Opera has announced that they are developing a new JavaScript engine for their web browser that will be significantly faster than the current version. The new version is being designed to achieve maximum execution speed, while previous engine was designed to minimize code footprint and memory usage. To accomplish the goal the new engine will include native code generation, registered-based bytecode, and automatic object identification. Native code generation removes the significant overhead that bytecode execution creates. Firefox, Safari, and Chrome’s latest JavaScript engines also include native code generation. According to Opera, the new engine “is currently about two and a half times faster at the SunSpider benchmark than the ECMAScript engine in Presto 2.2 (Opera 10 Alpha)”without using native code generation. When using native code generation, which is “not yet ready for full-scale testing”, it runs “between 5 and 50 times faster” in compatible benchmark tests. No details were given as to when the new engine will be added to the Opera web browser.
Google Error Claimed All Websites Contained Malware
For an hour on Saturday morning Google’s search results page flagged every web page listed as containing malware and blocked access to those web pages through links on the results page. When Google detects that a website contains malware, it warn users when a page from that website is listed in search results by placing the message “This site may harm your computer” under the listing for a page and by placing an interstitial page when the link for that page is clicked. According to a post by Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Products & User Experience, on the Official Google Blog, all websites displayed the warning due to a change in the manual list of websites containing malware. Mayer explained that “the URL of ‘/’ was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and ‘/’ expands to all URLs.” Google list of websites that contain malware also includes websites that are listed through automated processes.
Click Fraud Rate Reaches New High
Click Forensics today reported that the overall industry average click fraud rate for pay-per-click (PPC) advertising was 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 16.0 percent in the third quarter of 2008. The rate was 16.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007. The rate of click fraud for PPC advertisements appearing on search engine content networks, including Google AdSense and the Yahoo Publisher Network, was significantly higher than the overall, representing 28.2 percent of clicks during the fourth quarter of 2008. Botnets made up over 31.4 of the click fraud during the quarter. Click Forensics gathers the data from online advertising campaigns for both large and small companies
Ad Network Display Ad Rates Drop Slightly
According to a report (PDF) by PubMatic, display ad rates on ad networks drop slightly in the fourth quarter of 2008. The rate per thousand impressions averaged 26 cents down 3.7 percent from the third quarter. This follows a drop of 21 percent from the second to the third quarter. The rate had a year over year decline of 48 percent. Small sites (under 1 million monthly page views) averaged 61 cents, medium sites (between 1 million and 100 million) averaged 30 cents and large sites (over 100 million) averaged 17 cents. PubMatic compiles its data from a survey comprised of over 5,000 websites, approximately 85% of which are based in the US.
Internet Explorer 8 RC1 Released
Microsoft today made Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 available for public download. According to a post on the IEBlog, the release candidate should behave in the same way as the final version and that any changes between the two will be clearly communicated. The post also said that the release candidate has improved reliability, performance, and compatibility over the second beta. The release candidate is available in 25 languages for Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows Server.
Google Universal Searches Tripled in 2008
During the Google’s fourth quarter financial conference call, Google’s Senior Vice President for Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg disclosed that the number of search queries that had displayed universal search results tripled in 2008. Universal search displays image, video, new, blog, and book results integrated with the standard website results. Rosenberg also said that Google had made 350 “search quality improvements” in 2008, with the “biggest addition” being the substantial increased size of the index. He also stated that mobile search traffic went up “substantially” during the year and peaked at the end of December. Finally, he said that ad coverage, the amount of queries that display ads and the number of ads displayed for those queries, had reached the level that it had been in the beginning of 2008 after having dipped during the year.
December U.S. Search Share Results
Nielsen Online yesterday released its rankings of U.S. search share for December. Overall search increased 19.6 percent year over year to 8.6 billion searches. Google had year over year increase of 33.5 percent and received 62.9 percent of searches. Yahoo had a year over year increase of 13.7 percent and received 16.8 percent of searches. Microsoft had a year over year decrease of 15.5 percent and received 9.8 percent of searches.
Advertising Trade Groups Developing Behavioral Targeting Guidelines
The advertising trade groups the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association, and the Interactive Advertising Bureau along with the Council of Better Business Bureau have announced that they plan to develop self-regulatory guidelines for behavioral targeting ads. The groups will focus on the areas of education and transparency, consumer notification and choice, data security, and self-regulatory enforcement; which were the areas that the Federal Trade Commission proposed be the focus of self-regulatory efforts in a December 2007 guideline. The groups also plan “to engage with policymakers, a broad cross section of business, consumers, and other important stakeholders” on the issues. Adweek reports that the timing of the groups announcement was likely an attempt to get out in front of privacy issues related to behavioral targeting before the Obama administration and new Congress have a chance weight in on the issue.
Local Business Ads Get New Features on Google Maps
Google has announced that AdWords has added new features to the local business ads that appear in Google Maps. The info window that is displayed when a listing is clicked now provides links to get directions, view a street view, and save the location to user’s My Maps. The option for the user to receive the business’s information on their phone on in an email will be added “shortly.” Advertisers will not be charge for users using these new features. Local business ads currently are available for businesses located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, and Spain. In addition, Google will begin to provide reporting of user interaction with local business ads ” in a few weeks.”
Yahoo Hires New CEO, President Resigns
Yahoo has announced that they have hired Carol Bartz as their new Chief Executive Officer. Bartz replaces Jerry Yang, who in mid November announced he would step down as CEO once a successor was appointed after having served in the position for 17 months. Bartz previously spent 14 years as the CEO of Autodesk, ending in 2006. Yahoo also announced that President Sue Decker would resign from the company following a “transitional period”.