Danay’s Musings

Product Upgrades Connect U.S. Hispanics to What Matters Most to Them, Including More Ways to Experience, View, and Share Their Online and Offline Worlds

MIAMI, Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — Yahoo! En Espanol today debuts the next evolution of two of its most popular products. Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Messenger have been enhanced to deliver richer and more personally relevant experiences to users, making online search and instant messaging more social and fun with Yahoo!.

“With these new versions of Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Messenger, the company is focused on further connecting users to what matters to them most,” said Armando Rodriguez, general manager, Yahoo! Hispanic Americas. “The renewed focus on providing a more personally relevant online experience will continue to come to life not only across Search and Messenger, but also in other upcoming product rollouts, including the new Yahoo! En Espanol Front Page and enhanced Mail, all on track to launch in upcoming months.”

With these new versions of Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Messenger, the company is focused on further connecting users to what matters to them most

New Yahoo! Search Experience Gives You Personally Relevant Results
Yahoo!’s new search results page is aimed at making Web search more personally relevant. The product delivers a differentiated search experience that lets users better explore the things, people and websites that matter to them most. New enhancements include:

– Results Filtering Options - Provides new tools for refining search results, including exploring related concepts, displaying only results from popular Yahoo! and third-party sites, and narrowing results by different types of content such as videos and discussion forums.
– Easy Access to Search Controls - Provides quick access to Search Scan/SafeSearch, which helps protect users from viruses, spyware and search spam.
– Search Pad - A personal research assistant that lets users capture, organize, save and share information they find while researching online.

For example, now when users search for “Futbol” on Yahoo! En Espanol, on the left hand side of the page they will find Search Pad Options, Search Scan/SafeSearch, as well as links to other major online resources to obtain news on the subject. In the middle section, users will find the most popular links along with quick view photo and video images on their subject.

With the new design, Yahoo!’s powerful query assistance is still available directly below the search box, but is also incorporated into the left-hand column for quick access lower on the page, even when the Search Assist layer is hidden. Users can use this column to easily explore and discover concepts related to your query, and they can also share these search results with friends by using the Search Pad option.

Yahoo! Messenger Keeps You Instantly Connected
Yahoo! Messenger 10 allows users to instantly communicate with friends and family around the world through new interactive and social features. Enhancements include:

– Video Calls - New high-quality video calling enables full-screen,
face-to-face chats at no cost, using the familiar and easy-to-use Yahoo! Messenger environment.
– Updates Tab - A new tab helps people easily discover Updates from friends and family, including status updates, recent Flickr uploads, Yahoo! Buzz stories, Twitter updates and more.

About Yahoo!
Yahoo! attracts hundreds of millions of users every month through its innovative technology and engaging content and services, making it one of the most trafficked Internet destinations and a world class online media company. Yahoo!’s vision is to be the center of people’s online lives by delivering personally relevant, meaningful Internet experiences. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal(http://yodel.yahoo.com).

SOURCE Yahoo! En Espanol

South African media company Naspers announced today the acquisition of 91% of the share capital of Brazilian e-commerce group BuscaPé.com Inc. for an amount of US$342m.

Buscapé, which started as comparison shopping ten years ago, currently is Latin America’s top such network for new and used goods and one of the region’s best-known internet brands. It is the exclusive provider of comparison shopping solutions to more than 100 portals and websites in Latin America, including Microsoft, Globo and Abril, with over 10 million products and over 320 000 online and offline stores.

In recent years BuscaPé acquired a competitor, Bondfaro. It also expanded with QueBarato, the leading free-classifieds network in Latin America. Electronic payments can be done with Pagamento Digital. In addition it has an affiliate advertising network named Lomadee, an e-commerce research business, eBit, and a fraud risk assessment service, FControl.

All details on Naspers’ press realease.

Google Dominates Internet Landscape in India and Brazil

Google Sites Account for Nearly 30 Percent of All Time Spent Online in these Two Markets, Three Times Higher than Average

RESTON, VA, September 14, 2009 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world today released a study focusing on Google’s relative dominance in the two emerging Internet markets of India and Brazil. As background, Google Sites ranked as the most visited Internet property worldwide with 854 million unique visitors age 15 and older in July, an increase of 18-percent during the past year. Nearly 75 percent of all Internet users worldwide visited the Google Sites property, which accounted for 9.4 percent of all time spent online. Nearly one out of every ten minutes a person spends online around the world is spent on a Google site.

