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 得到google的Product Manager电话interview机会，请各位指点。 |
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得到google的Product Manager电话interview机会，请各位指点。 -- netsuite - (363 Byte) 2005-11-15 周二, 18:25 (1691 reads) |
Annran
头衔: 海归少校
加入时间: 2005/06/04
文章: 151
来自: U.S.
海归分: 14660
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作者：Annran 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
You may also want to check your local library for competitor research and investment bank's reports. Also Google's annual report.
Also found a few articles for your reference. Good luck!
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1.China Net-search fight rages
Alibaba.com relaunches
Yahoo site as rivals vie
for share of No. 2 market
By JASON DEAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 10, 2005
BEIJING －－ The battle for China's Internet-search market is heating up.
Alibaba.com Corp., which took over Yahoo Inc.'s China business in August, relaunched the U.S. company's Chinese site with a very different approach. The new site's less-cluttered design －－ which resembles that of competitors like Google Inc. and China's Baidu.com Inc. －－ focuses heavily on search functions, pushing into the background the media content and other offerings that typify Yahoo's usual portal-style site.
"What we want [is] when people think of search, they think of Yahoo," said Jack Ma, founder and chief executive of Hangzhou, China-based Alibaba, after unveiling the Yahoo site yesterday.
Alibaba's new look for Chinese Yahoo is the latest in a series of maneuvers by Internet companies trying to grab turf in the country's search sector. Advertising revenue on Chinese Internet search sites is still relatively tiny －－ $148 million in 2004, according to iResearch Inc. But ad sales are growing； Baidu's revenue nearly tripled in the most-recent quarter, to about $11 million. And China's Internet-user population, at about 100 million people, is the world's second-largest after the U.S.
Software giant Microsoft Corp. announced in May that it had formed a joint venture with a Chinese company to launch its MSN online service in China. In August, Beijing-based Baidu, China's most-popular search site, sold $109 million of its shares in a much-watched initial public offering in the U.S. Google opened its first office in China this year, and in July hired Microsoft executive Kai-Fu Lee to head its growing operations in the country.
Yahoo was one of the first foreign Internet companies to come to China, in 1999, but it struggled to gain traction. In August, it said it was turning over its China operations to Alibaba and spending $1 billion for a 40% equity stake in the Chinese company. Alibaba's main business before that had been an online-commerce service linking smaller suppliers with potential customers.
Mr. Ma said his biggest competitive concern is Baidu, which he said is going through growing pains common to companies that have recently gone public. "If we don't move fast, within eight to 10 months we won't have a chance," he said. "In eight to 10 months, Baidu is going to overcome its problems and get bigger."
Alibaba spent about $750 million of the money it received from Yahoo to buy shares in itself held by its employees and existing investors, including Japan's Softbank Corp. That leaves $250 million, plus more than $100 million in cash Alibaba already had, that it has available to spend promoting and upgrading the Yahoo site, although Mr. Ma said he doesn't want to spend it all.
The new site clearly imitates the feel of Google and Baidu, which Mr. Ma said was intentional. It includes a link to a search service for MP3 files similar to one that has triggered lawsuits against Baidu for allegedly abetting unlicensed copying of music files.
The Alibaba chief said Yahoo's previous China site was "not good," which he blamed in part on a lack of focus in its operations. Yahoo had actually run three different search sites in China, including yisou.com, which more closely resembles the new version of Yahoo's site. Mr. Ma said the Yisou brand will be ended immediately, and the third site, 3721.com, would be phased out over time.
"We have to rebuild the Yahoo brand in China," Mr. Ma said. "This is a strong signal to everyone: we are learning to focus."
Mr. Ma said Yahoo executives in the U.S. weren't actively involved in designing the new China site. They were sent an image of the new appearance yesterday before the announcement.
2. Microsoft Launches
Desktop Search
For Businesses
Associated Press
November 15, 2005
SEATTLE －－ Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday released a business version of software that aims to help people more quickly find documents, e-mail and other data stored on Windows-based computers.
