The fact that I’ve been silent for some time, doesn’t mean that the Spanish internet isn’t churning up stories. In fact, there are quiet a few. I’ll start with the latest and for many one of the most impressive. If [...]]]> The fact that I’ve been silent for some time, doesn’t mean that the Spanish internet isn’t churning up stories. In fact, there are quiet a few. I’ll start with the latest and for many one of the most impressive. If anything, it’s a good sign for Spain and will have plenty of local internet entrepreneurs on their toes. During Google’s Developer Day 2007 held on May 31st, a local acquisition was announced in Madrid. Google has agreed to acquire Panoramio, a small, but certainly very ambitious and successful Alicante based company.

The official announcements can be found in Google’s Blog as well as Panoramio’s. The Spanish blogosphere is buzzing with the news. Panoramio is based on Google Earth. The gist of it’s utility and it’s main attraction is that Panaromio allows users to associate photos with locations. This way, users help create and share a have a photographic atlas of the world. Panoramio has been working closely with Google Earth for over a year, integrating Panoramio as a layer into Google Earth. A very logical and visually exciting extension of Google Earth, which has in turn helped Panoramio grow their database. The acquisition is also timely with the integration of Streetside views.

According to Eduardo Manchon of Panoramio, “The integration of photos from Panoramio in Google Earth has been so successful since John Hanke suggested it that we see the acquisition of Panoramio as a natural consequence. We have tightened our relationship with Google Earth more and more in recent months, and at the end we decided to walk one step further. After so much work together, honestly, we couldn’t imagine a better scenario than selling Panoramio to Google.”

As far as I know the the amount that Panoramio was acquired for has not been disclosed by neither of the two parties. Whatever the amount is, the acquisition is certainly motivational for hundreds of other Spanish start-ups—Google doesn’t have a blind spot for Spain.

There’s an official Q&A posted by Google. Take a look. Better yet, experiment with Panoramio.

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Ask.com admits that they’re behind the nifty guerrilla marketing campaign launched to promote search alternatives, in effect to sway users away from Google. After all, Google the market leader by far.

The url at the bottom [...]]]> Ask.com admits that they’re behind the nifty guerrilla marketing campaign launched to promote search alternatives, in effect to sway users away from Google. After all, Google the market leader by far.

The url at the bottom of the advertisement is http://www.information-revolution.org/

Update: Since the news got out, Ask has placed a small “Ask” logo on the bottom right of the website.

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Spain’s leading online portal and telecom, Ya.com has launched YaTV and YaShoot in order to compete with YouTube on a local level, here in Spain. Both of the Web 2.0 services use Ya.com’s proprietary tagging service, ]]> Spain’s leading online portal and telecom, Ya.com has launched YaTV and YaShoot in order to compete with YouTube on a local level, here in Spain. Both of the Web 2.0 services use Ya.com’s proprietary tagging service, Etikedo, to help organize photos and videos on YaTV and YaShoot. Etikedo consolidates photos, videos and links, where users can tag their favorites. Much like hundreds of other similar services available all over the world.

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A number of Spanish online sources are reporting on a recent rumor, now confirmed by Isabel Aguilera,Google’s Managing Director in Spain and Portugal—Google is working on their own mobile phone. Google Phone? gPhone? Confirmed, right here in Spain.

The news seemed [...]]]> A number of Spanish online sources are reporting on a recent rumor, now confirmed by Isabel Aguilera,Google’s Managing Director in Spain and Portugal—Google is working on their own mobile phone. Google Phone? gPhone? Confirmed, right here in Spain.

The news seemed to catch everyone off guard. Was that something that was really supposed to surface?
Certainly it’s not a surprise. Nowadays Google seems to be working on everything and with all of the solutions currently available, a phone that consolidates all of the features (Gmail, Google Maps, mobile advertising, etc.) seems like the next logical step. However, the Spanish blogosphere has it’s doubts as to whether the newsflash was entirely unintentional. Up until now, Google’s headquarters have been unwilling to comment on the rumor. Now, the cat’s out of the bag.

In either case, on the 14th this month, in a conference organized by the Association for the Progress of the Mediterranean Region (Asociación para el Progreso de la Dirección de la Zona Mediterránea), Alguilera confirmed that the company’s engineers are dedicating part of their time towards building a mobile phone for better “access to information.” This is one of the 18 projects that are cooking in the Google labs.

