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Google Signs $900m MySpace Deal

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the road-to-world-domination dept.

deadmantyping writes "Google has signed a $900m deal with Fox to provide search capabilities for Fox sites, the most noteworthy of which is MySpace. This deal does not include FoxSports.com, which already has a deal with MSN. Google claims that 'MySpace was an important site to be involved with given its rapid popularity growth.' Google also signed a deal with MTV earlier in the week."

46 of 213 comments (clear)

  1. I just hate it when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Rupert Murdoch ($500M for myspace.com) gets to tug on his suspenders and say, "Guess I'm not so dumb after all."

    1. Re:I just hate it when... by Phreakiture · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Rupert Murdoch ($500M for myspace.com) gets to tug on his suspenders and say, "Guess I'm not so dumb after all."

      Heh. Nobody should ever accuse him (or his buddy W, for that matter) of being dumb. It gives too much benefit of the doubt.

      Getting serious for a second, though, it's good to see that MySpace is finally doing something about their search capability. You can put just about anything into their current search engine, and go through the results it returns with a fine-toothed comb and not find a single instance of any search term in the results. I think it just calls a random-number generator.

      --
      www.wavefront-av.com
  2. Myspace taking over...... by matts-reign · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't see the attraction of myspace.

    It seems like everybody is using the website now. I can understand that people want to host their own content.

    Why then, are movies using myspace? Talladega nights advertises its offical url as http://myspace.com/rickybobby. Why? Why not just have a regular website? Or is there something i'm missing?

    --
    Waffles rock.
    1. Re:Myspace taking over...... by bcat24 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is that URL from the trailer? Googling "talladega nights" gets me to this Sony Pictures page, with no MySpace hits in the first few pages of results.

    2. Re:Myspace taking over...... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I don't see the attraction of myspace.

      You're evidently not 14.

    3. Re:Myspace taking over...... by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't tell her that.

    4. Re:Myspace taking over...... by Ruff_ilb · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Regardless, many films are doing this... it's really a moot point as to whether or not this particular film does it.

      The bottom line is that a myspace link is familiar to lots of people, easy to access, easy to create, and plays into the social networking scheme that myspace yields. If someone can add "Ricky Bobby" to their myspace friends account, or whatever (I don't use myspace, so I don't know exactly how it works), but for a very small amount of effort, and likely no funding (they can rehash their own promotional materials) they can reach a number of people, and then (and this is where MySpace has another significant advantage) reach the people those people have friended on myspace, because the friends will see the user's like for the movie. Thus, for almost nothing, the marketers can reach people that wouldn't normally access the site.

      --
      http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
    5. Re:Myspace taking over...... by LDoggg_ · · Score: 2

      Letting someone else pay for the hosting costs would be a pretty big perk.

      Barely.
      Compared to the money they spend on television advertising, web hosting is nothing.

      Using a myspace.com/movie site is really stupid for another reason:
      Myspace.com tends to get filtered on networks where a movie site wouldn't be cosidered inappropriate.

      --

      "If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
    6. Re:Myspace taking over...... by apflwr3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why then, are movies using myspace? Talladega nights advertises its offical url as http://myspace.com/rickybobby [myspace.com]. Why? Why not just have a regular website? Or is there something i'm missing?

      For one thing it's potentially a marketing goldmine.

      "Rickybobby" has 60,000 "friends." It could be 600,000 in a couple of months. Almost all of these "friends" are in the coveted teens-and-twenties demographic. The fact that they are willing to be friends with a movie means they're susceptible to advertising. They will be getting messages and emails and "friend invites" from upcoming movies and who-knows-what-else from Sony Pictures for a long time to come.

      Why do you think Myspace is worth so much to Fox? It's a database of millions of teenagers who proudly list their interests and hobbies.

    7. Re:Myspace taking over...... by shawb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And probably more importantly than just reaching people, the marketers can find what interests the people they reach have. Looking into it a bit can show that some unexpected demographic might be into the movie/band/whatever. Or they might find larger interest in certain geographic regions than expected... in theory this could allow companies to bring products (including movies and art) to people that actually want them. This is probably more important for something like a band planning out a tour schedule, but larger companies can use it to concentrate their marketing as well.

      --
      I'll never make that mistake again, reading the experts' opinions. - Feynman
    8. Re:Myspace taking over...... by jb.hl.com · · Score: 4, Funny

      Most people who avoid myspace are either old farts who criticize anyone under 30, or slashdotters living in their parents basement.