The free new desktop search product comes after years of complaints over how hard it can be to locate Microsoft Word documents, sort through long email lists and find other data people use during the workday.
The software will feel similar to Microsoft's consumer offering for searching files on desktop computers. But the product is designed so corporate technology executives can easily install it on many computers simultaneously, and better control how it is used.
The product also will work with products that search corporate networks, including those offered by competitors.
Workers have for years complained about how difficult and time-consuming it can be to do things like search through email or Microsoft Word documents. Rivals, including Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc., have also responded to that problem with their own desktop search offerings.
Microsoft sees the business-focused desktop search product as an intermediary step before the company releases its next version of Windows, called Vista, which promises better search capability.
However, the new version of Windows, due out next year, isn't going to include an even more advanced way to store and organize information, called WinFS. That will now come later.
Microsoft also said Tuesday that its consumer desktop search product will eventually let people search information found in Microsoft's new Windows Live online offerings.
Windows Live, another Microsoft effort to compete with Google and Yahoo, seeks to expand the Windows franchise online with better Web-based email and other products. The search capability for those services, many of which are also still in development, is due out next year.
3. Any Big Revolution
On the Net Will Be
Televised by Microsoft
November 9, 2005； Page B1
Is Microsoft getting into the business of the New Internet just when the business is going south? If it is, this is one case where the company isn't going to mind if its timing is off.
Last week, Microsoft flew a pod of top executives to San Francisco to unveil what it called its Live collection of software and services. Most of these are still in their early stages of development, such as the live.com Web site that allows users to create personalized Web pages, akin to My Yahoo. Others won't even be ready until next year, like Web-based scheduling software that small businesses can use in connection with Office to manage projects. And in some cases, Microsoft simply took work that was long under way, like the new version of its Hotmail program, and gave it the surname Live.
If it all seems like the usual case of Microsoft belatedly catching up with others' innovations and market pressure, that's partly true. The company is trying to diffuse the well-publicized threat posed to it by Google. But there is more to it than that. Microsoft is also grappling with a phenomenon that is related but less well-known, at least outside of Silicon Valley: The belief in certain tech circles that the Internet is in the midst of a revolutionary shift.
Those pushing the idea of a New Internet, sometimes known as Web 2.0, say this new, improved Net won't just be about Web pages, but also, among other things, about introducing a new breed of agile and personalized programs that live on the network instead of on your PC.
Google's Gmail and Google Maps programs are mentioned as examples. The opposite of a Web 2.0 program, as it happens, is software made by Microsoft.
Is there really a new, Microsoft-hostile Internet being a-borne? Or is all the talk of it just more yakking by a lot of technology's chattering classes?
Microsoft will be ready in either event； that was the whole point of last week's event. For instance, the company spent a lot of time talking about online advertising revenue； you'd have thought it was a weekly shopper for all the ads it's going to start showing folks. Many of the new Live offerings will have a free version that is supported through advertising. If you want to live without the ads, then you've got to pay.
Microsoft has a distinguished track record of besting competitors by depriving them of their revenue streams. It knocked out Netscape by giving away the browsers that Netscape was trying hard to sell. Google gets all its money from ads； something Microsoft clearly is targeting. But if Internet advertising doesn't continue its boom, Microsoft can simply pull back, none the worse for wear.
Of course, you can sell ads only if you have the eyeballs to show the ads to in the first place. Microsoft continues to struggle on that front. Its search page trails behind Google and Yahoo, and its MSN Web page has long had a similar industry-lagging reputation.
Another way Microsoft showed it was ready for several alternative futures was the manner it dealt with Office. While people most closely associate Microsoft with Windows, the Office suite of applications is a similarly-sized piece of the Redmond empire, and as such, has for years been one of the biggest targets in the software industry.
Most people expect Google, among others, to try to steadily chip away at Office with alternative, probably free, programs like Gmail. Microsoft didn't even come close last week to offering online (much less free) versions of Word or Excel. But by talking about new bits of Web software for Office －－ if only for small businesses －－ it put the issue of the future of Office on the table, and by implication acknowledged that it would take even more radical steps if it had to.