Sources:
Noticias.com
Libertad Digital

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Spanish is the third top spoken language in the World, yet a recent Accenture study found that the fact is no indication of it´s performance online.

Lets look at the numbers

Internet growth in Latin America and Spain just last [...]]]> Spanish is the third top spoken language in the World, yet a recent Accenture study found that the fact is no indication of it´s performance online.

Lets look at the numbers

Internet growth in Latin America and Spain just last year was 337% and 375% respectively, yet Internet penetration is still below the European average (38% in Spain and 49% in Europe).

But it´s not only the Internet penetration that´s the problem. The ratio of websites in Spanish per user, is far lower than the ratio for English (1.47), French (1.25) and German (1.23). Spanish´s ratio is less than half of German´s, at .58. So it seems in this case, it´s not really the Internet penetration that´s the problem. Somehow the Spanish Internet just doesn´t produce the same amount of content.

Why? And does this make any sense?

Reading an entirely different report, The 13th NetObserver Report by Novartis (pdf), it appers that Spain leads, the UK, Germany and France in the use of new communications Technologies, including podcasts, instant messaging, email and BLOGS.

But that´s just Spain. What about Latin America and the U.S. hispanic population, clearly and important piece of the pie? AOL´s Latino 2006 Hispanic Study found that: “81% of Hispanics online are mostly acculturated or partially acculturated, while only 19% is relatively unacculturated. While acculturated online Hispanics tend to prefer online content in English, nearly 40% of them still find Spanish content appealing; of the unacculturated segment 37% prefer both languages. Of the total Hispanic online population, only 15% prefer Spanish only.” These numbers correspond to 16 million hispanic users online. If 80% of these users prefer content mostly in English, mustn´t they also prefer to produce content in English as well?

Still, a ratio of .58 for the Spanish language seems much too low. It´s difficult to have an objective opinion, while living and working in Spain and swimming in Spanish content. Are the numbers skewed? And if not, what´s the weakness?

Leave your impressions.

Sources:

Netimperative
El País
Hispanic Business

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More fun domain disputes. If you’ve been following Multilingual Search for some time you may have read a story last year, about internationalizing the Chilean .cl domains.

To summarize, it means that the .cl domains can use “ñ”, “ü” [...]]]> More fun domain disputes. If you’ve been following Multilingual Search for some time you may have read a story last year, about internationalizing the Chilean .cl domains.

To summarize, it means that the .cl domains can use “ñ”, “ü” and other accentuated characters, grammatically correct Spanish.

The dispute was between the Spanish giant Telefonica España and Telefonica del Sur (Lusic group). While the Lusic group has owned the www.telefonica.cl domain since 1998, with the new option to use accents, Telefonica España presented a claim to Chilean NIC to use the accented domain, www.telefónica.cl. In the end, Telefonica del Sur won the “game”, the ruling said that the two domains were too similar and would inevitably confuse users.

But it does make you wonder, if this is just the beginning. There are plenty brand name and misspelling domain disputes, but it looks like accents and tildes will give us another twist to look out for. The true essence of multilingual.

Source:

Mouse

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A very interesting post from Niall Kennedy about International Search, via OjoBuscador.
This data is very interesting, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet. Gives great insight into the breakdown of interntional search. Take a look [...]]]> A very interesting post from Niall Kennedy about International Search, via OjoBuscador.
This data is very interesting, for those of you who haven’t seen it yet. Gives great insight into the breakdown of interntional search. Take a look at the graph. Where are you in the data?

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Only a few days ago, another search engine was born in Spain. Migoa, a newborn multilingual search engine, currently in beta phase, aims to take away the hassle of broad search results, by scouting through countless results to deliver highly [...]]]> Only a few days ago, another search engine was born in Spain. Migoa, a newborn multilingual search engine, currently in beta phase, aims to take away the hassle of broad search results, by scouting through countless results to deliver highly relevant, specific results for job, home and car rental.

Multilingual Search is happy to be the first to welcome Migoa into the highly competitive, but extremely rewarding world of search. To introduce you to Migoa, I have interviewed Gary Stewart, Migoa’s CEO.

1. Who is behind migoa?
We are a racially diverse, international group of entrepreneurs who want to live in Barcelona but participate in international projects. We came together, because we thought that we had diverse but complementary CVs. I am an African-American from New York City. I received my undergraduate degree from Yale College, my law degree from Yale Law School and I currently own my own business in Barcelona. Oriol Blasco is a Catalan who earned his undergraduate engineering degree from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona (UPC) and his MBA from ESADE Business School. We are also currently engaged in talks with potential investors/partners who would bring in a high level of IT expertise.

