EU in Google privacy probe

It took the European Union far less time, than in the case of Microsoft to probe search giant and hopeful internet monopolist Google for its privacy policies.

Google as the lone major player in the search market has set the tone and is guided by what many think of as its own laws and regulations.

'Privacy' translates in 'secrecy' in Google. The main areas to watch out for are:

- AdWords pricing (the least transparent method of charging advertisers)
- AdSense revenue share (another black hole in the industry)
- User data (the company has accumulated so much information that is now considered a global information agency)

But its not only the EU that is concerned about privacy. Several internet activists and copyright and freedom of information sharing advocates as well as members of the open source community are increasingly voicing their concerns about the giant's domination of what was formerly known as a free information highway.

Google knows better than not to react to this. Microsoft was slated about its monopoly over the software market and the brand damage was as large as the payments Mr Gates still makes to third world countries.

Your thoughts?

Consolidation war, MSN, Yahoo and Google

Many movements are witnessed in the online space of marketing and advertising of late. The big search engines have moved in all directions.

Google has become a social media publisher in buying YouTube and a major player in the metrics and management of display and other online advertising when purchasing DoubleClick. This in combination with the past purchase of Urchin (Google Analytics) for web metrics and visitor analysis. A fairly multiple role for a:
- search engine
- online marketing agency
- web publisher
- web analytics provider
- video sharing site
- news aggregator
- email provider
- free blog service
- calendar management
- publisher network
- local directory
- software provider (picassa)
- offline advertising (radio)

On the other hand Microsoft is not lacking width in terms of forms and services. Recent aquisition of aQuantive means that the software giant also has a multiple personallity:
- software provider
- search engines
- web publisher
- web metrics provider
- ad display platform
- online marketing services
- email provider
- business directory
- peer to peer (MSN)
- blog service (ad funded)
- hardware maker

Yahoo is not lacking behind with various properties that make it amongst others:
- search engine
- email provider
- peer to peer (Yahoo Messenger)
- social media (delicious, flickr)
- price comparison site (kelkoo)
- news aggregator
- business directory

We can only wait and see where the battle takes us. No doubt that there is more consolidation to come and many entertain the thought of a merger between Yahoo and MSN, something that will bi-polarise Google's current monopoly. What do you think?

Google refreshes Analytics

The Google bunch has surpised Analytics users by slowly introducing a brand new and completly revamped interface that not only offers new features but also changes the was stats are being presented, read and interpreted.

As radical this may sound, the usability gurus at Google have made a very good job out of making things simpler to understand, speeding up the process and generally adding to the whole experience.

Nice one guys.

Other posts about Google Analytics:

• Google Analytics in major revamp