Anything Google does that gains traction, Microsoft will surely try to match, and then best. If someone is going to cannibalize your business, it might as well be you.
But whether Microsoft ever needs to do all this depends on how much the New Web is a real thing, or just the wishful thinking of technology insiders who read each others' blogs and yearn for the excitement of the dot-com glory days.
Already, there is a something of an anti-Web 2.0 backlash brewing: not in the real world, of course, since people there haven't heard of it in the first place, but among some of the digerati, who fret that tech types may be getting a little carried away with their new toys.
As he has in the past, Bill Gates called Microsoft's announcements last week a "big bet," as though the company should be congratulated for a courageous bit of risk-taking. In fact, the company wasn't really betting anything, as much as it was hedging it bets.
Anyone who has used one of the new email programs from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft can appreciate how online programs now feel almost as fast and powerful as those on your desktop. It's an exciting time to be on the Internet, or writing programs for it. But is it a revolution, rearranging the wealth of the tech world?
To find the answer, watch Microsoft. The 900-pound gorilla is now the canary in the coal mine of the New Internet.
4. Will Amazon Initiatives Pay Off?
Spending on Technology May Be
Wise Investment or Value Drain
By WORTH CIVILS
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE
November 10, 2005
Amazon.com continues to pump a flood of money into its business of selling everything from books and music to electronics and computer equipment. But Wall Street has long questioned whether hefty spending －－ the latest investment is in digital book offerings －－ is holding back Amazon's stock price. Some analysts laud Amazon for "investing in the future," saying the online retailer is positioning to go up against the likes of Apple Computer, Google, eBay and Netflix. But some high-profile initiatives, like "free shipping" for orders of more than $25 are costly and hurt profit margins. Amazon shares closed at $41.40 Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. (Analyst disclosures follow)
The Bull Case
Smart Money: Amazon allots 6.5% of its revenue to spending on technology and content, up from 4.4% a year ago. Analysts say the company's timely investments help it maintain robust cash flow. Bear Stearns analyst Robert S. Peck says he sees these costs as "investments, instead of just expenses" that will position the company to generate even more revenue growth and widen margins －－ "the main drivers of free cash flow." Amazon's recent initiatives include an expanded online book-purchase program and "search inside the book" technology, which is available for about half of its inventory. The company is taking a different tack than Google's free-access campaign on the digital-library front, aligning itself with the publishing industry1. Analysts say Amazon also may venture into movie rentals in the U.S., building on its established business in the United Kingdom. "Amazon is actually taking key steps towards the future of where eCommerce, technology, telecom, and media collide," wrote Mr. Peck.
Harry's Halo: Amazon's third-quarter revenue grew to $1.86 billion, up 27% from a year earlier. Driving the growth was sales of 1.6 million copies of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" －－ Amazon's biggest new-product release ever. Excluding the book, revenue still grew at a 25% clip. This is partly due to what Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker calls Harry Potter's "halo effect －－ brand, trust, reliability." Harry enthusiasts will come to the site to buy related merchandise and other items. Amazon also was boosted by electronics sales －－ "a positive given Amazon's reliance on media," wrote Justin Post at Merrill Lynch. Revenue from books, movies and music was in line with forecasts of 21% growth, while the revenue category that includes electronics was up 33%. Looking ahead, Ms. Meeker estimates global online retail sales will grow 20% annually. Amazon, "one of the strongest e-commerce brands, should be well positioned to benefit from this growth," she said.
Engaging Customers: Amazon lured back 52 million repeat customers －－ those with purchases over the past 12 months －－ in the third quarter. That's up 19% from a year earlier. During the quarter, Amazon attracted roughly two million new customers, Mr. Post estimates, and revenue for each customer was up 3% to $155. "Amazon continues to broaden its product offerings, increasing user activity on [the site]," he wrote. Third-party clients are helping, analysts say. Amazon has more than one million active sellers －－ those with orders from Amazon.com customers in the last 12 months －－ up 29%. "Strong momentum on the third-party front points to the significant value that Amazon.com sellers are finding," Ms. Meeker wrote in a recent note. She says that by creating such an environment, Amazon broadens its offerings without taking "additional inventory risk."