2. What is the idea behind migoa? What is migoa set out to do?
The idea behind migoa is simple: the Internet is now so big that current search engines cannot fully satisfy the wants and needs of all possible users across the world. When you type in the words “comprar piso Barcelona” (buy apartment Barcelona) in major “horizontal” search engines, you get 7.6 million results, most of which are frankly irrelevant. Who has time to weed through that many results and filter through literally millions of irrelevant listings that have been optimized for top rankings? A vertical search engine allows the user to find what she wants when she wants it in a very user-friendly and highly personalized format. The major horizontal search engines are incredible at helping users find general information. We aim to supplement this with a product that ensures that users can find specific products—such as jobs, cars and homes—with as few clicks and as little hassle as possible, all while taking into account local and linguistic realities.

3. Why Spain? What is your take on the Spanish market for these types of projects and the internet arena as a whole? How does migoa fit in?
Europe is more challenging than the United States in terms of being an entrepreneur, raising capital and running an Internet company. People here are interested in tech projects, but they are more risk averse and thus not as willing to give seed capital, at least when compared to Silicon Valley or even London. Bootstrapping is obligatory. That being said, some Spanish investors are following with interest and caution what is happening in the US—the so-called, web 2.0 phenomenon. And as both computer and broadband access prices fall in Europe, the Internet is becoming an ever-present reality and people are increasingly interested in fully experiencing what the Internet can offer. migoa is a web 2.0 project, and we hope to be at the vanguard of the Spanish equivalent of the international phenomenon.

4. What does “migoa” really stand for?
At the beginning, it was a play on the initials of our initial partners. The island of Goa also had fond memories for some of our partners. However, we like to think of it as an anagram of “amigo.”

5. What type of audience will migoa cater to? Who should come to migoa.com and why?
Our audience is generally young (18-45) and tech-savvy. It is made up of people who aren’t afraid of user-friendly technological innovations and/or are experiencing some of adult life’s defining moments—building a career, buying a car and searching for a home.

6. A little bit about the technology behind the solution. How does migoa work? What are its features?
Our robot, or “bot” for short, crawls other websites to find the relevant information and compile it in a standard format. We have also reached agreements with important players in the Spanish market to send us their listings via feeds. In any case, we don’t search the entire web for information. We have pre-screened the websites on which our bots will search to include only sites that contain the desired information. The user searches for the product that she seeks—a car, a home or job—and we generate brief descriptions of actual listings (and not irrelevant references to pages on which the useful product might be found–again, that’s a key difference between a horizontal search engine and a vertical one). Like all search engines, when the user clicks on her desired listing, she is redirected to the website that originally published the information.

7. For how long do you envision the beta phase?
We have already launched a private beta to identify and correct major bugs that we might have missed in our internal testing. In late September, we will launch a public beta version and we expect to be in public beta for the short-to-mid term future. We are also developing a lot of new features that will be integrated within the 3-4 months, and each new feature will also require a lot of beta testing.

8. It looks like you are shooting for a multilingual interface. When will all versions be fully functional? How many total languages are you aiming for?
That’s right. We live in the European Union, which has countries with such rich and diverse heritages and strong linguistic traditions. We want to celebrate all of those histories and traditions, and to allow for interchange between and among countries whose citizens have increased possibilities of intra-EU mobility. We will start out with four languages—Spanish, English, French and German—but we expect that the number of languages to grow.

9. What’s in store in the future? Ambitions? Advertising model(s)?
Our goal is simple: to build a useful website that will be bookmarked and visited whenever users are searching for jobs, cars, and real estate. We want to be a reference point in the European and Latin American search markets. To that end, we will continue to add new features, learn from our mistakes and continue improving our product.

10. What does Migoa compare to, both in Spain and elsewhere? In other words, who do you envision as your immediate competition?
We prefer not to discuss our competitors, as most of them have not launched, have launched only within the past few months, or will launch very shortly. Any discussion of what they do or how they might evolve would be premature. We have had the good fortune to be in the vanguard of people launching a highly innovative product. That being said, we know that there are a lot of very smart people involved in competing projects and luck is an important factor in whether you ultimately have a successful product.

11. Tell us something we forgot to ask.
We would like to invite all tech bloggers to help us test the beta. Send me an email. gary at migoa.com or skype me: garystew.

