My Internet Notebook

Microsoft determined to take the lead from Google and Yahoo by pouring more development resources into its Windows Live service.

One of the key tenets of Microsoft’s Windows Live strategy is to engage web developers that are used to develop using Php & Javascript scripting languages. And Microsoft’s Windows Live API offers some very generous licensing terms to developers.

An application can have up to 1 million unique users per month without having to pay Microsoft. Beyond that, Microsoft will charge 25 cents per user per year.

Source: Microsoft opens up on Web strategy at Mix ’07 | CNET News.com

The famous Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has entered the Chinese market with a $360 million fund.

Venture capital investments in China grew to $1.8 billion in 2006 from $1.2 billion in 2005, according to data from Hong Kong-based venture market research firm Zero2IPO.

KPCB will have offices in both Beijing and Shanghai, centers of high-tech venture investment and tech innovations. Some might wonder whether KPCB is late to the game given that some VCs in China are openly concerned about over-valuation of Chinese web2.0 companies.

Source: Kleiner Perkins entering China with $360 mln fund | Reuters.com

Interesting observation by “Startup Review Blog”:

The key to mixing the free and premium services is to be sure that they are two separate, self-contained processes such that the user receives differentiated benefit from each.

Source: » HOTorNOT.com Case Study: Mixing free and premium services – Startup Review Blog

 Kevin Lee offers advice on ‘taking advantage of’ SEO spammer.

As paid-placement search marketers, we aren’t doing our job if the algorithmic results are significantly better than our ad listings. Our companies and our competitors are part of a search ecosystem where the marketers able to float their ads to the top will be those who have:

• Copy highly relevant to the search query
• Highly relevant landing pages (the engines now look for this)
• A recognizable brand or a domain name that’s highly descriptive and reassures the searcher that clicking on the ad isn’t a mistake
• The ability to fulfill searchers’ needs (there would be no reason to bid aggressively on a keyword if you were unable to fulfill a searcher’s need and a competitor also bidding could fulfill that need better than you)
• An efficient company infrastructure that doesn’t put them at a significant disadvantage with regard to gross margin and customer retention
• A strong company with the financial resources to be a going concern

Source: Think Organic, Act Paid

Is Google sending search traffic to rival search engines such as Yahoo, Ask and MSN?

It looks like so in the screenshots I took. I accidentally ran into this when I searched for ‘Blackberry 8800’ in Google. Google not only returns me some, as always, some good results, it also returned a list of links to rival search engines right below the Google search bar. I don’t recall that I have seen this before.

This definitely surprised and puzzled me quite a bit. I know Google is famous for its ‘do no evil’ philosophy. But when it comes to business of making money, I have never seen Google being so generous. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention in recent development …