Vietnamese search service launched mobile search recently with focus on BlackBerry user experience. BlackBerry users could have some problems reading Vietnamese fonts and m.xalo.vn can correct. Xalo is trying to build its advantage in local language against incumbent Big Google.

Technorati Tags: Google, Xalo

Baidu plans to move its bid ranking service search results from the bottom of the first page to right side of the second page for companies whose purchasing price was lower than other current offers. The change will be effective January 5.

Baidu began offering pay-per-action advertising in mid-December, reports 21cn.com. The company provides text, picture and flash advertising on tens of thousands of Baidu Union member sites, said the report.

Via JLM

Technorati Tags: Baidu

Baidu released a list of hottest search keywords for 2008:

1 QQ
2 Mp3
3 Novel
4 Movie
5 Game
6 Xunlei
7 NBA
8 Handset
9 Music
10 Kart Rider

While Google China’s most popular search keywords for 2008 are:

1 Sina
2 NetEase
3 Taobao
4 Youku
5 Tudou
6 QQ
7 Sohu
8 Xunlei
9 UUsee
10 NBA

Technorati Tags: Baidu, China, Google

VC backed search service Xalo.vn just made a change to it UI (now seems a front page) that would bring me back to the pre dot com bubble with many search engines mushroomed around the world in 90′.
We did not understand why Tinh Van Media decided to change to a portal like search service, that could make users think of many local portals such as Timnhanh, Zing …
We think focus is better, users come to search engine to find relevant information not to read news.

Technorati Tags: Timnhanh, Xalo, Zing

In the world of search service with big names such as Google, Yahoo, MSN … there are some vertical search: Truveo for video, SimplyHired and Recruit.net for job. Another way to go is visual search by Like.com (just raised $32M Series C)
Now came the Modista that “simplifies online shopping by searching inventories across multiple retailers and displaying results in an intuitive interface. Our patent-pending technology organizes items according to their visual similarity using digital image processing and machine learning algorithms.”
Modista’s UI seems fit female users while Like.com is better for savvy searchers.
Let’s see how Modista team develop their product in the coming time.

Technorati Tags: Google, Like, Modista, MSN, Yahoo

China’s leading search engine Baidu stock fell sharply after the bad news of its sales practice. Some medical product companies can pay Baidu to get a high ranking in the search engine results.
It might be the pressure from Wall Street as a public company to maintain revenue growth. But in the long run, the action should destroy its brand image. And who could benefit from the error: Google, Yahoo.
Google had passed Overture in PPC advertising by not accepting paid inclusion and now the chance showed up to Google again in China.
For an emerging market such as Vietnam (behind China online market 3 to 5 years?) while Google is an incumbent search service, the chance for local search players is at niche market like video, music, local search. But be prepared not to burn yourself with some “pretty money” from clients. Put users experience first and your services would win the heart and mind of clients too.

Technorati Tags: Baidu, China, Google

On September 30th 2008, Tinhvan Media, a company of Tinhvan Group officially launched its search service dubbed Xalo (meaning Highway). After more than six months of testing, users now can search Vietnamese with seven main search features: Web, Image, News, Blog, Forum, Music and Classified. This VC backed search service plans to surpass other Vietnamese search services with target of more than 30% of search market in 2010. This number could translate into a big competitor to the incumbent Google search and leave Yahoo in the dust. It sounds like a mission impossible but they hope a peer of Baidu, Naver, Yandex for Vietnam . A pay per click system similar to Google AdWords should be in action late this year. Congratulations to Xalo! We hope search advertising would be a dispensable tool for local marketers.

Technorati Tags: Baidu, Google, Naver, Xalo, Yandex

According to comScore’s release, Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in July with 63 percent of the searches conducted, up from 61.9 percent in July, followed by Yahoo! Sites (19.6 percent), Microsoft Sites (8.3 percent), Ask Network (4.8 percent), and AOL LLC (4.3 percent).

Americans conducted 11.7 billion searches at the core search engines, nearly identical to the number of core searches conducted in July. Google Sites handled 7.4 billion core searches (up 2 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.3 billion and Microsoft Sites with 977 million.

Technorati Tags: AOL, comScore, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

Some months ago local media bombarded article stating that Vietnamese people were most interested in Sex based on Google Trends. However we just tried the Google Insights for Search with some keywords relating to Sex and found out some interesting figures:

For Sex keyword: Vietnam is the second after Pakistan in volume of search, but plus Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India made South Asia on top, North Africa is the second group.

Update: 21st September down to 4th position

For Porn: no clear winner but Bangladesh is till the runner-up

With Nude keyword: all top five positions went to South Asian countries with Pakistan and Bangladesh shared the top.

Tried a combination of video + sex: Cambodia took the crown, but Bangladesh is the second again plus two other South Asian (India, Sri Lanka)

From these results we can say that Vietnamese people are far behind South Asian people in searching Sex related keywords. Bangladesh is truly the top country that its people most interested in sex matters using search service from Google. Maybe Vietnamese Internet users are not as sophisticated as South Asians in using keywords.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Trends, Insights, sex, Trends, Vietnam

According to Nielsen Online, Google still keeps moving ahead other search services in the US with 60% share in July 2008. While Yahoo gained nearly a point from 16.6% last June to 17.4% in July, MSN/Windows Live Search lost more than 2% from 14.1% of searches to 11.9%.
There is no data for Vietnam market yet.

Technorati Tags: Google, MSN, Yahoo