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Spain may not be the internet leader in a number of ways, but blogging is very big here. Commercial blogs are mushrooming, blogger conferences are all over the map, and recently, there was even a book published about Spanish blogging [...]]]> Spain may not be the internet leader in a number of ways, but blogging is very big here. Commercial blogs are mushrooming, blogger conferences are all over the map, and recently, there was even a book published about Spanish blogging (“La blogosfera hispana: Pioneros de la Cultura Digital” or The Hispanic blogosphere: Pioneers of the Digital Culture). If you don’t know much about blogging trends in Spain, you’d be surprised. If you know, then you are probably already impressed.

So important is blogging in fact, that we now have a new blog search, exclusively for Spain. What’s unique about Agregax? It’s different primarily because it’s Spanish. But what probably earns it a blue ribbon out of Spain is that it also registers blogs in Catalan and Euskera (two other official languages out of Spain). What about Galego? Is that on the way?

Based on XML syndication, the rest is quite basic. You can order the results by date or relevancy, wherein relevancy of course depends on the number of references. Easy enough.

Time will tell whether the blog search will bring anything new to the table. We’ll see if we can find out ahead of time.

Sources:

Noticiasdot

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An update to Nick’s previous article about Google’s recent wave of European Google Maps:
Not only is Google Maps now available in Spain, but the Spanish version has some valuable local add-ons. On April 28th, Google’s newly appointed General Director [...]]]> An update to Nick’s previous article about Google’s recent wave of European Google Maps:
Not only is Google Maps now available in Spain, but the Spanish version has some valuable local add-ons. On April 28th, Google’s newly appointed General Director for Spain, Isabel Aguilera unveiled Google Maps for Spain (maps.google.es) and 7 new partnerships to give local users yet another reason to keep Google as their all-time favorite (Google has 90% market share in Spain) search engine.

The first of the partnerships is with none other than TPI’s, which for an undisclosed amount provides access to its Yellow Pages directory which compliments the local map search results, with additional information. It’s an agreement that will benefit both parties, as Aguilera points out; not only will Google enrich its local search results, but Paginas Amarillas will substantially increase visibility for its advertisers who pay to be at the top for specific categories. The Google Maps produced results, will of course depend on relevancy alone. So far, Google has no plans to take advantage of Google Maps and use it for advertising purposes. For now, the only advertisements we will see are the wholly familiar Adwords. However, no doubt that the popularity of local search, especially in Europe, will be difficult to ignore. Google Maps is the perfect advertising medium.

The other agreements, although of less importance, will prove to be an added value. Agreements include: Atrapalo.com, Guiacampsa.com (for routes and directions), notodohoteles.com, Aqua, Intercom, and El Mundo. Moreover, be on the look out for additional partnerships in the future.

Google’s directors claim that with TPI there is the possibility of exploring similar agreements in Latin America.

In Spain, Google Maps is currently in beta and will probably stay that way for another year and a half. But I’m certain that it’s going to be a way to place Google into yet another essential, daily search scenario in Spain. Google is already on the tip of everyone’s tongue here in Spain. Heck, the service is even available for mobile phones. What more can you ask for?

Sources:

Cinco Dias
El Mundo

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Certainly everyone is aware that the Spanish TPI (“Paginas Amarillas”—Spanish Yellow Pages) has been up for sale. Bidding came down to two major players, the British Yell telephone directories and Apax Partners and Cinven, a venture capital. On the 28th [...]]]> Certainly everyone is aware that the Spanish TPI (“Paginas Amarillas”—Spanish Yellow Pages) has been up for sale. Bidding came down to two major players, the British Yell telephone directories and Apax Partners and Cinven, a venture capital. On the 28th of April, Telefonica agreed to sell its 59.9% in TPI to Yell for 1.839 million euros. This is definitely big news. Since 2001, when Yell split from the British Telecom, it invested in a number of European and U.S. companies, leading to 135 million in profits. TPI, on the other hand, is a major player in local knowledge. Not only is it the primary phone directory, but it comes with a number of add-ons and extras. Just recently, TPI launched its own local search engine, Noxtrum, which aims to take a bite out of the Spanish search pie. Noxtrum’s search results are powered by Ask.es.

Moreover, TPI’s Paginas Amarillas powers a number of Spanish search engines, for local results. The MSN portal has a yellow pages option, Yahoo also relies on Paginas Amarillas, and even more interestingly, the day TPI’s sale was confirmed, so was an agreement between TPI and Google Spain (read more in the following post) in the new Google Maps launched in Spain.

