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Okay folks, whatīs your bet?
I'm for sure looking forward to know more :)
Whois look up [ripe.net]
Anybody know who they are - have Goto missed out on their new name in Germany?
(edited by: Rumbas at 10:48 am (gmt) on Oct. 1, 2001
I'm tempted to say Lycos and affiliates
T-online: IS closes down on end of this month. Goto would have to move pretty fast....
Wisser, good hint with the fireball connection. They have then paid listings in the directoriy plus paid results in the websearch. Not exactly an improvement for users.
"As announced previously, GoTo is seeking an investment by one or more financial and/or strategic partners to assist in the expansion of its European operations. However, as a result of GoTo's success in the UK to date, and the current environment in Europe for funding Internet companies, the company is reevaluating its approach to financing GoTo Europe, which could include retaining a 100 percent interest in the entity. Based on the strength of its U.S. and UK results, the company is now targeting launch of GoTo Germany in the first quarter of 2002. "
[goto.com...]
"Overture U.K. currently reaches approximately 50% of the U.K.'s online population through its affiliate partnerships, which include Freeserve, the U.K.'s largest Internet Service Provider, and Ask Jeeves U.K. In the first half of 2001, Overture U.K. signed new agreements to become the primary search provider to AltaVista, Excite U.K., as well as LibertySurf, co-branded as LibertySearch. Overture U.K. has also partnered with Infospace U.K. for a one-year deal to provide search results on Infospace's "Net Search" as well as on their various partners' sites including Egg, Global Network and Thomson Web Directories.
Based on the strength of its U.S. and U.K. results, the company is now planning the launch of Overture Germany in the first half of 2002."
>>The e-spotting deal with Lycos is infact a deal with Bertelsmann/Lycos, which means e-spotting will also be available at Fireball results.
I really donīt know if this is fact only when espotting has a deal with Lycos-Europe. There are deals within the Lycos-Network that donīt have effects on the different parnters at all. I didnīt hear that the espotting deal īd have an effect on e.g. Fireball.
oLeon, I agree itīs not that all Lycos portals are autonatically affected by the E-spotting deal. But Fireball has just taken the first step to letting webmasters pay for prominent placement in directory - I would be surprised if they wouldnīt try to make money from their search too.
Another candidate: web.de. Huge traffic, aggressively growing, independent company in chronic financial troubles...?
To web.de: rumor says they sell top positions. I haven't any proof and they didn't offer me to buy positions. But still their top positions seem very randomly selected.
Oh yes, I found this here on the espotting-site:
press release [espotting.com]
Auf den Websites unserer Partner Freeserve, AltaVista und Ask Jeeves sehen Sie Beispiele für den integrierten Overture-Suchdienst.
Very much :)
Lets consolidate what we have so far...
Espotting are likely to be the first movers of the major players into the PPC market in Germany. According to their press release they will be opening their doors for business by the end of December 2001. They will provide serp listings for..
Lycos.de
Fireball
Hotbot.de
Overture (GoTo) will be opening their doors in Germany around February / March 2002. They will be providing SERPS for..
Altavista.de
Ask Jeeves
Freeserve.de
So who will win the market share battle?
Well this is a tough one to call imo.
Here we have espotting with quite a coup by signing up Lycos/Bertelsmann and being a first mover for the German market. The big question is, will they have the marketing resources and experience to convince the German corporate market as to the benefits of PPC(ROI). OTOH we have the most well placed and branded company Overture, with success in the UK and US marketplace entering as second movers however they possess a major advantage in that they are highly experienced and succesful in makrketing the concept of PPC and most likely have the more resources to carry out a strong marketing campaign. I think my money is on Overture taking the lead by mid 2002.
Noiw as to which one will be best for the corporate website promoter. we will have to wait and see. I'm not convinced Overtuire don't have other affiliations uop their sleeve and we may be hearing more form them. I'm not sure what they have left to affiliate with thouhg in honesty. i had a feeling they would link up with T-online but I guessed wrong there.
Espotting could see me wrong however by really going to town on its marketting and not penny pinching. if they box cleever they could be the mjor players of PPC for the years to come.
IMHO the German market is ripe for PPC. I believe it will be the most receptive market of the lot. And that includes the UK and US markets. Why? Because it suits their mentality. I mean that in a positive way. German corporations look more closely at the bottom line and ROI. Because of that the pay per click and not the usual impressions scheme is going to be more popular imho. Still, if a corporation doesn't know about it, it isnt going to take off. My hope is that both companies put their money where their mouth is and don't penny pinch with regards to their advertising campaigns.
On a side note...
According to DENIC both the domains espotting.de and Overture.de are taken up. In the case of Overture, Sedo.de are offering it for sale for 5.000 DM. Where they stand legally is questionable however and I suspect Overtures copyright lawyers are doin their homework as we speak.
With espotting it is not so clear what is going on. They have no index page as yet, however, the domain according to DENIC is taken up but it is not clear if espotting own it or not. You would have thought these multinationals would have protected their branding a long time ago through multiple top level domains.
On a side, side note. It seems the question marks are over as to who T-online are teaming up with for their serp is over. FAST (AllTheWeb) win the day apparantly. Their multi-media search capabilities could be worth a great deal to T-online so it is very much a win-win deal there. espeecially for FAST who were not in the best of financial positions.
There is going to be a lot of posturing and positioning over the next few months and how the dice will fall come spring 2002 no one really knows. One thing is for sure. The face of German search engines and their search query results are changing, and how. For better or worse is for another thread but I think it is inevitable given the financial plight of so many of the search engines.
I hope the PPC revolution takes place for rahter selfish reasons personally, as I will be adding PPC consultation onto the list of SEO services I will be providing come January.
We shall see. We live in interesting times :-)
Regards
Alan Webb