The Bear Case
Marginal Costs: Free shipping on orders of more than $25 is good for building customer loyalty, but not for building cash. "Free shipping continues to weigh on margins," wrote Prudential's Mark Rowen. He and other analysts cite margin figures from the third quarter that show the promotion may not be generating enough business to offset the costs. He also remains "skeptical" of Amazon's foray into the consumer-electronics business, calling it "not a particularly good fit" for Amazon's business model, because of its lower margins and the strong position of its bricks-and-mortar competitors. Steve Weinstein at Pacific Crest notes that incremental operating margin was 3.5%, "the lowest in years … which we believe casts doubt on the company's long-term goal of double-digit operating margins."
Lowering the Bar: Amazon late last month ｄｒｏｐped fourth-quarter sales guidance below analyst estimates, sending shares down 14% in one day. Lehman Brothers' Douglas Anmuth called the company's third-quarter results "decent," but wrote that they weren't "enough to keep the stock at its recent levels." At more than $40 a share, he thinks "Amazon's margin for error is low," and the recent guidance "created enough of a mixed bag to be cautious on the current quarter." He points to a number of "moving pieces" in Amazon's model for the current quarter, such as a heavy discount environment for electronics and an uncertain macro-economic environment. A strengthening dollar could also have a negative impact on the company －－ Mr. Anmuth estimates it knocked more than $100 million off fourth-quarter sales guidance. Prudential's Mr. Rowen wrote that "international growth rates could be quite significantly impacted by negative currency exchange for the first time, and this could turn investor sentiment."
Legal Lapse: Amazon's third-period net fell 44% and missed consensus estimates, mostly because of a $40 million settlement with Soverain Software, related to a patent lawsuit. Without the payout, Amazon would have beat Street estimates by two cents a share. Tax laws also pose a threat. Now, online retailers like Amazon must collect tax on sales made to customers only in states where it has a physical presence, but some states are trying to pass a bill aimed at broadening the tax. John Logan, an analyst at Wolters Kluwer tax-research firm CCH, says that if Congress passes the bill, online retailers would lose a "competitive advantage" over bricks-and-mortar sellers. Mr. Logan said Amazon could also face costs related to compliance issues and legal battles over the bill.
Ratings
Brokerage Firm Stock Rating 52-Week Price Target Last Update
Bear Stearns Outperform $50 Oct. 26
Morgan Stanley Overweight n/a Oct. 26
Deutsche Bank Hold $44 Oct. 25
Merrill Lynch Neutral $43* Oct. 26
McAdams Wright Ragen Hold $42 Oct. 26
CIBC World Markets Sector Performer $42 Oct. 26
Friedman Billings Ramsey Market Perform $39 Oct. 26
Credit Suisse First Boston Neutral $36 Oct. 25
Citigroup Sell $38 Oct. 25
Pacific Crest Securities Underperform n/a Oct. 26
Lehman Brothers Underweight $30 Oct. 26
Prudential Equity Group Underweight $30 Oct. 25
*Current fair-value estimate
Disclosures:
•； Bear Stearns is a market maker in this Amazon's equity securities. During the past 12 months, the company has been a non-investment banking client of the firm.
•； Morgan Stanley makes a market in the securities of Amazon and beneficially owns 1% or more of a class of common equity securities of the company. Within the last 12 months, the firm has provided investment-banking services to the company, and expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for such services in the next three months.
•； Merrill Lynch acts as a market maker for the securities of Amazon and is willing to sell to, or buy from, clients the common equity of the company on a principal basis.
•； Lehman Brothers makes a market in the securities of Amazon and beneficially owns 1% or more of any class of common equity securities of the company. The firm has received non-investment banking related compensation from the company in the last 12 months.
