xDSL Internet connection are the most common type of Internet connections, whereas 94% of the Internet-connected households used an xDSL connection. That year only 5% of the Internet-connected households used a dial-up telephone connection or an ISDN connection.

According to Statistics Iceland the use of computers and the Internet is very widespread among individuals in Iceland. In 2008, 92% of the population aged 16–74 years used a computer and 91% had used the Internet in a period of three months prior to the survey. As in previous years the Internet is mainly used for information search and communication. In 2008, 36% of internet users aged 16–74 years had ordered goods or services over the Internet during a period of three months prior to the survey. As in previous years, the most popular goods and services purchased over the Internet are related to travel and accommodation.

Speakers include international and Icelandic experts in media and marketing. The conference is ideal for anyone who works in, or is interested in, business on the Internet. The conference will appeal to marketing and advertising people, web editors, sales- and marketing managers as well as directors of small and large businesses.

Among speakers are people that either work for or have worked with such companies as Aftonbladed, MBL, Sky, BBCa and Wenger Group to mention few.

For more info go to www.rimc.is

The biggest competitors to Fast Search on search solutions for large cooperations is Googles Search Appliance, French Exalead as well as Autonomy.

The Schengen agreement has been extended from 15 countries to 24 giving a wider borderless Europe with no internal border controls or checks and an open market of over 400 million people. Coming into force on the 21st December, the Schengen agreement makes physical inter-trade between bordering countries easier to manage for marketers. As Europe opens its borders, and search grows quickly in Europe, Schengen makes European business roll-outs more attractive and achievable with faster distribution and lower border costs.

The new countries joining the agreement are:-

• Czech Republic
• Slovakia
• Poland
• Hungary
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Estonia
• Malta
• Slovenia

I decided to test this with a visit to the most northerly Balkan state of Slovenia travelling from Austria through a 5 mile tunnel to the south side of the Alps. True enough the European blue flag and stars had become the standard border crossing notification and the rows of kiosks and border controls were empty and unmanned as we headed to the capital Ljublana.

Ljubljana is a town of around 230,000 people with a pretty baroque style and attractive old quarter. The local search engine is “Najdi” and the local domain is .si.

The Schengen agreement was first signed by five countries in 1985 in a small Luxembourg town ‘Schengen’ - these original five were later joined by ten others and the agreement came into force in 1995. The agreement basically means that the internal borders between the treaty countries are removed - but that those same countries cooperate to strengthen the outer border using the Schengen Information System - a database where data is exchanged. There are also special rules on how police forces work together.

The original five countries were:-

• France
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Belgium
• Luxembourg

Other countries which joined up to 1995 when Schengen was finally realised are:-

• Spain
• Portugal
• Greece

Countries who joined after 1995 but before 1997 are:-

• Italy
• Austria
• Denmark
• Norway
• Sweden
• Finland
• Iceland
• Monaco

The Schengen Agreement has only ever, in part, been deployed by the British or the Irish for fear of it encouraging immigration and terrorism - though it doesn’t seem to have helped much staying out.

- Arabic
- Bulgarian
- Catalian
- Croatian
- Icelandic
- Indonesian
- Latvian
- Lithuanian
- Malay
- Serbian
- Slovak
- Slovenian
and Tagalog can now use the personalized version of Google in their own language. With a total of 42 language versions iGoogle is accesible by 99% of Internet users in their native language.

Each report will also provide a snapshot of search engine usage and activity around the world, which can be compared against for the following year. This should help identify growth or decline for the search engines in each local market.

In the 2007 report we have covered the following 17 countries:

• Bulgaria - Georgi Georgiev (Investor BG PLC)
• China - David Temple (China Search Marketing Tour)
• Czech Republic | Slovakia - Katerina Rotterova (BenedaGroup.com)
• Denmark - Rasmus Sørensen (TLA Media)
• Estonia - Robin Gurney (Altex Marketing)
• Iceland - Kristjan Mar Hauksson (Nordic eMarketing)
• Israel - Gilad Sasson (Search Marketing)
• Italy - Sante Achille (Search Engine Consultant)
• Japan - Motoko Hunt (AJPR)
• Portugal - Nuno Hipólito (Search Marketing)
• Russia | Ukraine - Nick Wilsdon (e3internet)
• South Korea - Ebina Cho
• Spain - Oscar Carreras (WebCertain)
• The Netherlands - Peter Kersbergen (WebCertain)
• United Kingdom - Andy Atkins-Krüger (WebCertain)

The report can be downloaded free of charge by clicking the following link.