Turning over TPI to Britain’s primary Yellow Pages is likely to lead to at least some strategic changes. How will Yell take advantage of TPI’s local power in Spain, as well as Latin America?
It’s certainly something to keep an eye on.

Sources:

Cinco Dias
NoticiasDot

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Only a few days ago, several Spanish media players such as Cinco Dias, Baquia and El Pais Published articles about a new social search engine called Gennio. Not only does the engine sport an innovative line of services, but it [...]]]> Only a few days ago, several Spanish media players such as Cinco Dias, Baquia and El Pais Published articles about a new social search engine called Gennio. Not only does the engine sport an innovative line of services, but it also stands out by being a search engine with truly Spanish roots. Jose Mercader’s idea, born, nursed and raised in Spain, is the first social search engine of Spanish origin. Although born in Spain, the makers behind Gennio hope to win the hearts of demanding search engine users not only in Spain, but also in other markets, such as the English, French, German and Italian. Gennio is product of the Web.20 era, based on our latest tendency to not just communicate, but to collaborate online.

Is the engine really different?

Instead of boring you with a long and detailed summary, we opted to “hear” directly from Jose Mercader, Gennio’s Founder and General Director.

Multilingual Search: In a few lines, why Gennio?

Jose Mercader: It’s an idea that I have been nurturing since the year 2000.

During these years, I observed that the big search engines and their sophisticated algorithms are incapable of offering the user optimal results. The studies I conducted led me to the conclusion that the only solution depended significantly on the user, who is the only one capable, in a collaborative manner, of classifying links, producing results quality never seen until now.

MLS: What does Gennio have that makes it different from other search engines?

JM: Gennio is different for that very reason; because Gennio is the result of the collective intelligence of thousands of users who know how to search and classify information much better and faster than the traditional search engines.

MLS: Why tagging?

JM: It’s the best tool available to the user in this collaborative world for classifying information in a simple yet sophisticated manner.

MLS: How does Gennio work?

JM: Two ways:

• One by downloading a favorites folder (a selective download where one can specify for some links to be completely private)

• And the other by copying links to one’s “gennes” while browsing/searching through Gennio or through the GennioTool toolbar, without having to be directly in Gennio to tag the links.

MLS: What makes Gennio stand out amongst other social search engines that use tagging, other than the fact that Gennio is in Spanish?

JM: You could say that Gennio is more than a social search engine. The software behind Gennio is a complex fusion of different data bases and a variety of programming tools (AJAX). 30% of the petitions execute more than 12 different requests when a keyword is identified that can offer vertical and highly relevant results.

For example, if we search for a hotel in Madrid, Gennio will propose an alternative local result of Madrid hotels, with a button for making a free phone call so that the user can make a reservation from her PC for free.

Moreover, we offer an impressive job offers and news section which soon will also work with the “gennes” tagging method.

And of course, it is the first search engine in the world to be in Spanish and made by Spaniards.

MLS: What is the GennioTool?

JM: It’s a bar that allows for direct access to Gennio services and is installed in a minute, allowing one to copy his “gennes” all of the links you discover and find interesting, while surfing the web without having to be on the Gennio website.

MLS: ¿What are your expectations for the search engine based on how tagging is evolving in the Spanish market?

JM: Make the users fall in love with a well-made product that allows them to search in a positive and collaborative manner. Given the current pace, we will count on a community of 1,000,000 users by the end of the year.

MLS: What advantages and disadvantages do the Web 2.0 trends of the Spanish market pose to Gennio?

JM: It’s clear that web 2.0 is starting to be a reality and it jeans a true explosion by the end of 2006. From my point of view, I only see advantages, since web 2.0 is not only a technological evolution, but an evolution of ideas, an excuse for doing new things which in a way couldn’t have been done before. This will create an arena for another huge movement for spectacular garage born projects and I hope that the Spanish can be in on it.

MLS: Do you plan on launching the engine in other languages or countries?

JM: We are working on versions for the English, French, German and Italian markets and hope to launch in these countries starting June, where we will be established by the end of the year.

MLS: Are you planning to incorporate a pay-per-click advertising program? And/or other advertising novelties that you want to tell us about?

JM: We are about to incorporate an advertising formula that will be more social for the user and most importantly less invasive and more relevant to his/her searches.

MLS: Tell us a little bit about Gennio Local (Local Gennio). How does it work? What perspective do you think it has?