      Stolen for sig. :)

      --
      By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
    9. Re:Myspace taking over...... by SilentChris · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Actually, most people who avoid Myspace can't stand piss-poor webdesign, pages that take forever to load and endless tirades by teenagers. Never mind the fact that most kids "grow out of Myspace", apparently, when they head off to college (Read this in a CNN article recently. Google it).

      I still don't see the attraction of hosting on Myspace. It costs, what, 5 bucks to rent a box nowadays? And you have total control of your content, not what News Coporation deems is appropriate.

      All Myspace is a virtual gym class from high school. A place to socialize and learn people skills (albiet online) before heading off to a work environment. In that regard, it's a success -- but by those standards any social networking site that gets large enough is a success. In every other instance (design, marketing, etc.) it's a failure.

    10. Re:Myspace taking over...... by bananaguyc · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The value of marketing on MySpace is phenomenally huger and more measurable than a normal "website", just due to the fact that MySpace has the whole photo-oriented "friends" concept. Under this concept marketers get a MUCH better idea of who's interested in your movie or product or whatever due to the fact that the whole thing is "Opt-In". This is WAY different from just advertising a URL, putting banner-type-ads on other sites and/or doing e-mail/spam campaigns. These more traditional forms of Internet marketing run the risk of the fact that frequent Internet users quickly become desensitized. Not to mention the fact that "clicks" has always been a questionable meaure of success. Another advantage of MySpace is the whole "envy" factor. Where you are essentially letting your target market do some marketing for you. The MySpace mentality is like, "Johnny has added 'Big Summer Movie' to his friend's list, they must be cool, so I will go ahead and add them to my own list". Also, this feels more innocuous and harmless to a company's target audience than annoying banner ads just placed on a related (or not) website. And for those of you that believe this (old)media-hype about the MySpace-thing being just for "teeny-boppers" - think again. I am over-25 and I have caught up with a TON of people on there from high school, university and work. The whole thing among older MySpace users is about getting-in-touch and keeping-in-touch with people in an environment that gives you a really good amount of freedom, and where the whole culture promotes the use of photos (photo-sharing is always a huge draw for females, and of course the guys go where the ladies are). There's this whole "reunion" type buzz among us "older" (read: non-teeny-bopper) users. Many 20-30-something people post their wedding/family photos & whatever on there. ***(Classmates.com was onto something years prior to the current social-networking trend, but unfortunately for them, they killed off their demand by deciding to charge). Also, unlike e-mail, you are relatively well-protected from Spam on MySpace -- I believe this is A HUGE factor for all the post-college-age people who use MySpace. You don't have to deal with a lot of unwanted crap being obtrusively *pushed* at you. I know among my 20-30 something peer group MySpace has become a very practical way to get a hold of people, since it's a lot more convenient than keeping up with all kinds of e-mail addresses, varying cell phone numbers and varying IM contacts none of which promotes the usage of photos. MySpace also has features that let you know for sure if your personal message was actually read by someone who is on your friend's list - something that e-mail & cell/voicemail do not provide. Also, multi-media-text messaging is hugely popular overseas, but not in the U.S. because of the expense(read: greedy cell-phone carriers). Myspace helps fill that demand for multimedia messaging that exists. Also, the fact that computer hardware prices have plummeted recently, along with the fact that current technology has made the use of digital photography and computer/internet-use in general more idiot-proof has played a HUGE factor as well. All of these features, factors and good timing all played a role in making MySpace hugely popular.

    11. Re:Myspace taking over...... by ashot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I think you are missing the point. When you put it inside myspace, it subconsously feels like it is still *in* that familiar space. The concepts and the layout are easy to digest, and you don't feel like you ever left your own backyard, so, you're (you being a myspace user) more likely to be willing to go, and you're more likely to stay.

      Or maybe its just Rupert flexing his muscle.

      --
      -ashot
    12. Re:Myspace taking over...... by laffer1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm 27 and just signed up in may. I only use it to find out what happened to high school friends and assholes. Its funny how many people in my class now work at a gas station or an adult bookstore. A few of the cheerleaders made it as waitresses. Its worth the bad web design to laugh at people who said you'd never be anything.

      Best of all its free unlike classmates.com which won't tell you shit unless you pay them.

