Google delivers search results and AdWords for T-Online

Leading german web portal stops partnership with Overture

[Fischerlaender]

T-Online, the web portal of the leading german ISP, dismissed Overture/FAST as its search partner and started using Google search results and Google AdWords.

According to a member of the T-Online board they stopped using Overture/FAST results because Overture/FAST is now owned by Yahoo, one of the biggest competitors for the T-Online web portal.

This means that another four percent of german seachr queries are now going through Google's servers.

[Yidaki]

>T-Online, the$web portal of the leading german ISP,
>dismissed Overture/FAST as its search partner and started
>using Google search results and Google AdWords.

Now that is some good news! :)

Do you know when the results will finally change at t-online.de, then? I still see overture sponsored results on top and www underneath ... or will the sponsored ov results stay there?

[Fischerlaender]

I still see overture sponsored results on top and www underneath

Are you sure? I can see clearly Google AdWords on top and Google SERPs beneath. On the right hand side of the "Sponsored Links" there is a link to Google's AdWords program. And at the bottom of the page is a Google logo saying "enhanced by Google".

[jbinbpt]

I've got my Google adwords right at the top..

[Yidaki]

>Are you sure? I can see clearly Google AdWords on top and Google SERPs beneath.

Ok, you're right - i've been confused by the tracking url which still shows overture - looks like this:
... channel=overture&url=http//www.google.com/url?q=http://exampleclient.com...

[Rumbas]

Wow! Another one bites the dust.
That is big news. Thanks Fischerlaender.

T-Online has been running closely with Fast for years now and this is surely a surprising move.

>another 4 % going to Google.

Hmm, that much? Looking at stats that cover a few german sites, I don't even get that much from T-online. In fact we have discussed this several times and wondered why a major portal like T-online doesn't drive more traffic than it actually does. Heini once speculated that people don't go there to search.

[fr_cnx]

T-Online France= club-Internet
intergration done a few days ago!
Also about 4% to Google!

[rencke]

Well spotted Fischerländer and a significant piece of news. I notice that preference is given to German language sites, so it is high time to start translating for those who have not already done so. I would have thought T-online had a bigger slice of the pie than 4% though. Isn't this still Germany's biggest portal?

[pmkpmk]

Rumbas:

In fact we have discussed this several times and wondered why a major portal like T-online doesn't drive more traffic than it actually does. Heini once speculated that people don't go there to search.

I guess that's right. I use T-Online as my mobile Internet access and a lot of freinds and co-workers use it at home. They all use it solely as access-provider, but not as portal! Every single one of them uses Google as search engine.

[kelvinhui]

Would you tell me some information about the no. of users of T-online?

[pmkpmk]

T-Online is primarily an internet access provider. The "BIG TWO" in Germany are AOL and T-Online. T-Online itself claims to have 12.5 Million customers ([ueber.t-online.de ]).

AOL Germany claims they have 6.4 Million users in a weekly average ([aol.de ]), but in the same article they calim only to have 2,6 Million members in Germany. So the 6.4 Mio shows the online-session, I guess.

The German poulation is about ~90 Million people. It is said that about 50% of Germans over the age of 14 are online - which is about 32 Million people ([heise.de ]).

Hope that helps :-)

[Fischerlaender]

The 4% share in traffic is from Webhits Web-Barometer [webhits.de].

We discussed the german traffic figures here [webmasterworld.com] recently.

[martinibuster]

Wow, if I'm not mistaken (and I probably am), this is the first instance of a Overture feeling the Yahoo backlash.

Of course, this is probably hurting them about as much as a gym-towel snap on the bum, and about as humiliating, too.

Overture's working pretty hard lately to pick up new clients ahead of MSN giving them the boot. Clients like sympatico.ca, ironically also a portal/competitor (what were they thinking?).

O will be feeling it though when MSN finally drops them.

[weblamer2]

is t-online the same company as t-mobile, the telephone provider? (that used to be voice stream?)

[globay]

t-mobile is part of t-online

[Fischerlaender]

T-Online and T-Mobile are both parts of Deutsche Telekom, the former state-owned telephone company in germany. And yes, Voicestream is incorporated into T-Mobile.

[Rumbas]

..and then Miss Olsen finally got enough content for her story:
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5062734.html

[heini]

The point is really T-online is not a search engine. Unlike other portals, namely Yahoo, T-online does not see the money in search. Thus Google, with a much bigger reach as Yahoo in Germany and other european countries, still is seen as less of a competition as Yahoo.
Short sighted point of view, IMO.

[pmkpmk]

I don't think it's short sighted. I think they simply realize their current position. They KNOW they are "simply" an access provider. And they KNOW they can neither compete with Microsoft's MSN nor with any of the established search engines.

So they spare the resources altogether.