E' notizia di oggi dell'accordo tra Microsoft e Wall Street Journal Digital Network. Microsoft ha ricevuto l'incarico di servire "contextual and paid search" all'interno del network WSJ. Maggiori dettagli nel CS che riporto qui sotto.

"The Wall Street Journal Digital Network today announced an agreement in which Microsoft Corp. becomes the exclusive third-party provider of contextual and paid search advertising for its network of sites, including The Wall Street Journal Online, Barrons.com, MarketWatch.com, AllThingsD.com and others.

“Relevant and targeted digital advertising is important to our business and to the quality of the experience that we deliver to our users,” said Gordon McLeod, president of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. “Microsoft’s state-of-the-art advertising platform will enable us to dramatically improve our revenues from this key sector, and we look forward to working together.”

“This deal is a significant win for Microsoft for two key reasons. First, it makes the extended Microsoft advertising network the premier destination for advertisers interested in reaching financially minded users, as it complements our offering in this vertical through MSN Money and other syndication partners,” said Brian McAndrews, senior vice president, Advertiser and Publisher Solutions at Microsoft. “Second, this deal is a strong indicator that we’re gaining significant traction with our advertising platform. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network is one of the largest financial services publishers in a very dynamic vertical segment, and we’re delighted to add it to our portfolio.”

The addition of these sites brings an additional 20 million unique visitors per month to the extended Microsoft network, enabling advertisers to reach out to an increasingly deep and attractive audience in the financial services vertical. The Wall Street Journal Digital Network is expected to begin providing Microsoft contextual advertising in February."

Luca

Chi ha un po' di dimestichezza con i dati Nielsen (e in generale con tutti gli istitituti di ricerca che lavorano con un dato panel) non rimarrà particolarmente colpito dal dato annunciato qualche giorno fa (vedi articolo qui sotto). Capitano spesso oscillazioni da un mese all'altro e non è ipotizzabile collegare a questa notizia alcun trend.

Vediamo che succede nelle prossime settimane ;-)

Luca

"SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Google Inc. saw its lead in the lucrative Internet-search market slacken in December, according to data released Friday by Nielsen Online.

Google (GOOG 600.25, -0.54, -0.1%) garnered a 56.3% share of the U.S. search market in December, compared with a 57.7% share in the previous month, according to Nielsen. Yahoo Inc. (YHOO 20.78, -0.44, -2.1%), meanwhile, saw its share in December fall slightly to 17.7%, compared with 17.9% in November.

A Nielsen spokeswoman said because Nielsen has used a new methodology for tracking search share since October, it's difficult to provide a long-term comparison of Google's month-to-month results.

However, taking into account both methodologies, Google has not recorded a lessening of its search-market share from month to month since June, when it saw its share of the market fall to 52.7% from 56.3% in May, Nielsen data show.

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT 33.01, -0.10, -0.3%) was the only company among the three largest search providers to see an increase in December, as its share rose to 13.8% of the U.S. market from 12% the previous month, according to Nielsen.

Microsoft has invested heavily in its online services, seen as essential for the company as it seeks to mature beyond its heavy reliance on the Windows and Office franchises. Search is a particularly valuable aspect of the online business, as related advertisements can be closely tailored to a Web user's particular keywords and interests.

In November, Microsoft began an effort to lure users to its search services by offering prizes such as T-shirts and video games. Users of Microsoft's Hotmail email service were told that each time they used Microsoft's search service, they could earn tickets toward those prizes. See related story.

A Microsoft spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about any correlation between the search-market gains and the prize program"