      --
      MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
    13. Re:Myspace taking over...... by Caiwyn · · Score: 2, Informative

      Good insight. In other words, it's the ultimate in viral marketing. I work for a marketing agency (though I'm not in marketing myself) and "viral" is what everybody wets themselves over in this business. If you can get word-of-mouth to spread, it's basically free advertising. If your ad is good enough that people want to see it, interact with it, and be a part of it, then you spend less time and money taking your message to consumers -- they come to you. MySpace was practically made for this; it's an easy way for people to find you on their own, and an easy way for them to spread the word about you.

  3. Excellent! by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Funny

    Vapid, self-obsessed, score-keeping emo-inanities will now be even easier to find! And that's just the garage bands.

    Wait... did you feel that? A great disturbance in the workforce, like millions of voices crying out... like it just became easier than ever for HR departments around the world to sift through that stack of resumes.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    1. Re:Excellent! by ackthpt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Vapid, self-obsessed, score-keeping emo-inanities will now be even easier to find! And that's just the garage bands.

      C'mon. This is why eBay is so successful. Not because they have the best approach or the best business model, hell from what I've seen they're a mindless bunch of jerks who change their site arbitrarily in not necessarily good ways. Even the best practices seem to evade them for years.

      It's simply where the herd is. And when the herd is all in one spot, very few feel compelled, until significant pain or market forces dictate they must move elsewhere, even that will likely be a mass migration to the next place. That you and I don't see it as exciting should tell both of us that we are outside the bell-curve. (Either that or these people have it fatally wrong and won't know it until a year or so from now when it all goes tits up, just like a lot of the really dumb ideas of the dot-com bubble.)

      --

      A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
    2. Re:Excellent! by andrewman327 · · Score: 4, Funny
      it just became easier than ever for HR departments around the world to sift through that stack of resumes.

      Agreed. Just look at this cover my HR department got the other day! (Hey, they're using it for movies, and I think that most of its individual users are dumb enough to do this.)


      drear employr,
      if u want 2 see my resume', chec out my MySpace. ignore the pix of me (hehe, i was so drunk) and the awesome muzic (i wuz 9 when Maroon 5 relesed that song) and clic on the "CLICK ME" link.

      --
      Information wants a fueled airplane waiting at the hangar and no one gets hurt.
    3. Re:Excellent! by Bronster · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Slashdot falls into the "good enough not to be totally worthless, and nothing else is so significantly better that it's worth switching" bracket. Plus, everyone else[tm] is here.

      I think it's largely the "there's enough going on to keep me distracted for an entire workday" factor that makes slashdot so... um... slashdotty.

      Yeah, something like that.

  4. Google paid Fox? by emjoi_gently · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Google paid Fox nearly a BILLION dollars to provide Fox with a Search Engine? Isn't that kind of backwards?

    1. Re:Google paid Fox? by FlyByPC · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's part of Google's charitable "Don't be evil" motto. They're trying to help all of those poor Fox customers see both sides of the current-events issues. That's why they paid Fox; it's not as if Fox has ever actually been interested in disseminating information. Now they'll be able to find all of the FUD-mongering blogs on BOTH sides!

      --
      Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
    2. Re:Google paid Fox? by dodobh · · Score: 2, Interesting

      For exclusive advertising rights. If you want to advertise on MySpace, you have to go through Google.

      --
      I can throw myself at the ground, and miss.
  5. It's not a Myspace.com deal... by IANAAC · · Score: 2, Informative
    It's a News Corp deal.

    It would be nice if the headline were less... sensationalist.

    1. Re:It's not a Myspace.com deal... by cryfreedomlove · · Score: 2, Funny

      Are you implying that News Corp is sensationalistic? Where is the evidence for that?

  6. Taking food from my plate by Weaselmancer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Throwing chairs, etc. You know the drill.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  7. Question by antifoidulus · · Score: 3, Funny

    How can you index a site where 90% of the words are one or 2 meaningless letters?

    --
    Monstar L
    1. Re:Question by Tokin84 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Forget letters... what about numbers replacing whole words! it hurts my brain even thinking about it!

      Oh, and lets see, from a business stand point, this is probably a good move my Google. granted, $900M is a ton of money, but with myspace generating over 27.4 billion page views per month (article here), that's a huge income stream for Google. Even if only 1% of those people even click on a link, which is probably an underestimate, thats 274 million ad clicks per month. At a minimum of $0.01/click, that's $2.74M. Also, don't forget that Google does Cost Per Impressions, or per 1000 ad views. Lets assume you use minimums, as I have throughout this post, and you will see that Google generates another $6.85M/ad displayed. Since Google usually puts up about 5 ads per search, you can assume that they are making $34.25M/month at a minimum. Total, they have a revenue of appoximately $37M/month, all at minimums. Now, this doesn't take into account the fact that most advertisers pay more than the minimums since Google uses cost competitive advertising. However, at minimums, it only takes Google a little over 24 months to recover their costs and start making money. Seems pretty smart to me!

