comscore

Google's drop in paid clicks: Part of the grand plan

After ComScore reported a recent decline in Google's paid clicks, the Net ratings service followed up, noting evidence that the drop was due to "Google's own quality initiatives that result in a reduction in the number of paid listings and, therefore, the opportunity for paid clicks to occur."

The reduction in listings, ComScore noted, was "offset by paid revenue per click."

On Monday, at a Bear Stearns media conference in Palm Beach, Fla., Tim Armstrong, Google's president of advertising and commerce in North America, offered essentially the same view on the matter.

As … Read more

Circling the wagons around Google

Earlier in the week, ComScore reported that Google's paid clicks dropped 7 percent between December and January. That was enough to panic already nervous shareholders who proceeded to dump Google's stock in one of Wall Street's (increasingly common) panics.

But Friday morning the Internet ratings agency issued a brief statement meant to contradict the impression that it believes Google has sprung a leak.

"...the evidence suggests that the softness in Google's paid click metrics is primarily a result of Google's own quality initiatives that result in a reduction in the number of paid listings … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 669: Wikileaks got a gun

EPISODE 669

Comcast hits the snooze button http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9879848-7.html

FCC may do-over Comcast Net Neutrality hearing due to presence of paid Comcastards http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/27/fcc-may-doover-comca.html

EU slaps Microsoft with $1.35 billion fine http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9880256-7.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7266629.stm http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080226-heavy-fine-looms-in-ongoing-microsofteu-tussle.html

Wikileaks gets legal help after domain name deletion http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9880958-38.html

Google disaster: Comscore reports awful January http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/2/2008/2/google_disaster__comscore_reports_awful_january

Apple planning iPhone SDK … Read more

Google: A bellwether or giant losing its grip?

We interrupt this scheduled lashing of Yahoo to ask a question about the company that's been putting a whuppin' on Jerry Yang & Co. over the last few years: Are you OK?

Google shares dropped 4.57 percent Tuesday largely on new ComScore numbers that show flat year-over-year growth in U.S. paid-click performance in January. It's an abrupt turn from the 25 percent year-over-year growth Google produced in the fourth quarter and the consistent growth Google has shown since, well, since there's been a Google. Regardless of what you think of ComScore's oft-controversial methods, this … Read more

Social slowdown hitting Piczo hard

CNET News.com reporter Caroline McCarthy co-wrote this article.

Life is getting more difficult for social-networking sites.

At the same time Facebook's traffic appears to have reached a plateau, News.com has learned that Piczo, a networking site that caters to teenage girls and was much written about in 2006, has seen layoffs, executive departures, high employee turnover, and a shrinking audience in the past five months.

Three former Piczo employees described a company grappling with the meteoric rise of competitors Facebook and Bebo and internal squabbles over the direction of the 3-year-old start-up. Piczo has also struggled to … Read more

Facebook's traffic may be plateauing. So what?

There's been a lot of buzz this week about Facebook's traffic leveling off or declining, and naturally, it's been accompanied by schadenfreude over the fact that the hottest start-up in Silicon Valley may soon be losing its laurels.

Blog chatter, unsurprisingly, is at a fever pitch.

Earlier this week, the U.K. arm of audience measurement firm Nielsen reported that traffic from several social-networking sites, including Facebook, had dipped from December 2007 to January 2008. Now, numbers from ComScore (reported Friday on TechCrunch), suggest that Facebook's U.S. traffic may be in trouble as well. Graphs … Read more

Sears, Kmart community software called 'badware'

StopBadware.org said Tuesday it has labeled the Sears and Kmart community software known as My SHC Community as "badware," or spyware.

The nonprofit organization run by Harvard Law School, Oxford University, and Consumer Reports WebWatch said it cited the Sears Holding Corporation community in particular "because of inadequate disclosure of extensive tracking and data collection and because the application does not identify itself while running."

In response to several accusations that it collects personal information without proper disclosure, My SHC Community has dramatically revised its Web site since last week. It has, among other changes, … Read more

Spyware found in Sears online community installation

Online shoppers who signed up for the "Sears Holdings Community" ("My SHC Community" or "SHC") this holiday season got a gift that keeps on giving: spyware.

Sears defends its actions by saying it clearly notified customers before they accepted the software installation. However, several antispyware researchers found the Sears notification process fails to call out that users' online activities (including logging in to bank accounts) will be recorded and that it generally falls below industry standards.

The concern focuses on software installed by ComScore, an online data marketing firm. ComScore states on its Web … Read more

Radiohead calls ComScore report inaccurate

Radiohead stuck up for its fans on Friday.

The rock band denied that 62 percent of those who downloaded the group's new album paid nothing for the music.

Last month, Radiohead announced that it was releasing a digital version of the album for whatever fans wanted to pay. Internet research group, ComScore, on Monday released a report that said only 38 percent paid anything for In Rainbows.

In a statement, Radiohead's representatives called ComScore's report "wholly inaccurate."

Radiohead's pay-what-you-want offer is groundbreaking and is being watched closely by fans, music labels and other bands. … Read more

Study: Free beats fee for Radiohead's 'In Rainbows'

LAST UPDATE: 3:54 p.m. PT--Those who predicted that Radiohead would see mass financial support after allowing fans to pay whatever they wanted for the band's latest album appear to have been a tad optimistic, according to a study released Monday.

Of those who downloaded Radiohead's digital album, In Rainbows last month, about 62 percent walked away with the music without paying a cent, reported ComScore, an Internet research company.

About 17 percent plunked down between a penny and $4, far below the $12 and $15 retail price of a CD. The next largest group (12 percent) … Read more