Google usage is more prevalent in certain global markets than others. Two particular markets stand apart from the rest in terms of their dependence on Google: Brazil and India. In July, 29.8 percent of total time spent online in Brazil was spent on Google Sites, with India only slightly lower at 28.9 percent. The next highest global market was Ireland at 15.9 percent.
Top Ten Global Internet Markets by Google Sites’ Share of Time Spent
July 2009
Age 15+, Home & Work Locations
Source: comScore
Total Minutes (MM)
Total Internet Google Sites Google Sites’ Share of Total Minutes Spent Online
Worldwide 1,541,617 145,473 9.4%
Brazil 46,352 13,808 29.8%
India 21,799 6,294 28.9%
Ireland 1,717 273 15.9%
Singapore 3,326 475 14.3%
Portugal 4,430 590 13.3%
South Africa 2,764 358 12.9%
Mexico 23,035 2,950 12.8%
Italy 21,776 2,699 12.4%
Austria 3,435 417 12.1%
Denmark 3,458 417 12.1%

“It’s interesting that the dynamics of Google usage would be so similar in Brazil and India given that the two markets are on opposite sides of the world and quite different culturally from one another,” said Alex Banks, managing director of comScore Latin America. “As it turns out, there are interesting similarities between Brazil and India as emerging Internet markets. Google’s prevalence in these markets can perhaps best be explained by the fact that the time at which these markets really began to develop and flourish was around the same time that Google was becoming a major player in the search landscape. As a result, Google became the dominant Internet brand in these markets and its success appears to have bled from search into other areas of the web like social networking.”

Google Dominance in Brazil and India

The Google brand has extended to success across most of the categories in which it plays in Brazil and India. In some categories, Google is the only player of consequence, commanding considerably high market shares. For example, in Brazil, Google Sites accounts for 89.5 percent of all searches conducted, while Google Orkut has a dominant position in social networking (96.0 percent of time spent), as does Google Maps in the maps category (70.9 percent of time spent) and Google-owned YouTube in the multimedia category (91.6 percent).

In India, Google Sites accounted for 88.4 percent of all searches conducted, and had commanding share of time spent in social networking with Orkut (68.2 percent), maps with Google Maps (63.9 percent), multimedia with YouTube (82.8 percent). It also commanded slightly less than half of all time spent in the blogs category with Blogger (47.6 percent) and email with Gmail (46.8 percent).
Google-Owned Sites Across Selected Site Categories in Brazil and India
July 2009
Total Brazil and India, Age 15+, Home & Work Locations
Source: comScore World Metrix and comScore qSearch
Site Category Google Site Category Rank by Unique Visitors Google’s Share of Time Spent in Category
Brazil
Search* Google Sites 1 89.5%
Social Networking Orkut 1 96.0%
Maps Google Maps 1 70.9%
Photos Picasa Network 2 8.9%
Blogs Blogger 1 43.7%
Multimedia YouTube 1 91.6%
Email Gmail 2 9.7%
India
Search* Google Sites 1 88.4%
Social Networking Orkut 1 68.2%
Maps Google Maps 1 63.9%
Photos Picasa Network 1 16.2%
Blogs Blogger 1 47.6%
Multimedia YouTube 1 82.8%
Email Gmail 2 46.8%

*Search category market share based on share of searches conducted, not share of time spent like the other categories

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

Contact:
Andrew Lipsman
Director, Marketing Communications
comScore, Inc.
+1 312 775 6510
press@comscore.com

MIAMI, Aug. 5 - Yahoo! Telemundo today announced its Top 10 Searches for the month ending July 31

( http://yahootelemundo.com/lomasbuscado ), which include the Top 10 in overall searches, image searches, as well as the most searched for Men for the month of July, as established by the millions of Yahoo! Telemundo users.

Top Trends in Search for July include:

Top 10 Overall Searches
1. Without Breasts There Is No Paradise (Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso)
2. Miss Universe 2008
3. Animals
4. Monica Bellucci
5. Love and Sex
6. Aracely Arambula
7. Galilea Montijo
8. Marijuana risks
9. Ingrid Betancourt
10. Organic Foods

Sin Senos No Hay Paraiso (literally, Without Breasts There Is No Paradise), is a Spanish-language telenovela that debuted on Telemundo on July 16. A hit in Colombia, the telenovela tells the story of an attractive young prostitute who seeks massive breast implants to attract a rich cocaine smuggler. The show was one of the network’s most-watched premieres ever and, not surprisingly, nabbed this month’s number one spot on the Top 10 Overall Searches. Also topping the list was a group of beautiful women, including Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza, Italian actress Monica Bellucci, and Aracely Arambula, who just announced she is pregnant with boyfriend Luis Miguel’s second child. Rounding out the list was former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) captive Ingrid Betancourt, whose recent rescue after six-and-a-half years of captivity created a worldwide media frenzy.

Top 10 Image Searches
1. Tattoos
2. Adriana Lima
3. Sceneries
4. Gemma Atkinson
5. Eva Longoria
6. Galilea Montijo
7. Barbara Mori
8. Vanessa Guzman
9. Isabel Madow
10. Naruto

The number one most searched for image on Yahoo! Telemundo in July was Tattoos - tattoos have experienced a resurgence in popularity in many parts of the world, particularly in North America, South America and Europe. A survey published by the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that 24% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 50 have a tattoo.