      Then again, what do I know!

      --
      Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted. - Aldous Huxley
  8. better ways by spykemail · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can think of a lot of better ways to blow $900 million dollars, for example, on vodka and hookers.

    --
    Haiku for you!
  9. So many jokes, so little time by CrazyJim1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Myspace + Google + MTV = Pimp my Site

    --
    God spoke to me.
  10. Clarification :: Google paid, not was paid by LordOfTheNoobs · · Score: 5, Informative
    "Under the terms of the agreement, Google will be obligated to make guaranteed minimum revenue share payments to Fox Interactive Media of $900 million based on Fox achieving certain traffic and other commitments"

    Requote from the Register article pertaining.

    Google paid News Corp to be the sole advertiser. Not News Corp paid Google to provide search.

    Thank you, that is all...
    --
    They're there affecting their effect.
  11. improving myspace by steve426f · · Score: 2, Interesting

    damn, only search capabilities. I was hoping that Google had bought myspace so that the interface would actually be decent and not allow people to simultaneously play fifty mp3's and movies.

  12. Re:finally something by eonlabs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm sure they won't. It's not like they're microsoft or something...

    --
    I wouldn't consider the mad hatter mad. Just reality impaired. He sure can make a mean cup of tea.
  13. Re:finally something by MikeWasHere05 · · Score: 5, Funny
    hopefully google with their vast infrastructure will speed up some of the site by using some sort of distributed computing for the search features, which i'm sure requires a lot of cpu speed to search close to 100 million users
    I wish there was a "Im trying to sound smart but am not at all" mod option.
  14. Re:google sucks by tbmcmullen · · Score: 2, Funny

    Didn't think google would be interested in that sort of thing......Cheezy if you ask me

    You didn't think that a huge corporation would be interested in making more money? Maybe you should call up Google and let them know that they should start making decisions based on what you think is "cheezy".

  15. Myspace doesn't HAVE a search function by British · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...to begin with.

    Go to "myspace groups". Try doing a search for anything. The result set is always ALL the groups, thus making it useless.

    Heck, the 'add to favorites' has bad strings in it(look at the confirmation page). Apparently someone doesn't know how to spell favorite.

    Hey myspace, how about signing a captcha deal to stop the spammer bots?

  16. "I'm Feeling Lucky" by Hamster+Lover · · Score: 3, Funny

    Combining MySpace with Google takes "I'm Feeling Lucky" to a whole new level.

    Ang how long before Google lets users "customize" their Google home page into an illiterate pile of horseshit featuring blaring Boy Band background "music", with hot pink on orange text all on top of some weird, annoying Anime/Sailor Moon/rice mobile backround?

  17. Re:crazy, google, myspace by dexomn · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think it's pretty interesting actually. According to sone randomly edited, freely available, possibly erroneous information:

    "[AOL] had at one time a customer base that reached over 30 million subscribers" - from aol wikipedia page

    "MySpace currently reports just over 99 million members, with 500,000 new members each week." - from myspace wikipedia page

    Two different services that can be used relatively easily to meet people, or chat, or for show and tell or whatever. If you've ever logged into aol since... well, probably since qlink; you would be greeted with some wonderful advertisement in which you could purchase an item by clicking on it. It's a modal window so you have to actually click 'No thanks.' to get rid of it. The rate of users being accosted by advertisments would logically increase as advertising to generate revenue increases.

    When you go to myspace(the www in general anymore), you get soemthing similar; crazy interactive flash advertisements promising a free ipod or a fantastic mortgage rate. Some of them let you beat famous people with sausages and some make loud annoying sounds unexpectedly on a mouseover. Those are embedded in the page.

    So people get used to these things and know where not to click, but the advertisement is still there. The president is still jumping around in boxing gloves just itching to get you that ipod. Or maybe some mice are running around on a tabletop that would like to prevent you from flicking the bean into the dixie cup.

    Even if you aren't sucked into the adds you see them.
    People love MySpace and AOL. And many that hate them still use them anyway.
    You can't pry AOL or MySpace from their cold dead hands. (AOL not so much these days it seems)

    With this kind of exposure there is huge advertising/sales potential and huge data mining potential.