JM: We are about to complete the application that allows the user to copy, evaluate and review links of local character, much like they can do with “gennes” in the main search engine. This is what will really set us apart from Google, Yahoo or Yellow Pages.

The user will be able to review and comment on whether a restaurant has offered a notable service, or whether the purchase we made at the local florist was satisfactory. Ultimately, it is the user who will decide what is good or not so good.

MLS: What is your market niche?

JM: Our niche is the demanding, non-conformist user, who sets the trends that others copy and quickly transform into mass movements.

We direct ourselves more than anything towards the users who are the future of the internet, kids, youth, working simultaneously with today’s users, such as the elderly that join the Internet more and more every day.

MLS: What will you do the spread the word about Gennio?

JM: More than anything, a presence in the Universities, explaining the benefits of using tagging as an effective alternative. Although we will also analyze the possibility of going to schools. Moreover, we are very interested in organizing events that will allow us to approach the user—for example our presence in the event organized by Red.es on Internet Day (May 17th in Spain).

MLS: What future do you foresee for this and other products based on online social participation, both in Spain and in the rest of the world?

JM: There will be new indispensable models which will make everything a lot more fun, wherein the user will truly be King.

This post is also available in Spanish.

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This piece of information might be slightly outdated, but it is nonetheless worth mentioning. On September 16th, I wrote about ICANN’s approval of the .cat top level domain (TLD). It was certainly a big deal. The decision to open [...]]]> This piece of information might be slightly outdated, but it is nonetheless worth mentioning. On September 16th, I wrote about ICANN’s approval of the .cat top level domain (TLD). It was certainly a big deal. The decision to open way to so called “cultural and/or linguistic” domains, starting with Catalonia, where the debate about the domain is a direct reflection of local nationalist feelings and a very hot topic on everyone’s political agenda, was an unprecedented one.

My question at the time was quiet simple: What next? Had ICANN considered the repercussions both in Spain and worldwide?

Well, just recently, there was already been a new development to get both you and ICANN to think about it more seriously. Early this month, local Galician (A province in northern Spain) Association was formed to request the…you guessed it…the .gal TLD. Before the .cat anyone would have laughed off the request, but with .cat behind us with now 3,000 registered .cat domains, 10,000 new requests and registration open to individuals, the approval of the .gal domain is not so unrealistic.

Like the Catalonian Association, the Galician one formed by a number of professional groups, local governmental bodies and nationalist groups, is called PuntoGal (“Dot Gal). PuntoGal is petitioning for the .gal domain for the very same reason PuntoCal did, to offer a cultural and linguistic internet space of Galicians. Of course, they will have to jump through a number of hoops to receive approval, but the precedent has been set! For now, they are evaluating similar cases and calling for all local support before presenting their candidacy.

If there is news of similar cases in other parts of the world, feel free to share it.

Source:

El Mundo
Noticiasdot

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In August, we discussed Chile’s move to internationalize the .cl domain, by allowing for non-english letters, such as “ñ”, “ü” and 7 other international characters. It was certainly an exciting step.

But for global internet users and companies as [...]]]> In August, we discussed Chile’s move to internationalize the .cl domain, by allowing for non-english letters, such as “ñ”, “ü” and 7 other international characters. It was certainly an exciting step.

But for global internet users and companies as a whole, ICANN’s announcement of a plan to start testing domain names that are entirely composed of non-english characters, is a much more exciting move. Given the speed at which web globalization is spreading, it’s certainly about time that domains caught up.

Of everything comes with time and caution. “The tests would help ensure that introducing non-English suffixes wouldn’t wreck a global addressing system that millions of Internet users rely upon every day.”

Representatives from all over the world are being invited to participate in the discussions committee, which will commence with public input in April. In May, the committee will present the amended plan to ICANN for approval in June. If all moves smoothly, testing will commence in July.

Sources:

DMEurope

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There’s a new addition to Google Spain and this time it’s not yet another valuable service sprouting on the endless list of Google tools and gadgets. Google has signed on a new team player to take charge of its operations [...]]]> There’s a new addition to Google Spain and this time it’s not yet another valuable service sprouting on the endless list of Google tools and gadgets. Google has signed on a new team player to take charge of its operations in Spain After a long recruitment year, last week, Isabel Aguilera became Google’s leading woman in Madrid, Google’s Spanish headquarters. Aguilera comes with an impressive portfolio of highly influential positions and a successful track line. Just recently she was the COO of NH Hotels, one of the leading hotel chains out of Spain. Prior to that position she left a mark on Dell, while in charge of operations in Spain, Italy and Portugal. And even further back, she held another important position in Olivetti and Hewlett Packard.