 Download Global Search Report 2007 21 Pages (1.3MB)

According to reports, the woman was buying the names to sell on to other parties at higher prices - nothing new in that then. EURid says that is has received complaints - not particularly new either. One key point is that only European-based organisations are allowed to hold .EU domain names.

Out-law carries this great quote from EURid, “When we screen our data bank we see that some people have an amazing amount of names. Nobody needs 10,000 names.” Strange. You’d have thought that EURid had a little more knowledge and insight about the industry in which they operate. Perhaps that’s why there were so many complaints at launch!

Most surprisingly is however France that seams to have embraced this American invention, Google has just under 90% market share with Yahoo coming next with just over 3%, MSN has 2.48% with two locals following Orange and Free, 1.89% and 0.72%.

Noticeable is the total lack of ASK’s market share both in France and Germany. Also it’s worth noting that while Google has a large market share in the US it’s nothing when you compare their foothold in France, Germany and the UK.

But Google is not this strong everywhere in Europe. Neighbours to Germany are Swiss and there Google has just under 50% of the market with Yahoo’s healthy 22% following and MSN has around 11%. Russia has the strong Yandex Direct as shown here at Multilingual search on a regular basis.

If we look at Poland there worth noting that there are at least couple of strong locals, NetSprint, OnetSzukaj and Szukacz with combined market share of 20%. In Poland Google seems to have around 80%.

Google has a strong market share also in Slovakia but has a strong competition in SZN.sk.

Since the arrival of Google in Iceland in 2002, they have slowly gained around 50% of the market share with the local Leit staying strong at around 45% and the rest shares the remaining 5%. This is a according to research by Nordic eMarketing in early 2007.

It’s always good to know the search engine market shares in Europe ?

September
Webanalytics wednesday Stockholm 11-Sep
http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/wednesday/

Webbdagarna Malmö 12-Sep
Webbdagarna Göteborg 26-Sep
http://www.webbdagarna.se

Svedma Stockholm 27-Sep
http://www.swedma.se

October

Webbdagarna Stockholm 24/25th Oct
http://www.webbdagarna.se

Emetrics Stockholm 29th/30th Oct
http://www.emetrics.org/2007/stockholm/

SMX Stockholm 31st Oct/1st Nov
http://searchmarketingexpo.com/smx_stockholm07/

November

SIME Stockholm 14th/15th Nov
http://www.sime.nu/media/

IMC Stockholm 29th/30th Nov
http://www.internetmarketingconference.com/stockholm2007/

The group managed to attract 120 people to the event where 4 search engines, Eniro, Yahoo, Microsoft and Sesam had 15 min each to talk about their view on the market. As people in Sweden isn’t famous for having tons of questions in hand, they listened well and the response that was passed on to the members of the SEMPO Scandinavia group later was very positive about the new initiative and activity in the market.

SEMPO Scandinavia is now planning to do similar events in all of the Scandinavian markets and key focus is to update the market and drive search marketing in the overall marketing mix and create debates and more interaction.

SEMPO Scandinavian group is launching its official presence through a first (of many to come) breakfast event the 12th of June in Stockholm where the search engines; MSN, Yahoo!, Sesam and Eniro will meet up with marketing managers and present their view on search marketing in the media perspective and then open up for a debate with the audience. Google wont be joining in this time as they have a new marketing manager and as you all know… Johan Kinnander left a few weeks ago.

(The event is free but there are limited seats so everyone who attends needs to RSVP.)

To read more about the group or request to join SEMPO or the working group go to:
http://www.sempo.org/public_groups/scandinavia/

As it happends I also happend to be the chair of the group

The companies concerned include Vodafone, France Telecom, Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa, Telecom Italia and US firm Cingular. Combined, they have a user base of 600 million people - with some 20% in the UK expected to have broadband speed mobile phone access by the end of 2007.

According to The Telegraph, declining mobile phone revenues are forcing telecoms operators to look at all angles - and the lucrative search advertising market is clearly attractive. For telecoms operators it is very appealing to keep a larger percentage of the revenues rather than ’sharing’ with Google, Yahoo or Microsoft.

However, both Google and Yahoo have already done deals with mobile phone operators and it is not clear what impact this will have!

As Thomas writes, the implications for local search are significant. With multilingual searches and user reviews this can become a useful tool for companies marketing into the EU zone.

Germany | Spain | Italy

Of course this will also open up new opportunities for API mash-ups and help drive the Google brand in these areas. The results for Moscow are still some way behind the local engines (searching for hotels in Google against a hotel search in Yandex as an example) but as always, it will be interesting to watch this develop.