•； Prudential Equity Group listed no specific disclosures related to Amazon.
•； Pacific Crest Securities says it makes a market in the shares of Amazon.
5. Google Tests
Offering Classifieds －－
And Vying With eBay
By KEVIN J. DELANEY and MYLENE MANGALINDAN
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 26, 2005； Page B1
Google Inc. is testing a service called Google Base that could put it squarely in competition with eBay Inc., newspapers and other sellers of classified ads.
Google Base would let users submit information, including classified-like listings of items for sale, to a searchable Google database, according to Web pages from Google's test that were intermittently available to the public.
If the Web-search company goes ahead with the service, it could compete with classified providers such as newspapers, online listing services such as Craigslist Inc. －－ which is minority-owned by eBay －－ and listing sites specializing in areas such as jobs and real estate.
A screenshot of the test page for Google Base.
Google's presumed ability to make listings available free of charge, financed directly or indirectly by its potent online advertising system, could make it a particularly formidable competitor to eBay, which charges seller fees to list items on most of its sites. Google has already said it is working on an online payment service, which could compete with eBay's PayPal electronic-payment service. (See related article1.)
But the millions of listings eBay handles －－ as well as features like its seller rating system －－ give it an advantage that has stymied all major U.S. rivals in the past, since buyers and sellers tend to flock to the listing sites with the most items for sale and the most traffic.
Google Base could also have significant ramifications for the newspaper industry, which is already hurting because classified listings and other advertising have shifted to the Web. Google's interest in collecting nonclassified content through Google Base －－ which may include user-generated news and reference articles, reviews, and events listings －－ could intensify the challenge to traditional media.
MORE
Rivalry Fears Jolt eBay's Options2
10/26/05Google's entry into online listings has long been anticipated, but some analysts thought the Mountain View, Calif., company would primarily do so by searching other classified providers' listings rather than collecting the listings itself. Google, in a statement, described the service as "an early-stage test of a product that enables content owners to easily send their content to Google." A spokeswoman declined to comment further.
One page from the test service makes clear that Google is looking beyond classified listings with Google Base and is considering allowing users to submit other content for it to search. On that page, Google cites "description of your party planning service," "articles on current events from your Web site" and "database of protein structures" as types of content that a user could submit. A separate Web page contains a form for entering information such as price, property type and photos, presumably for listing real estate for rent or sale.
EBay has been expanding into classified-ad listings over the past two years to tap into other markets as its U.S. marketplace for its auction listings matures. The San Jose, Calif., company has added classified-ad listings, rental-property listings and comparison-shopping product listings to its arsenal through acquisitions of smaller companies and a minority investment in Craigslist, a classified-ad site that focuses on metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles and New York.
Google's expected move "is going to slowly chip away at eBay's growth and opportunities, especially in international markets where there is a tremendous amount of growth at Google," said Brian Blair, a principal at Wedge Partners LLC, a New York research firm.
An eBay spokesman declined to comment.
Complicating the situation, eBay is one of the largest advertising buyers on Google, with ads that pop up when users search for particular kinds of merchandise for sale. It's unclear how much the threat of competition could affect that arrangement or eBay's relationship with Google, though eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman has acknowledged publicly that her company may sometimes compete with Google.
Though Google has introduced a number of products and services quickly, the company hasn't gained much traction in the shopping area, where its Froogle site still lags behind the traffic of eBay's recently acquired comparison-shopping site, Shopping.com. It's unclear whether Internet users would gravitate to a Google service that lists classified ads when sites like eBay and Craigslist have become well-known venues for selling and marketing products and services.
The test Web pages say Google may make some Google Base listings available in Froogle and its other search results.
While details of Google Base remain vague, some analysts and industry executives say entering the listings business would mark a strategic departure for Google. It has traditionally shied away from generating its own online content, they say, and it would now be competing directly with some of the companies whose listings it has included in its search results.
"Google is not only acting as a search engine, but stepping over the line and acting as a classified publisher," said Craig Donato, CEO of classified-listings search engine Oodle Inc. in San Mateo, Calif.
