On this week’s episode of Om and Niall PodSessions Om and I discuss changes in the search industry over the past week and their implications for future business development around the world. This week’s session is titled search around the world as we cover the changing landscape in the United States, Europe, and Asia in about 20 minutes.
The DOJ paid Google a visit this week after the company refused to hand over search logs and information for its hundreds of millions of users. The long list of requested data made online users realize just how much personal information is in the hands of large Internet companies such as Google, Yahoo!, AOL, or Microsoft.
Governments and search engines in other countries were busy moving forward with their own search plans despite the distractions in Silicon Valley. France and Germany announced a collaborative effort to develop the Quaero project to counter the power of Google and Yahoo! over content in those two countries. The new search engine will receive around $2 billion from the French and German governments to develop new search technologies especially focused on audio and video.
In Korea NHN’s Naver.com continues its stellar growth with over 40% of the country’s search market. Google currently has only about 2% of the Korean market. Naver adds mashups and detailed information directly on search results pages assisted by efforts from its millions of subscribers. They even have blog search tab. The company has expanded into Japan and China behind the power of its gaming network and founded a U.S. subsidiary.
All these topics and more in this week’s podcast. The podcast is 21 minutes long, a 9.8 MB download.