Microsoft never hit me has a company that gave up when they really wanted something :

Microsoft responds to Yahoo :

Reiterates Full and Fair Proposal for Microsoft-Yahoo! Combination

The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

Google is big and it’s official by powering over 1/2 of the search requests in the WORLD for the month of August it’s steaming ahead.

For August Google has 37 billion searches compared to Yahoo at 8.5 billion and Microsoft 2.1 Billion.

Think about that traffic volume immense…  It also seems most search traffic comes from Asia-Pacific whereas Middle East Africa generates the least.

Dan Horton

Now this is the coolest thing I have seen so far,

check out the search for spiderman, Then mouse over a video, .. awesome hey !

DaveN

Ok go to MSN and search for Airline tickets, ok thats the old MSN,.,.,

try the same search here Airline tickets

screenshot :

old MSN for Airline Tickets

NEW msn for Airline Tickets

DaveN

Reading between the lines here, but Kevin Rose said

Hey everyone I wanted to give you a heads-up before the official announcement is made later today. We’ve signed on Microsoft as our new partner to sell and serve the ads on Digg. It’s a deal similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year.”

It’s a deal similar to the one Facebook signed with Microsoft last year hmmm, but aren’t Microsoft buying Facebook once the Court Case goes away..

So once the user data from Digg has been looked at Does Microsoft get first bite at it .. Cool a WIN WIN in my eyes

So what could happen with Digg, if Microsoft buy Facebook and Digg they actually fit well into Microsoft’s portfolio, since they don’t have a successful social network.

so with a little integration between Digg and live Passport Microsoft’s Adcenter could be the first port of call for on-line advertising spend, and we all now that Steve Balmer needs that win so much

DaveN

Ian. Just posted on His Blog (www.liesdamnedlies.com) more about Gatineau and how they get the data on age and gender, Btw Ian was supposed to be at Adchamps Europe but Justin Carder stepped up and was pretty awesome I would have to say.

Anyway from Ian’s Blog.

the answer is that we do get this information from users’ Live ID (formerly known as Microsoft Passport) profiles, but I would stress that we get this information anonymously, and there is no use of PII (Personally Identifiable Information, such as name or e-mail address) in the product.

Which Is pretty cool IMO, As an Advertiser I want to get more bang for my Dollar, not just say here is my money go spend it.

and If you outsource your web advertisings to an agency, ask them if your ads are getting age and gender targeted, In fact ask if they have even set-up the account in Live and Yahoo, you will be surprised how many agencies just don’t give a fuck about you !!!

DaveN

Everyone is starting to talk about Microsoft Gatineau, with good reason, it’s KICK ARSE AWESOME, ok it’s not the finished product yet, but it’s coming out a of alpha real soon, Not sure if i’m allowed to say what date ..

I give You Project Gatineau

click to enlarge

adCenter integration
Time on site
Funnel reporting

click to enlarge

Demographic analysis including age and gender
Multi-report dashboard
Path reporting
Advanced visualizations

click to enlarge

So why Choose Microsoft’s Gatineau

ok Google Analytics is pretty darn good and the interface is rocking, But Microsoft is going to give you reports and visualisations that you haven’t seen before and data about you visitors like age and gender, seriously you just can’t get that data in any other service. I’m not saying Bail on Google Analytics run them both side by side then choose.

DaveN

Added Joost has Built a Wordpress Gatineau Plugin

Heather Hopkins over at Hitwise UK… just blogged about how Facebook is still marching on in the UK and no wonder it’s caught the eyes of Microsoft, although Myspace still gets more traffic than Facebook, the trend isn’t looking good for Myspace which has so much spam and false users it’s getting a little silly.

If Microsoft do buy Facebook, this will give Live and adcenter more data for their age and gender targetting

From adcenter :

You can target customers by age and gender so that your ads are displayed more frequently to people who will be interested in them. The data used for the demographic targeting option (age and gender) comes from information reported by MSN customers.

and with Live.com getting more traction with internet users it’s only time before live.com really starts to make more in roads into the search world..

DaveN

This is the kinda of thing that rattles my cage a little,

live.com is running just under the search box things like Block annoying popups with Windows Live Toolbar and Better than ever before - new Windows Live Hotmail

But this is what ticked me off :

that link goes here See the London Eye using Bird’s eye view with Live Maps

THAT’S NOT THE LONDON EYE.

DaveN

Made me giggle a little, this Live Search commercial was run out in Canada I think may be Mel can shed some light

Live Search commercial

DaveN