A person familiar with the thinking of eBay's management said eBay is less concerned about the Google threat than it was six months ago, in part because Google products such as Gmail and Froogle haven't displaced the market leaders in their areas. Still, concern about Google competition seemed to affect eBay's shares, which declined 3.6%, or $1.41, to $38.01 in 4 p.m. Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. Google's stock traded at $346.91, off about half a percentage point, or $1.74.
Google's plans for handling nonclassified content are uncertain. But its test pages appear to envision Google Base as a way for users to directly submit other types of information without having to post it on their own Web pages. Allowing users to provide descriptive labels for their content when they submit it could make it easier for Google to make that content searchable. It could also increase Google's ability to sell ads displayed next to the content without having to share any ad revenue with other Web publishers. Ultimately, it could make Google a repository of information apart from public Web sites.
News of Google Base's existence comes as Google gathers major partners and advertisers for a multiday summit called Google Zeitgeist at its headquarters.
6. Google, Comcast
Seek Piece of AOL
Time Warner Negotiations
May Yield $5 Billion Deal；
Potent Challenge to Yahoo
By JULIA ANGWIN, KEVIN J. DELANEY and PETER GRANT
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 13, 2005； Page A3
Google Inc. and Comcast Corp. are in serious discussions with Time Warner Inc. about buying a minority stake in America Online for as much as $5 billion, according to people familiar with the situation.
The negotiations focus primarily on AOL's network of Web sites, such as the AOL.com Web portal and AOL Instant Messenger, rather than its slowly declining telephone dial-up Internet business. AOL is the Internet's second-biggest network of sites, with 112 million U.S. visitors in September, trailing Yahoo Inc.'s 123 million, according to comScore Media Metrix.
Google and Comcast are hoping a stake in AOL will allow them to tap AOL's large audience and its content offerings, such as concerts, drawing more consumers and advertising to their Internet services.
The talks threaten to derail separate negotiations under way between Microsoft Corp. and AOL about creating an Internet joint venture. Those discussions, which have been percolating for several months, were progressing rapidly until talks with Google and Comcast heated up last week, according to people close to the deal.
The structure of the deal is up in the air. Under one of the ideas being discussed, Google, of Mountain View, Calif., and Philadelphia-based Comcast would join together in a partnership that would own about 50% of AOL, the people said. However, Time Warner, of New York, wants a controlling interest in AOL that it can consolidate on its income statement.
Dividing AOL into an Internet-access business and a content business wouldn't be trivial, since they are currently intertwined. However, a person close to the discussions says the spun-off portion of AOL could license its content to the portion of AOL that provides Internet-access accounts. Google and Comcast are valuing AOL's content business at about $10 billion, which implies a valuation of as much as $5 billion for a minority stake.
If consummated, a combination of AOL, Google and Comcast could create a potent challenge to Yahoo, the Internet-industry leader in terms of audience size and advertising revenue. Yahoo's success has been driven in part by the Sunnyvale, Calif., company's focus on providing licensed and original content that attracts loyal audiences.
In recent years, AOL has invested heavily in creating original content offerings such as concerts for its network of Web sites. But Time Warner has been frustrated that AOL's success hasn't been reflected in its stock price, so it is hoping that it can use a partnership with another Internet company to create a publicly traded Internet stock that reflects AOL's value.
Google would be in some ways a natural partner for AOL. Currently, AOL uses Google's search-engine technology, and Google gives AOL a cut of the advertising revenue generated by AOL customers. Last year, Google turned over $300 million in revenue to AOL.
But Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., is hoping to win AOL's search business away from Google. This year, Microsoft began talking to AOL about what it would take to get AOL to switch to using Microsoft's search engine. By late summer, the talks had begun focusing on a possible joint venture between AOL and Microsoft, with Time Warner still owning a majority stake in AOL.