Apart form Aguilera, who is now the General Director in Spain, Google has named Bernardo Hernández its new Director of Marketing. Prior to these new developments, Miguel de la Reina was the highest authority in Google Spain, as the Commercial Director, a position he continues to hold. In fact, it is no secret that Google’s office in Spain is of a purely commercial nature.

However, these new assignments lead one to wonder what it all means for Google and for us, search engine marketers, who work very closely with Google. Google has 90% of the market share in Spain. Sure, MSN and Yahoo are doing all they can to cover more ground and even smaller players such as Ask, Seekport and recently TPI’s Noxtrum are fighting to pick up the breadcrumbs, as valuable alternative engines. But certainly Google has nothing to worry about. So why the new assignments? Is Google finally taking the Spanish market more seriously? And if so, does it mean that the Spanish market has finally matured enough to deserve the attention. It would certainly make sense. Pay per click advertising grew by 36% percent last year. The growth spurt was the largest compared to any other advertising medium. The number of DSL connections grew by 54% last year. This January, there were 5,108,499 high speed connections. There is a lot of buzz about Google, search engines and advertising online. Even the smaller merchants are getting caught up.

There’s definitely an exciting future to anticipate. Perhaps Google feels the same way.

Sources:
CincoDias
AUI
Vnunet

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So far, pay-per-call services have been very successful in the U.S. Given its model and the cultural predisposition, pay-per-call or similar services also promise to deliver in the European climate. Take eStara for instance, who offers [...]]]> So far, pay-per-call services have been very successful in the U.S. Given its model and the cultural predisposition, pay-per-call or similar services also promise to deliver in the European climate. Take eStara for instance, who offers a click to call service. The company has been offering a “llamar Gratis”(call for free) service in the two biggest yellow pages companies in Spain. Both QDQ and TPI (Paginas Amarillas) are pleased with the results. In fact, QDQ says that this year, the free calling option which facilitates the process of communication between advertisers and their potential customers has surpassed objectives. 20% advertisers have already signed up for the service. And why wouldn’t they.

Click to Call is particularly attractive in Spain and other European countries where internet buying confidence still requires some hand holding and time. People are comfortable searching for and finding products and vendors, but the phone is still an indispensable comfort and a crutch to rely on. Pay per call is an excellent way to remedy this weakness and help local vendors take advantage of the internet, maximize their advertising return on investment and not lose the personal touch people feel most comfortable with.

John Federman, CEO of eStara tells us “The rapid acceptance of pay per call in the local search market has resulted in mass acceptance of eStara’s click to call technology across the globe. By providing these services, both TPI and QDQ are showing thought leadership and paving the way for offering added value to their advertisers.”

Sources:

Baquia
LibertadDigital
noticiasdot

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On January 11th, Matt Cutts warned us about Google’s upcoming efforts to clean up it’s indices of Spam on an international level. Can’t say there was no warning.

On February 4th, it happened and it happened BIG. According to Matt [...]]]> On January 11th, Matt Cutts warned us about Google’s upcoming efforts to clean up it’s indices of Spam on an international level. Can’t say there was no warning.

On February 4th, it happened and it happened BIG. According to Matt Cutts, of Google, the bmw.de website has been removed from the Google index for a number of tactics that violate the webmaster quality guidelines.

Take a look yourself:

Certainly many smaller players have been removed and have gone unnoticed. With the BMW website, the news is definitely making the headlines and hopefully setting a precedent.

Since February 4th, when Cutts wrote about it, the website is back in the index, but certainly with entirely different rankings for keywords such as “Gebrauchtwagen” and “Neuwagen.”

Sources:

Matt Cutts
El Mundo

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If you haven’t heard of it yet, it won’t be long. And if you’re reading now, you’re about to be impressed. FON is Martin Varsavsky’s latest creation. It’s one of those ideas that makes you think, “Why didn’t I come [...]]]> If you haven’t heard of it yet, it won’t be long. And if you’re reading now, you’re about to be impressed. FON is Martin Varsavsky’s latest creation. It’s one of those ideas that makes you think, “Why didn’t I come up with that?” and then you sign up to join.
The idea is to make it possible for Wi-Fi users everywhere share there connection with anyone—anyone in the FON network that is. Of course, sharing has its benefits. You can either share the connection and always have a wifi access point available to you from other FONers (or Foneros) anywhere you go, or you can charge for your connection, splitting the earnings with FON. It’s quite simple and ingenious actually.

