March 13, 2004 edition, issue: 04-0254
Current circulation: 16,319
Editor: Serge Thibodeau

Hello to all of you on this beautiful Saturday. This week was a rather quiet one in the news, although there were still a number of developments, as there always are.

Week ending Friday, March 12, 2004
On Monday, Geoff Stevens, general manager of local search at Overture, said that Overture is launching a local search service. The way it works is the Overture system would match local advertisers to nearby customers, in effect substantially boosting Overture's ad revenue in the local market.

Overture's new local search service will be ready in the next few months and will let advertisers set a geographic radius for the display of their search listings.

In other news, Google has seen tremendous growth, in terms of consumer use and paid search ad revenues. And, "although it continues to be the most innovative search company out there", says Forrester Research Principal Analyst, Charlene Li, "Google can't be everything to everyone". As Google moves toward its anticipated IPO, there are limits to the company's future success.

According to a new Forrester Research report, Google's dominance will be diluted as Microsoft and Yahoo gain strength in the search industry.

Yahoo on Tuesday announced the launch of SmartView on Yahoo ® Maps (http://maps.yahoo.com). The new feature offers consumers an interactive and visual way to search for local content on the Web and is part of Yahoo Search's ongoing efforts to offer the most relevant and comprehensive search experience to users.

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