When news of those talks leaked, Google began talking to AOL about how to save their existing relationship, according to people close to the discussions. The discussions got serious late last week at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, where AOL Chief Executive Officer Jon Miller and top Google executives were in attendance. Google CEO Eric Schmidt also flew to New York last week and met with Time Warner executives, these people said.
Google approached Comcast about participating in a bid for AOL last week, according to a person familiar with the matter. But Google could still make a bid on its own, another person close to the talks said.
Google said in a statement that it was "not able to respond" to questions about "rumored conversations," adding that "Google and AOL have a healthy global partnership, and AOL remains a valued partner."
Google is interested in allying with AOL for a number of reasons, according to people familiar with the matter. For starters, it would be a way to defend itself against Microsoft's effort to steal its business. It could also potentially give Google more direct access to Time Warner's and Comcast's broadband Internet users to more prominently showcase Google's services and advertising. Such broadband users tend to be more voracious Internet users.
A linkup with AOL and Comcast would also give Google a more direct relationship with owners of content, including movies and TV programming. Google executives have repeatedly said they don't want to create content themselves, in contrast to the likes of Yahoo and AOL.
But the company is increasingly dependent on agreements with content owners to broaden its offerings in search and related areas. Google faced resistance from some television companies to its video-search service when it began digitizing TV programming this year in order to make transcripts of shows searchable.
Google has taken great pains to reassure the content owners. But a tie-up with AOL, which creates its own content and through Time Warner has access to even more, and Comcast, which has agreements with TV channels related to their cable distribution, could vastly strengthen Google's efforts to broaden what consumers can search and view through its search services.
This would help Google in competing with Yahoo, which has much closer ties to the entertainment business. Its CEO, Terry Semel, was co-head of the Warner Brothers film studio, and he has hired executives such as former ABC Entertainment co-chief Lloyd Braun to develop programming.
For its part, Comcast is looking at an AOL deal as a way to continue its push into Internet businesses with more growth potential than its traditional cable-TV service. The company also sees owning a piece of AOL as a way of expanding its high-speed Internet-access service, known as broadband, by marketing it to AOL customers who pay $24 a month for dial-up Internet connections.
Comcast believes it would be able to compete better with rival broadband services by offering consumers access to the AOL portal and its large menu of services as part of the price of a subscription. While Comcast currently has its own portal, Comcast.net, which has a wide range of features and content, AOL would give it the national brand as well as AOL's wide range of offerings.
Like other media giants, Comcast is also hoping to gain access to the soaring market for Internet advertising. In the first half of this year, spending on Internet advertising increased 26% to $5.8 billion, compared with the same period last year.
Comcast had talked to Time Warner about AOL separately, but people close to the situation say those talks were going nowhere until Google came along last week. Comcast has been talking to Google for about four months about some form of technology partnership. Comcast has been particularly interested in taking advantage of Google's expertise in search for Comcast's broadband and video offerings.
People close to the negotiations say Microsoft is still in talks with AOL. Yesterday, Microsoft's MSN unit and Yahoo said they planned to let their separate consumer instant-messaging services, which allow users to exchange rapid-fire texts from their computers, directly communicate with each other. The announcement represents a breakthrough in a longstanding stalemate between the major instant-messaging providers, and Yahoo and Microsoft executives said they had been discussing that possibility for roughly the past year. People close to the negotiations say that Microsoft's move to line up with Yahoo could be seen as a way to increase its leverage in its talks with AOL.
Any resulting link between Google and Comcast could have potential for changing the competitive landscape of the Internet and television industries. Google, for example, has proposed offering free high-speed wireless Internet access through San Francisco, a move that many view as a threat to fee-based Internet-access providers including Comcast. But Google has said it is interested in working with access partners and could potentially allow Comcast to link any free service with fee-based premium cable Internet-access offerings, sidestepping any competitive clash. Comcast could also help extend Google's reach to consumers' TV sets. Google rival Yahoo has an agreement with SBC Communications Inc. that will make Yahoo services, such as its digital-photo and music offerings, available through TV set-top boxes the telephone company will roll out.
作者：Annran 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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