If Google Gags, Won't Microsoft-Yahoo?

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Wall Street went bonkers yesterday over a ComScore report indicating that Google paid ad clicks growth had literally collapsed. Is that good or bad for Microsoft's Yahoo acquisition? The answer is complicated, in part because there remains uncertainty about the decline's cause. If the problem is contained to Google, Microsoft could greatly benefit depending on execution. But if US economic uncertainty is the cause, Microsoft could be buying Yahoo at both a good and bad time.

Simply stated, Google's paid ad click rate declined 0.3 percent year over year in January, down from 25 percent growth in the fourth quarter. Sequentially, Google's paid click rate fell 12 percent between the October quarter and January. I obtained the data from separate Bear Stearns and Citigroup reports. ComScore didn't publicly release the data, which was available, today, in a monthly "custom" report available to clients. But a ComScore spokesperson confirmed the veracity of the data contained in both reports.

View: The full story @ MS-Watch

#1 Gersson on 27 Feb 2008 - 12:37

Google paid ad clicks growth had literally collapsed

Thanks to the popularity of adblock in part?

#2 evo_spook on 27 Feb 2008 - 12:38

slightly dubious due to the source..................

#3 Gersson on 27 Feb 2008 - 12:38

(2 replies) #4 FloatingFatMan on 27 Feb 2008 - 13:09

Hmm... Did Google's bubble just burst?

#4.1 cork1958 on 27 Feb 2008 - 14:19

Man,
I sure hope so!!

#4.2 neufuse on 27 Feb 2008 - 19:47

(FloatingFatMan said @ #4)

I think this is why google is racing to get into other markets... hey they are laying (with partners) a trans pacific fiberoptic cable between the US and China... they can rent out bandwidth on... google phone platform... all kinda other sellable markets...

#5 JiveMasterT on 27 Feb 2008 - 13:49

I'm sure they will figure out a way to get attention to their ads again.

#6 naap51stang on 27 Feb 2008 - 13:51

I forgot google had ads

#7 atari800 on 27 Feb 2008 - 14:03

I agree - ad blocks and the fact that the ads that pop up on the side are not the best deals or totally irrelevant to what I am searching for

#8 LipSmacker on 27 Feb 2008 - 16:11

I've always wondered who clicked on those dumb things... Thanks to Adblock+ I havent seen an ad in ages. (Plus CustomizeGoogle's removal of google ads, click tracking, and other privacy stuff)

#9 Justin- on 27 Feb 2008 - 18:41

I used AdSense for about a year or two and was making a fair amount with it, but around May of last year, I guess, I started getting just a few cents a month (when I was getting around $1-2 a day). I kept the ads up for the rest of the year and removed them in January with a tiny amount compared with the previous year. I've since e-mailed them to cancel my account, and am actively awaiting the last payment from them, though it's pretty small.

I say it's because of AdBlock Plus. There's no way the ad serving model is going to work as it once did with the way ad blocks work.

(1 reply) #10 rpgfan on 27 Feb 2008 - 19:07

Yay for NoScript! I love that extension, along with CustomizeGoogle. Both are quite useful.

In fact, extensions like NoScript, CustomizeGoogle and Adblock Plus are probably the reason for the decline since Google uses JS to insert the ads.

#10.1 Aahz on 28 Feb 2008 - 09:51

Due to my religious use of those 3 extensions I don't think that I've ever even seen a Google ad. (let alone most others)

(1 reply) #11 hava333 on 27 Feb 2008 - 20:47

The ad service itself if poor at best if you ask me. They will ban you for having one, I repeat, ONE user click on your ads for about a week. Simply stupid that they can't say "Oh this person has clicked 70 times today, lets ignore them."

Down with Google.

#11.1 Justin- on 28 Feb 2008 - 00:28

My AdSense account never got banned. I had them for years. Sure, there were times I accidently clicked on them, but it was only two or three times in two years. They never banned me for it.

Some people have issues, others don't. I never had an issue, other than ad revenue falling substantially in 2007 causing me to cancel in January 2008.

(1 reply) #12 Izlude on 28 Feb 2008 - 02:43

google advertises, yet they have an ad blocker... am i missing something?

#12.1 Krome on 28 Feb 2008 - 13:42

Yeah a "Common Sense Plugins"... LOL j/k

(1 reply) #13 boho on 28 Feb 2008 - 08:27

I think this is as much a sign of the economy as a sudden use of blocking og Google Ads. When the economy is booming, companies advertising budgets go up. When a downturn starts, companies are convinced that more advertising will save their arse. When they still see flat or falling sales, they start to hunker down. We are at the hunker down point, air raid shelters next, then it's retreat to the caves, after that survival!

The ender of an era, where the mighty dollar was the reseve world currency. NWO here we come, and it's going to be a rough ride. Are Microsoft about to have their last fanfair with a hostile take-over of Yahoo? I think Steve Ballmer will be having a board meeting with Bill about now!

#13.1 Krome on 28 Feb 2008 - 13:45

I am with you on that. I too thought the exact same thing there.

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