  18. wow... by marleyboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Look what Google just did. They cornered the advertising niche for the largest single techno-social group on the web. They are going to put ads for brand new cell phones in the myspace addicts hands, deliver performing equipment ads to bands, and they will probably turn around and let bands advertise their gigs for next to nothing.

    As we watch it, google is inventing the new economy in the new society. They will establish themselves in such a way that a severe impact on Google's functions will be visibly noticed, and by everyone. So they collaborate with MTV, the largest major youth/indepedant media business in the myspace nation. One metaphor would be that MTV is the natural gas that these kids cook things up with.

    This now becomes political, especially with Google where it is on the net-neutrality issues. Say the government forces Google to do something that adversely impacts these members of myspace. Voices begin to be heard, and these people will be voting soon.

    Here's a couple of questions. How many members of MySpace will be turning old enough to vote by the time Bush is to be replaced? Is that enough to sway a victory? And, what's going to happen when the myspace nation finds a political leader?

    The shit's boiling over and the fans are on high. I don't want to be in here but I'm wearing my yellow slicker.

    --
    Neutiquam erro
    1. Re:wow... by Khomar · · Score: 2
      How many members of MySpace will be turning old enough to vote by the time Bush is to be replaced? Is that enough to sway a victory? And, what's going to happen when the myspace nation finds a political leader?

      These are some very important questions, and the fact is that most people do not know. The one big event that you did not mention which makes this an even more pressing question is the retirement and eventual disappearance of the baby boom generation. For the past two or three decades, this country has effectively been run by this large, vocal group -- a group that as a whole has invested a lot of money but very little time into their children. As a result, you have a generation of people raised with every thing their hearts desired but lacking the insight into the wisdom and experience of the preceding generations. Thus, MySpace. It is a place of infinite freedom to them where they get the social interactions they did not get at home. Yet, they know so very little about the world, and there is no positive influence from the older generations to guide them away from the cliff.

      Every generation rebels -- this is pretty much a fact, but even in these rebellions, the wisdom of the older generations tempers it. All that the young generation knows now is that the current system is broken. They see the actions of their parents and grandparents as mistakes, but they do not understand why those mistakes were made or why some of their "new" ideas were not implemented. For example, they are frustrated that we don't live in a true democracy without stopping to think why that might be (protection for minorities, the existence of fundamental laws and rights, etc.). The scary thing is that some day, the leader of our nation will have to be elected by the MySpace crowd because they will be the only ones left (the babyboomers won't live forever). What values have we passed down to them to help them make the decisions that will direct their future? What choices will they make?

      While we can stumble along and learn lessons the hard way, there is great value in gleaning observations of reality from those who have already lived it -- even if we don't agree with them. Unfortunately, I think this is one of the values passed down -- a disrespect for the older generations. It is my fear that as the babyboomers move into retirement homes, they will become the loneliest generation our country has ever seen.

      --

      I believe in de-evolution. God made the world perfect, man fell, and its been going downhill ever since!

  19. Why all the hate? by crotherm · · Score: 3, Insightful


    As I read these replies where the majority are negative on MySpace, it reminds me when AOL first had access to usenet, but not as bad. Back then, everyone was worried about the influx of nubes. And rightfuly so. But with MySpace, they have their own place, they are not making the haters go there, they are doing what the internet promised. I think it is a good thing. Kids today are treating the internet like a tool and not some secret society. If you all don't like it, do what we have been saying for other forms of media you don't care for, turn the damn channel!

    --
    "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable" - JFK
  20. Someone has to say it. by clickclickdrone · · Score: 2, Funny

    1. Build Search Engine
    2. Pay people to use it
    3. ?????
    4. profit!

    --
    I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil
    1. Re:Someone has to say it. by rbarreira · · Score: 2, Informative

      The ????? being people clicking on the ads.

      --

      The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
  21. Easy way to save $900 milltion by BinBoy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    site:myspace.com

  22. Re:finally something by Andrew+Kismet · · Score: 2, Funny

    If Myspace were to be analysed my a computer, it would probably identify it as either a linkfarm or a tool to confuse web spiders...

  23. Strings Attached by Para618 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I haven't posted here before, but it seems like this has been overlooked enough that I should mention it.

    "The deal will see Google pay Fox at least $900m (£472m), provided certain web traffic targets are met."

    It makes absolutely no difference if MySpace becomes unpopular, because then Fox doesn't get paid. The only risk Google is taking is if people don't click the ads, but if they simply stop going, there's no problem.