"Google still struggling to conquer outposts"

This article from the Financial Times (Sept 16, 2008) looks at the overwhelming success of non-Google search engines in other countries. For example, Yandex has a 46% share of all searches in Russia, Seznam has 63% of the market in the Czech Republic, and Baidu handles about 60% in China.

"Some common themes lie behind these local success stories, internet veterans say: Google has played second fiddle to rivals who invested much earlier, perfected their technology to work with local languages and came up with innovations that Google is now having to copy."

Google, of course, is not giving up....

The article includes links to related articles and there is an interactive map of the non-Google world with the market share of individual competitors.

Business.gov - Official Business Link to the U.S. Government

Business.gov is "the official business link to the U.S. government."

Small business guides are arranged by topic, such as "Advertising and Marketing," "Business Law," "Taxes," and "Start and Manage a Business". Each guide provides a concise annotated list of links to relevant U.S. government information.

Under the tab "State & Local Info" there is a clickable map of the U.S. For each state there is a small business guide with links to local resources and answers to FAQ. The Florida Small Business Guide is available here -- at the far left is a link to the web sites for cities and counties in the state.
(This is a great resource for students working on local marketing projects....)

Financial crises...

News from the financial markets has been more than a bit overwhelming lately: Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, AIG.... This special issue of "Knowledge at Wharton" (Sept 17-30, 2008) is devoted to the current financial crisis and includes articles, podcasts and video from Wharton professors and other financial experts.

College Sustainability Report Card 2008

According to the College Sustainability Report Card 2008: "While schools are earning higher marks for green initiatives in campus operations, a majority of the wealthiest institutions continue to lag in applying sustainability practices to their endowment investments." The report is issued by the Sustainable Endowments Institute, "a nonprofit organization engaged in research and education to advance sustainability in campus operations and endowment practices."

The Sustainability Report Card includes a full report and an Executive Summary, as well as individual school profiles. The one-page school profiles include the scores for each of eight categories (administration; climate change & energy; food & recycling; green building; transportation; endowment transparency; investment priorities; and shareholder engagement.) Six schools received the top rating of A-; USF received a D+. (My alma mater, Carleton College, scored an A- :))

From this page, you can also link to related articles from Forbes on "America's Greenest Colleges" and the first "green issue" of the New York Times Magazine.

Environmentally friendly colleges & universities...

Sierra Club published its second "Cool Schools" ranking of the top ten environmentally friendly schools. Included are small private colleges like Middlebury College(VT), as well as large schools like the University of Florida at Gainesville and Arizona State University at Tempe. "The top schools earned points in ten categories: policies for building, energy, food, investment, procurement, and transportation; curriculum; environmental activism; waste management; and overall commitment to sustainability." Information about the Sierra Club's ranking system and related articles, such as hot environmental jobs, can be found here.

Google &/v. advertising agencies

Google has built a 40-person group to court advertising agencies, who have often had a somewhat adversarial relationship with the giant search firm. But now that Google has expanded beyond simple search, it has found a need for more positive and collaborative relationships with ad agencies. The reaction from ad agencies appears to be mixed -- Google is still known to some as a "frenemy" or a "froe". This NYTimes article, "Googling in Person to Make Friends" has an interesting discussion of the development.

Consumer and marketing research

ACNielsen, the marketing research arm of The Nielsen Company, conducts marketing and consumer research and offers some of the reports for free publicly. The Global Consumer Reports section of the web site includes reports on such topics as consumer confidence, consumers and designer brands, and packaging and the environment. For example, the June 2008 report on the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index found the following:

"Consumer confidence fell in 39 out of 48 countries in the past six months, with New Zealand, USA and Latvia suffering the deepest declines. Among the 39 markets recording a decline in consumer confidence, 15 fell by double-digits."