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FCC Could Force Apple to Stock Competitor Products in Its Own App Store

I'm sure most who follow business news have heard that the FCC is probing Apple's decision to reject Google's internet-calling software and remove certain Google applications from it's app store... 

The Federal Communications Commission has launched an inquiry into why Apple Inc. rejected Google Inc.'s Internet-telephony software for the popular iPhone, another sign of the Obama administration's stepped-up scrutiny of competitive practices in the technology industry.

In letters sent late Friday to the two companies and AT&T Inc., the FCC asked why Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone and removed related applications from its App Store.

This will be ridiculous if it moves forward. Apple just entered the phone space, it might be a little early to say that their iPhone has some sort of insurmountable competitive barrier. Furthermore, I like how the FCC is studying whether it was wrong for Apple to chose which products should be sold in it's own shop. I mean, it's pretty normal that if someone owned their own store, they wouldn't want to place threatening products from their competitors in it. I don't thinks Starbucks would want to have Dunkin Donuts coffee as an option in its own shops.

Bing Wins Eye-Tracking Study vs. Google

For those interested in the search engine wars, particularly Bing vs. Google, then you might be interested in a recent usability study done by Catalyst in New York. While they used a statistically insignificant sample size of only 12 people (all who had been Google users beforehand), they did come out with some interesting anecdotal data.

First of all, 4 out of 12 actually said they preferred Bing, with the remaining 8 preferring Google, but apparently because Google was the search engine they were familiar with. Second of all, Bing was actually preferred on most metrics, with Google winning out simply because of familiarity. In terms of search relevance the two engines appear to have tied. Catalyst also studied which parts of the page caught users' attention and found that Bing appeared to get much more eye-time right where one would presumably want it, over the top search results.

Bing Keeps Ringing in the Market Share Through Second Week, Now 12 Percent

Research Reloaded: 

Microsoft's Bing market share continues to grow in its second week... the big question is, will the new users stick around once the ad campaign and novelty wear off?


 

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing had a strong showing in its second week, according to the latest comScore stats. You can see our analysis of Bing’s success in its first week here. Microsoft sites’ average daily penetration among U.S. searchers reached 16.7 percent during the work week of June 8-12, up 3 percentage points from the May 25-29 period (which was prior to Bing’s introduction) and up over 1 percentage point from its first week.

Microsoft’s share of search result pages in the U.S. increased to 12.1 percent during the period of June 8-12, which is also 3 percentage points above the pre-introduction work week of May 25-29, and up 1 percentage point from the week of June 2-6, 2009.

From: 
TechCrunch

Twitter Search Market Share - Potential Dark Horse

One more interesting note, in addition to our previous thoughts, from Citi's June 17th search market share flash... interestingly Twitter has begun to show up on the radar in terms of search market share!

Search volume on Twitter in May was 30.1MM, (.001% U.S. market share), with 4.2MM searchers, and 39.4MM Result Pages, exceeding the 22.2MM searches conducted on Time Warner Cable.

Sure their share is tiny, but it's brand new, growing, and has a passionate user base as opposed to "use any default search box" types. They've already beaten Time Warner Cable, perhaps one day they break past Ask.com's sub-4% share? Very early days, but something to think about.

Bing Could Ding Yahoo, Not Just Google

comScore just released their May search query market share data, which we note encompasses a period before Microsoft launched their new Bing "decision engine". Well if anything, the latest data will set up us nicely to see whether Bing makes a Bang. May search share was at a record high for Google (GOOG) and a record low for Microsoft (MSFT), so there is a lot of rook for improved YoY comparisons.

Some preliminary comScore data appears to indicate that Bing may have gained MSFT 200 bps in market share already, but let's see how the engine fares a few months out, once the novelty factor wears off. I personally went, checked it out, did a few searches, then found myself habitually back to using Google. I don't think I even type www.google.com anymore, I just type keywords into my Google Chrome browser, so unless Bing gives users some sort of advantage, I expect it to Bomb.

Citi sees Yahoo share stabilizing due to improvements

But we'll see. Another interesting part of the latest comScore data is in regards to Yahoo (YHOO). As Citi analyst Mark Mahaney explained in his latest June 17 flash, May comScore data shows that Yahoo query share appears to have stabilized, now in the 20-21% range for nine months straight. He attributed this to various enhancements Yahoo has been implementing. So maybe they have been able to steady the ship in terms of search.

Google's YouTube Infrastructure Costs Vastly Overestimated: Report

Research Reloaded: 

Google's Youtube infrastructure costs may be far lower than Credit Suisse's previous estimates, as per a white paper from the firm RampRate. Rather than a drag, Youtube might actually be profitable. Still doesn't necessarily justify the acquisition price for Youtube, but if the unit is making money, then surely a positive for Google.


 

YouTube is much closer to breaking even than widely thought, says a firm with intimate knowledge of global infrastructure costs. A widely publicized Credit Suisse report that said Google would lose $470 million on the site this year neglected to account for factors such as peering traffic, wholesale bandwidth deals and cheap data center locations. Where the bank said YouTube’s costs will amount to $711 million in 2009, RampRate, a San Francisco-based company that advises large companies on IT infrastructure, says the actual cost is $415 million.

From: 
GigaOM

How to Solve the Glut in Housing or Autos, Google-Style

Great article in Wired Magazine on Google's internal economics. Worth a read for those who wish to learn what Googlenomics is. But hidden in the end of the article, we found an interesting idea for solving current gluts in autos or housing. Keep in mind Google's core genius, after its search technology, is its auction technlogy for ads, which is extremely efficient at getting adspace sold at the best price.

Can the rest of the world be far behind? Although Eric Schmidt doesn't think it will happen as quickly as some believe, he does think that Google-style auctions are applicable to all sorts of transactions. The solution to the glut in auto inventory? Put the entire supply of unsold cars up for bid. That'll clear out the lot. Housing, too: "People use auctions now in cases of distress, like auctioning a house when there are no buyers," Schmidt says. "But you can imagine a situation in which it was a normal and routine way of doing things."

Problem is, homeowners and automakers are likely to balk at the prices they might receive if a sudden, giant auction were held. The truth can hurt. But clearing the glut of housing and arguably autos (there is also the problem of production capacity here), could set a nice floor for prices, even if it's a floor at a much sharper, lower pricing level than we can even imagine right now.

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