Motoko’s weblog

I am now getting ready for the next search conference in Chicago, Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo next week. This time, I will speak for “New Exporters: How Search Marketing Can Be Used to Build Overseas Trade” on the 7th. (The session starts at 11:45am.)

Me and 3 other speakers will talk about:

The global markets offer rich pickings for many US firms who haven’t yet dipped a toe in the water! This panel will explain how to identify Continue Reading »

Baidu Japan started its mobile search service. In addition to mobile sites, it searches web, images/photos and videos. The unique service of this new search engine is that it lets you search with “Emoji” (emoticon) , too! Some of you may remember that iPhone struggled to gain the market share in Japan when it was introduced to the market. One of the biggest reasons why people didn’t want to use iPhone was that you couldn’t use “Emoji” with iPhone. Since then, Softbank added this Emoji function to iPhone, and now it’s the most popular mobile phones in Japan. In fact, Emoji is a big part of communication method for Japanese people not only with instant messaging, but with blogs, SMSs, etc. One of the first functions added to mixi (Japan’s popular SNS site) was a list of emoticons, too.

However, enabling Emoji search on mobile is much more than a “fun” factor, it helps search experiences. For example, Continue Reading »

Back in July, ICANN announced its plan to begin offering TLDs in different letters and characters other than Alphabet in 2010. The plan includes Japanese characters, which makes domains such as “.Japan” (see above) and “.Tokyo” (see below) possible.

Since then, several organizations such as Internet Associations in Japan have been discussing to set up Japanese Internet Domain Name Conference. The conference is now officially working with 16 organizations including Japan Lawyers Associations, TCA and Ministry of Internal Affairs. Continue Reading »

Yahoo Japan announced today that Overture Japan will operate under Yahoo Japan brand starting October 1, 2009. Overture is currently a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan, providing the PPC services for PC and mobile for Japanese search market.

This may be a way to strengthen Yahoo’s online advertising services, which currently provides display ads, text ads, e-mail ads and affiliate programs. By bringing in Overture’s PPC services into Yahoo advertising service plan, they will be able to provide the total online advertising services to its customers. Continue Reading »