Victoria’s Secret Supermodel Adriana Lima, an ever-popular name on the Top Searches lists, is still making headlines after it was announced that she and basketball star boyfriend, Marko Jaric of the Minnesota Timberwolves, will be tying the knot. Following in Lima’s footsteps - four more models were among the most searched for images in July: British lingerie model (and reality TV star) Gemma Atkinson; Uruguayan-Mexican actress/model Barbara Mori, star of the hit telenovela remake, Rubi; as well as model Isabel Madow, known for her appearances on the Mexican edition of Big Brother VIP. Mexican actress and model Vanessa Guzman (a former Miss Mexico) also peaked users’ interest as she recently went public with information that she and boyfriend Uberto Bondoni, an actor from Uruguay, were blackmailed for a sex tape that was allegedly taken from their home in Mexico.

Top 10 Men Searches
1. Thomas Beatie
2. Chespirito
3. Lil wayne
4. Don Omar
5. Luis Miguel
6. Vicente Fernandez
7. Juanes
8. Cristiano Ronaldo
9. Tito El Bambino
10. Ricardo Arjona

Ironically, the most searched for man this month is really a woman. Thomas Beatie, the world’s first person to conceive a child after a gender-reassignment operation, gave birth this past month to a healthy baby girl. Mexican television icon Roberto Gomez Bolaios, known to the world as Chespirito, also topped the list. Bolaos, best known for his roles as “El Chavo del Ocho” and “El Chapulin Colorado,” has been touring Latin America to present his play “11 y 12.”

In the number four slot, Puerto Rican Reggaeton star Don Omar has been cleared of all drug and weapons charges in relation to an incident dating back to 2004. The 30-year-old has been on trial in a court in Carolina, Puerto Rico for the last two weeks, after he was arrested in September 2004 by drug enforcement officers, who claim to have found him and two pals smoking marijuana. The agents also allegedly found a gun and $1,200 in cash in his possession. Portuguese footballer and heartthrob Cristiano Ronaldo, who currently plays for Manchester United, has also generated interest amidst speculation about a move to Real Madrid. Last but not least, Guatemalan singer-songwriter, Ricardo Arjona, also generated buzz as he officially launched “Fundaci�n Adentro,” an initiative to teach music to poor children in his native Guatemala.

Every month the Yahoo! Telemundo Top 10 Searches showcases the diverse interests and concerns of U.S. Hispanics around the net, from gorgeous celebrity sightings and salacious political news to funny jokes and the latest consumer obsessions. The monthly list includes a recap of the Top 10 Overall Searches, Top 10 Image Searches and Top 10 Searches in a revolving category, which changes monthly. To come up with the Yahoo! Top Searches list, Yahoo! scans anonymous query logs from Yahoo! Search across a variety of categories to see what themes and trends bubble up to the surface. Individual searches are never used to develop these lists. For more information on Yahoo! Telemundo’s Top 10 Searches, visit http://www.yahootelemundo.com/lomasbuscado .

About Yahoo! Telemundo:
Yahoo! Telemundo ( http://www.yahootelemundo.com ), is a commercial venture between Yahoo! Inc. and Telemundo Communications Group, Inc., and is a leading online media and services community for Hispanic consumers in the U.S. This comprehensive and engaging online community for U.S. Hispanics brings together Yahoo!’s leading technology, Internet tools and services with the online assets and original television content of Telemundo, connecting the U.S. Hispanic community to their passions, their communities and the world’s knowledge.

CONTACT
Yahoo! Telemundo
Lourdes de la Torriente
lourdes@delagroup.com
305-282-4264

Source: HispanicPRWire

I haven’t spent much time on offering resources on my blog lately, so here are some nice ones about SEO en Español.

http://google.dirson.com/

http://www.ojobuscador.com/

http://www.davilac.net/

http://abelgonzalez.com/blog/

http://www.boonicsoft.com/

http://bibo.bitacoras.com/

I also must say that these sources come from Bill Slawski on SEOMoz. gotta get my sources in!

SMX Madrid 2008, España - Search Marketing Expo
May 20-21, 2008

SMX has come to Spain for the first time! This expo is already in the US, Europe, Australia, Latam and China.

The market is becomming more and more competitive in Spain and the fact that SMX is there is a perfect example of a growing search market.

Click here for more info.

Mexico City, Mexico–(HISPANIC PR WIRE - BUSINESS WIRE)–February 25, 2008–AOL today launched a dedicated Web destination in Mexico, http://www.aol.com.mx, which combines industry-leading safety features with free e-mail, instant messaging and localized content in Spanish. AOL has partnered with Alestra to provide distribution and Grupo Editorial Expansion for content. AOL also will leverage its worldwide distribution partnership with HP to deliver a co-branded local language portal and search solution for Mexico. AOL will continue to add content and features over the coming months.

“Mexico is an important market in the Latin American region and we’re committed to delivering a strong local offering that meets the needs of Mexican online consumers,” said Maneesh Dhir, Executive Vice President, AOL International. “This launch also advances AOL’s global strategy to bring great products and services, along with customized content, to more countries in Latin America and around the world.”

read more at HispanicPRWire.com