A few months ago, when it all began, this Spanish grown initiative was creating a buzz in the Spanish internet and traditional press. But as the commotion around FON has been escalating and users and access points mushrooming all over the global map, the FON idea is growing into the slogan its founders have given it—the FON movement! The FON movement has spreading into a Global community.

Just 2 days ago, Varsavsky made a huge announcement on his blog. The FON movement has enlisted some very big names and swept up 18 million euro (over 21,560,000 USD) in investment from Google and Skype, as well as Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors and backers. Varsavsky, energized for another success, writes about the impressive newly acquired support:

“Our goal, after all, isn’t just to share bandwidth. It’s to use the power of people to people networks to create a global wireless network. What makes each of these firms great backers for us is that deep in their DNA is the idea of brand-new business models, tons of innovation and a commitment to making the digital world easier and cheaper. We feel the same way. So while we’re excited about (and responsible for!) their investment, we’re even more pleased to have their support.”

The question is of course, what will the ISPs have to say about it. So far, Varsavsky has confirmed support from the U.S. Speakeasy and Swedish Glocalnet.
But how many others will follow?

According to Roger Entner of Ovum, FON will run into obstacles. “That’s a great idea, but you are breaking the law…It is treating Wi-Fi as communal property when it is not.”

Lately we have been breathing an entirely new internet atmosphere. Internet usage is shifting; internet access increasing. It seems the perfect breeding ground for a FON… revolution.

Are you joining?

Sources:

LibertadDigital
El País
The FON blog
News.com

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As Nick Wilsdon reported, the .eu domain has been available since December 7th. But it looks like Spanish companies have showed little interest for the all European domain.
The day registration opened to registered trademark owners, had little impact [...]]]> As Nick Wilsdon reported, the .eu domain has been available since December 7th. But it looks like Spanish companies have showed little interest for the all European domain.
The day registration opened to registered trademark owners, had little impact on Spain. So far, there are only 5,000 .eu domains registered out of Spain, while Germany for example, has accentuated its European identity, registering 10 times as many domains (50,000).

So what’s the problem? .es domain registrations are increasing rapidly, while the .eu ones out of Spain, are sluggishly trailing behind. Some say it’s the pricing, others claim it’s weak European identity, or even more likely, lack of advertising.

Sources:
Noticiasdot

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Online advertising is growing all over the world but generally, it’s the countries with leading internet usage that make the headlines. Now it’s Spain’s turn.

Or those online marketers who have doubts about Spain’s online market’s potential will have to think [...]]]> Online advertising is growing all over the world but generally, it’s the countries with leading internet usage that make the headlines. Now it’s Spain’s turn.

Or those online marketers who have doubts about Spain’s online market’s potential will have to think twice after learning the findings of 7th interactive media advertising study produced by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, IAB Spain and sponsored by Antevenio. Online advertising spent in Spain grew by 52.5% in the first semester of 2005 in comparison to the same time period in the previous year. 52% is no small number, especially when you take into account that many experts in the industry claim that Spain is far behind. 65,97 millones

55% (36 million euros) of this spending is still attributed to traditional media. But consider the 31.5% that was spent on search marketing. Clearly this is a very positive sign both for online marketing companies who are dedicated to advancing the Spanish internet market, as well as foreign and local companies who are interested in exploring this market via an online presence. Others are already entrusting a substantial amount of their marketing budgets to search marketing and the results generated are clearly keeping them happy; happy enough to fuel Spanish online spending to a 52% increase. So take note—as a marketer, business or consumer.

Breakdown of spending by sector:

Telecommunications-17.9%
Finances-16.25%
Portals-11%
Motor-9.8%

As mentioned before, sponsored links (pay-per-click) and search marketing overall, captured 31.5% of the budgets-but more impressively still, quarterly earnings have tripled (195% annual growth) in relation to first quarter results in 2004. Still sitting down? Clearly Spanish companies are starting to warm up to the idea of internet being an increasingly important advertising medium to consider. There is still a large gap of course, between Spain and other European countries. But we are talking about an evolution here. So consider the Spanish market if you are ready to globalise.

For those interested in other impressive details, you may download the full study in Spanish from IAB Spain.

Sources:

El País

Interactiva Digital

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