In the last year there has been a lot of speculation in regards to the possibility of a new google search page displaying video ads. In the past week anticipation reached a high since the New York Times reported that Google is testing video ads on its search results page. Forrester Research recently released a report suggesting that online video advertising spend could reach a massive $7.1 Billion by 2012.

Online video advertising seems to advertisers as a good and natural progression from more “traditional” forms of online advertising. With the benefit of sound, motion and sight video advertising, in almost all cases, conveys a better experience than competing medias. If deployed properly Google could be on to something fantastic!

Source: http://searchengineland.com/080221-083544.php

Google And Microsoft Sued For Patent Infringement from MediaPost reports Google and Microsoft were sued for patent infringement over their paid search platforms. A Ohio based company named Paid Search Engine Tools of Liberty Township said Google’s AdWords and Microsoft’s adCenter products infringe on their patent “Paid search engine bid management.” The full patent can be found here and as you can see, it was filed on Dec 20, 2002 and granted on May 9, 2006 to Paid Search Engine Tools, LLC.

J. Robert Chambers, the company’s attorney said, the company held patent was for a method of optimizing keyword bids. He argues that the Paid Search Engine Tools offered this service to their clients but when Google, Yahoo and Microsoft began offering the service directly, it cut into their revenues.

The case was brought in front of a Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division.

You may ask why Yahoo wasn’t brought in with this law suit? Well, it appears they were sued directly by the same company back on September 13, 2007 over the same patent.

Hat tip to Andy Beal.

Source: http://searchengineland.com/080220-090710.php

There are so many numbers heres the highlights to keep it simple:

Headcount: Up 57 per cent (from 10,674 to 16,805 worldwide)

Acquisitions: 19 in total, including DoubleClick and Postini (total initial purchase price: $281.6 million)

Global revenues: Account for 48 per cent of Google’s total revenues (a 5 per cent jump)

Revenue sharing: Partners such as MySpace will receive (in aggregate) at least $1.75 billion through 2012

Patent purchases: $5.2 million in cash by capitalising intangible assets

But maybe more importantly…..

Percentage of revenues from ads: 99 per cent, for the third year running (licencing of search technology makes up the bulk of the remainder)