07.16.04
 By Chris Richardson
A study conducted by Nielsen//Netratings and IAB has found that high-ranking advertisements on SERPs can be an effective tool for branding products. IAB commissioned N//N to conduct the survey, called the Internet Search Brand Effectiveness Research.
As evident by the title, the study tested impact of text and search advertising for leading brands from the Health, Auto, Beverage, Electronics, Retail and Finance industries. Research from the test demonstrated that sponsored text advertising in search engine result pages is an effective tool for branding objectives.
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IAB's study discovered that when test subjects were asked to name a brand within one of the tested industries, they were 27% more likely to name a brand of a company that received the top spot, as opposed to the control group who did not see the SERP listing.
Contextual ads that appeared elsewhere (non-search engine placement) caused a 23 percent lift in brand awareness among respondents that saw the ads.
"Brand advertisers, who are not yet placing search advertising, may be missing out on a share of voice opportunity for keywords relevant to their categories," said Marc Ryan, Senior Director, Analysis at Nielsen//NetRatings. "This research suggests that the optimal media mix includes search and display ads, a combination which allows advertisers to take advantage of the push/pull dynamics of the web while still delivering on core branding metrics."
The study was done with over 10,500 participants recruited from Survey Sample International.
There were five types of sponsored text-based advertising tested to determine their impact on branding. Two of the ad types displayed search results, while the other three were displayed on article pages of a news site. The text ads were evaluated based on their position within the search results and placement on the article pages.
Read Nielsen//Netratings full PDF report here.
By Chris Richardson
As the fight for email dominance continues, it seems each major player is bringing more to the table in order to one-up the other. With email being a major source of virus infections, any update to anti-virus protection is bound to draw attention. And so, Microsoft has announced that they will improve Hotmail's tools to combat viruses that are spread through email.
Hotmail, who employs McAfee's Anti-Virus tools, announced that they will be scanning all incoming and outgoing mail and removing any malware or viruses that accompany these mailings. Previously, Hotmail only scanned incoming emails.
This is not the only upgrade that is coming to Hotmail. Almost a month ago, Microsoft announced that Hotmail would be receiving a boost in the storage capacity for its new and current members. As stated in previous articles, the email battle began when Gmail tossed the first salvo by allocating 1 gigabyte storage capacities, for free.
Since Google launched their email service, other providers have been working tirelessly to match, outdo, or overshadow Gmail.
About the Author:
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.
 By WebProNews
Microsoft is expected to announce today that their Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005 is expected to ship during the 4th quarter of 2004. The company also announced that they would open up communication on its enterprise instant messenger server to competitors Yahoo and AOL.
According to ComputerWorld.com, this agreement would allow AIM, Yahoo Messenger and MSN's messenger to communicate with each other using the LCS. Taylor Collyer, Microsoft's senior director for LCS, said, "This has been the top request from our corporate customers. They have clearly told us that anything we could possibly do to make this happen would make them the happiest."
Purchasable modules that have to be added on would provide the link between MSN Messenger and the other IM services. "The big winner here will be the enterprise customer," Collyer said.
About the Author:
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