In my blog CashSherpa.com I combine many topics into one blog. These topics include saving money, making money, news, and reviews. One of my passions is cars. Trying to expand my blog readership I’ve decided to include auto industry news from time to time. As you may already know GM sold Saab to Spyker last year. The first Saab 9-3 under the new ownership of Spyker will be released this spring, it is highly anticipated. Surprisingly Spyker has priced this year’s Saab 9-3 lower than the previous year. The 2010 Saab 9-3 will start out at $29,725. I’ve liked Saab’s over the years, but there is something missing from the design. May be Saab under Spyker will get more aggressive redesign and a much needed interior face lift. We will see…
I just bought a couple new marketing books. I like to browse through marketing books. Most of the stuff you already know, but sometimes you can find something you never thought of or something the triggers a new idea. In marketing I strive to always learn new things on a daily basis.
The 2 books are:
1) Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs (The New Rules of Social Media)
2) The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edit The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edit
Just when you started to believe Google was a 1 trick search pony Google announces they are getting into the broadband network business. Comcast and Verizon must be so happy for Google. The plan is to deliver a 1Gb/sec to more than 50,000 homes possible as much as 500,000. The fiber-optic network will be faster than anything you can get with Comcast or Verizon. On Google’s official blog they say with this fast connection you will be able to download an entire HD feature film in less than 5 min or watch a live 3D lecture. Read the full article at the Google Blog. If you want to stay up to date on Google happenings that seem more and more frequent I’d recommend subscribing to their blog.
Yes, the January 2010 search engines numbers are just in. Bing.com continues to gain market share. The Bing search engine jumped another half point to 11.3% of search engine market share. Google’s domestic search was 65.4% in January, down from 65.7%. Yahoo feel from 17.3% to 17% in Jan. ASK.com increased from 3.7% to 3.8%. AOL domestic search decreased from 2.6% to 2.5%.
According to comScore Bing grew 49% year over year. Google increase 21%, Yahoo -2%, ASK 12%, and AOL -20%. May be it’s how Microsoft branded Bing to stand out from Google. Google is minimalist. Bing has pictures, the results feel cleaner, and it’s as good as Google. New research coming out of Wunderman might support this. Wunderman has found a link between brand building and search engine use by consumers. “Loyal users of Bing, Yahoo! and Google were found to have distinct characteristics that benefit some brands more than others (http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/research-by-wunderman-finds-link-between-brand-building-and-search-engine-use-by-consumers-83883392.html).” This research is very interesting. Check it out here.
Toyota has been in the news lately regarding their recall for gas-pedal related issues. The number of Toyota vehicles recalled is above 8 million. Estimated costs for the recall and lawsuits is around 2 billion. Toyota in a newly released commercial essentially says “my bad.” It got me to thinking if this were an American auto company would this receive as much press? I don’t think so… Toyota earned it’s reputation by producing high quality vehicles so to have this happen to an automaker of their caliber is devastating. Toyota wants you to know they are sorry for this situation, watch the video here. Would an American company release a commercial like this?
I don’t know about you, but I’d say this years Super Bowl were the worst in recent memory. The target of many commercials was taking a shot at men’s egos. The commercials were really average. If Google’s “Parisian Love” makes the top spot, an ad that has been on YouTube since November, this shows you just how bad the commercials actually were. Did you see GoDaddy.com? The ads were meant to be edgy and may be at one time they were. Now the GoDaddy.com ads come across as corny at best. Here is a list of the best and the worst 2010 commercials http://www.heavy.com/post/the-best-and-worst-super-bowl-commercials-3573.
Microsoft said it earned $6.66 billion or 74 cents per share on revenue of $19.02 billion. This is a percentage increase of 60% for profits and 13% for revenues. Investors thought Microsoft would earn 59 cents a share. This was a huge beat for Microsoft on boosted earrings from Windows 7. Windows 7 demand was said to be “exceptional” according to chief financial officer Peter Klein .
While searching news articles for Apple Tablet pictures I discovered many sites linking to Apple Tablet pictures on blog.dustincurtis.com. They look legit. May be… possibly…? What do you think?
