolicited acquisition proposal has created a distraction for our management and uncertainty that may adversely affect our business.

Microsoft’s unsolicited acquisition proposal has also created uncertainty for our employees and this uncertainty may adversely affect our ability to retain key employees and to hire new talent. Microsoft’s unsolicited acquisition proposal may also create uncertainty for current and potential publishers, advertisers and other business partners, which may cause them to terminate, or not to renew or enter into, arrangements with us. Additionally, we and members of our Board of Directors have been named in seven purported stockholder class action complaints relating to the Microsoft proposal as more fully described in Part I, Item 3 “Legal Proceedings” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These lawsuits or any future lawsuits may become time consuming and expensive. These consequences, alone or in combination, may harm our business.

Regarding the volatility of Yahoo!'s stock:

We further believe that, as a result of Microsoft’s unsolicited acquisition proposal, and speculation concerning a potential acquisition, the future trading price of our common stock is likely to be volatile and could be subject to wide price fluctuations. There can be no assurance whether a transaction will occur or at what price. If a transaction does not occur, or the market perceives a transaction as unlikely to happen, our stock price may decline.

Yahoo!'s brain drain problem may have also intensified due to the company's planned layoffs announced earlier this year.

Booking Travel? Check out HotWire's awesome customer service

I always wondered how good HotWire's services were. Now, I don't have to try it myself, thanks to this awesome post highlighting the great length HotWire's staff will go to make your travel and vacation memorable.

Patent verdict overturned as Judge Disciplines Prominent IP lawyers

Richard Matsch, Colorado's Senior District Judge, reversed a previous jury verdict in the patent infringement case of BrainLab vs. Medtronic. Not only that, Matsch also ordered plaintiff's lawyers to pay the defendant's court costs for engaging in "abuse of advocacy" and "abusive litigation conduct."

Eddie Izzard at Union Squre Theater

On Friday night, we saw Eddie Izzard's life performance at the Union Square Theater. We saw Eddie's 10;30 show. This was our first time seeing Eddie Izzard perform live. I loved his silent Giraffe act. Would love to go see him again before his last show on March 8.

Eddie Izzard is definitely one of my favorite comics. I highly recommend seeing Eddie's live performances. You can get the tickets to Eddie Izzard at Union Square Theater at TicketMaster.

The 6% of Internet that can make you rich beyond your wildest dreams

A new research study by SVM Group shows some very interesting statistics regarding the Internet population that generates a big percentage of overall clicks.

According to the study, only 6% of Internet users are responsible for generating 50% of "all display ad clicks." Interestingly enough, this 6% doesn't represent general Internet population. Most of the users represented in this population are from 25-44 age group and have household income of less than $40,000.

Could this be the reason for Google admitting the troubles they are having with being able to monetize on social networks such as MySpace?

What implications does this have as far as the click fraud issue is concerned?

If a majority of 50% of these clicks is made by those with household income of less than $40K, are they just clicking on ads for curiosity? Should the advertisers be paying for their curiosity?

Is Google's smart pricing justified then? Google slaps publishers with smart pricing when it determines that clicks generated on the publisher's site aren't resulting in conversions on the advertiser's site. This is what Google says about Smart Pricing (also see facts about smart pricing):

...if our data shows that a click is less likely to turn into business results (e.g. online sale, registration, phone call, newsletter sign-up), we may reduce the price you pay for that click. You may notice a reduction in the cost of clicks from content sites.

One site getting hit with smart pricing can affect all sites in the network of the publisher. It seems that if these statistics are in fact true, most sites will run the risk of being smart priced.

Google tests Ajax AdSense Ads

Today, I noticed something very interesting on my MySQL blog. Google has started using AJAX functionality in their AdSense ad units.

Notice the two blue arrows on bottom-left? Clicking on these buttons does an in-page refresh of ads so you can see more Google's ads. An excellent addition from publisher's point of view. However, as far as I am concerned, Google's attempt will be of no use to me. Are they serious? Do I browse so I can go from site to site clicking on these buttons to keep seeing an endless supply of ads just so Google can make more money.

So, let me ask you a question. Do you think you will be clicking on these buttons the next time you see them? Will they help publishers monetize better?