Microsoft exec: Siri integration will make Bing better

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Microsoft exec Gurdeep Singh Pall is speaking right now at the SMX Advanced search industry conference in Seattle, and host Danny Sullivan spent some time pressing for details on the company’s newly announced deal with Apple to integrate Bing into the Siri personal assistant in iOS 7. Pall seemed to be doing his best not to… Read More…

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on $1.1 billion Tumblr deal: ‘We promise not to screw it up’

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Well, this kind of says something. In her first public remarks about the blockbuster $1.1 billion cash purchase of Tumblr, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer promises “not to screw it up.” Meanwhile, Tumblr CEO David Karp notes that the fast-growing blogging platform, which boasts 300 million unique visitors per month and 120,000 signs up every day, will… Read More…

Amazon.com and Google employees bullish on future, but 25% of Microsofties say things will get worse

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Microsoft just hit a five-year stock high, and during the last quarterly financial report posted profits of $6 billion. But still a quarter of employees at the software giant think things are going to get worse, and just 35 percent say the business is going to improve over the next six months, according to a… Read More…

Microsoft cites progress on Yahoo search ads, says it’s still committed to providing an alternative to Google

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Microsoft’s search advertising group says it’s starting to wring more revenue out of the Internet search ads that it’s serving as part of its partnership with Yahoo — despite recently needing to extend, for another year, its commitment to cover revenue shortfalls experienced by Yahoo under the arrangement. The news follows a report by the Wall Street… Read More…

Microsoft to cover Yahoo search revenue shortfalls in U.S. for another year

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Microsoft and Yahoo will give their search partnership more time to meet their financial expectations. Microsoft has agreed to extend, for another year, its commitment to cover revenue shortfalls experienced by Yahoo in the U.S. since turning over its underlying search technology and related advertising to be operated by Microsoft. The extension, disclosed in Yahoo’s… Read More…

Blake Irving wants GoDaddy to grow up, and keep its edge

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It’s hard not to notice: New GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving looks a lot like that dude in the company’s logo — even though the logo significantly predates his time at the company. The similarities are so striking that Irving decided to have some fun with his official corporate badge (at right), to lighten the mood… Read More…

Search stats: Google slips, Microsoft continues slow growth

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The monthly U.S. search stats from comScore are out for March and it shows Google slipping just a bit with Microsoft continuing to grow its search share, albeit slowly. Google dropped 0.4 percentage points last month, falling to 67.1 percent of the U.S. search engine market. Microsoft, meanwhile, grew 0.2 percentage points to 16.9. That’s… Read More…

Taking on telecommuting: Maybe Marissa Mayer was right

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Yahoo’s recent work from home uproar caused the pundit class to claim that one company’s internal decision was a mandate that that would kill off workplace flexibility and set women back decades across the country. The problem: it wasn’t. Yahoo made a decision for Yahoo, and other companies may follow suit.  That’s not a bad… Read More…

Search stats: Google and Bing keep climbing as Yahoo slips further behind

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Google climbed back to 67 percent percent of the U.S. search market in January, putting just a bit more distance between itself and Microsoft Bing and Yahoo. The latest numbers from comScore networks, released this afternoon, showed Microsoft climbing 0.2 percentage points, to 16.5 percent of the U.S. market. Microsoft’s search partner, Yahoo, fell by… Read More…

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer says search deal with Microsoft needs a boost

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The Internet search alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo appears to be stuck in neutral, and Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer wants that to change. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco Tuesday, Mayer said that the pact with Microsoft was not meeting expectations. “One of the points of the alliance is that… Read More…

Yahoo acquires Alike, moving Seattle team to California

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Yahoo has acquired Seattle-based Alike for an undisclosed sum, aiming to bolster its own mobile technologies by bringing aboard the team responsible for Alike’s data-crunching mobile recommendation system. Alike announced the news on its site this morning, saying that it will no longer support the Alike apps on the iPhone and the web. The startup’s… Read More…

Yahoo and Google strengthen ties as Microsoft looks on

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Yahoo and Google this afternoon announced an agreement to put ads from Google’s AdSense and AdMob systems on Yahoo sites. It’s a non-exclusive deal, but it’s also a clear sign that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is willing and able to do business with her former colleagues at Google. What does that mean for Microsoft and… Read More…

The 10 social media tools that every startup must have

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Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate. With the revolution has come insane amounts of data, analytics and information about customers, followers and users. How can companies leverage this social media data in ways to help analyze parts of their business? That’s part of what Andy Boyer included in his talk about social media… Read More…

Tech Moves: Avanade bolsters exec team; HBO promotes Xbox pioneer; Yahoo board changes

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Avanade, a 12-year-old joint venture formed by Microsoft and Accenture, has named Florin Rotar as the company’s first chief technology innovation officer and Stella Goulet as its first chief marketing officer. Rotar has worked at Avanade since it was founded, and in the new role will be responsible for communicating the technology consulting firm’s vision to… Read More…

Instant messaging: Yahoo cutting ties to Microsoft

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In a blog post late Friday, the Yahoo Messenger team announced that it’s cutting several features from the instant-messaging service as part of the broader attempt to bring new focus to the company. One of the features that will be going away is interoperability with Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger. The connection between Yahoo Messenger and… Read More…

Tech Moves: Optify hires Doug Wheeler; Starbucks vet joins Auction Edge; and more

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Optify, a Seattle startup specializing in marketing software, has named 25-year- marketing vet Doug Wheeler to the position of chief marketing officer. Wheeler most recently worked at TappIn, which was acquired last year for up to $17 million by GlobalScape. Wheeler previously held executive roles at DocuSign, Citrix and Compaq. “Optify and its inbound marketing… Read More…

Google ‘would love’ to replace Microsoft as Yahoo partner

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The whole Microsoft-Yahoo search saga has always felt like a soap opera, starting with Microsoft’s failed bid to acquire Yahoo in 2008, and continuing to the present-day shakiness of their search partnership. And here’s another potential plot twist. Eric Schmidt, Google’s executive chairman and former chief executive, reportedly said during an appearance in Japan overnight… Read More…

Microsoft Bing takes a chip out of Google’s giant lead

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[Update: comScore changed its methods for collecting data in August, making the month-over-month comparisons invalid. The biggest change is in the combined total of Bing and Yahoo searches, as noted below.] Google’s share of the U.S. search market fell by 0.4 percentage points in the U.S. in August, while Microsoft Bing climbed by 0.2 percentage… Read More…