Posts tagged search
Social – the game changer for search in 2011
Feb 25th
It’s now been 18 months since Bing first launched in the UK. But with a market share of just 1.66%, we’re expecting to see some innovative plans soon to ensure its survival.
To give Bing credit, it has spent a large portion of its time in the UK in Beta testing. So now that it is openly in the market, and preparing to come out of Beta in Australia, the Microsoft-owned search engine is picking up its game.
Today, Microsoft has announced that the feature that highlights Facebook activity around some of Bing’s search results has been “extended” to include any and all URLs.
The tech giant said in a blog post that the expansion of its Facebook partnership – which was announced last October – was “part of a longer journey,” and that it played a complimentary role to the company’s efforts in adding a social layer to is results, as it did with Twitter.
The blog said: “This is the first time in human history that people are leaving social traces that machines can read and learn from, and present enhanced online experiences based on those traces.
“As people spend more time online and integrate their offline and online worlds, they will want their friends’ social activity and their social data to help them in making better decisions. Integrating with Twitter data 16 months ago was one step, and exploring Facebook’s rich streams is another.
“If your friends have publicly liked or shared any of the algorithmic search results shown on Bing, we will now surface them right below the result.”
The Bing feature analyzes links that show up in its search results to see if Facebook friends have “liked” that particular URL.
Last week, Google unveiled a similar feature in the US, which takes advantage of data from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks to display links that have been shared by other users.
According to many search experts, social is where search is headed in 2011 and there’s no doubt that Bing’s partnership with Facebook has potential to be a real game changer. Now it’s just down to raising some brand awareness.
Are Facebook Likes more important than search?
Oct 1st
Facebook has announced a few Platform updates, including updates to the Live Stream Plugin, “liked” articles appearing in search results, and improvements to real-time updates.
“Consistent with how we treat other Open Graph object types, we’ve introduced the ability to see articles shared by your friends in the search typeahead,” says Facebook’s Namita Gupta.
“For instance, if your friend clicks ‘Like’ on an article at a news site, the article will appear in your News Feed and can now also surface in the search typeahead.”
Is Facebook becoming more of a factor in search? The results, as AllFacebook described upon finding the feature being tested, showed content based on the number of likes and the number of friends who liked the particular object.
“The search results have now become dramatically more relevant with the inclusion of recent news articles, something that previously wasn’t accessible via Facebook’s open graph search results,” AllFacebook’s Nick O’Neill had said.
“Currently, the search results only appear within the drop down from Facebook’s search box, however I’d assume that this will eventually shift to Facebook’s search area, which has yet to undergo a significant overhaul.”
Either way, there is clearly a direct connection between likes and search now. It’s essentially Facebook’s version of PageRank. But the most important thing to keep in mind here is something that has always been true about doing well in search: create good content. If you create compelling content, people will like it and if they use Facebook, they will “like” it.
Considering Facebook has over half a billion users, that has pretty big implications. Facebook has one major thing going for it that search engines don’t – the ability to make content go viral. The more people “like” a piece of content, the more people will share it with others, and the more potential “likes” it can get. The more “likes” it gets, the more it will be exposed through Facebook search.
But is it more important than search?
Binghoo and the future for Google as the competition heats up
Jul 15th
It’s now a year since Yahoo! and Microsoft agreed a deal that will see Yahoo! drop its own search technology and deliver results from Microsoft’s Bing instead. As soon as September we could see Bing results taking over in Yahoo!’s portal, but what will the change mean for the search market?
In much of the world Google is the dominant player, and all the others are losers. In the UK, and in most of Europe, almost 90% of all searches go through Google, according to Hitwise. The search giant’s massive advertising revenue means it can respond swiftly to almost any competitive threat in these areas.
In the US, Microsoft and Yahoo! will hold a combined 25% of the search market. By combining forces in their home territory they may be able to claw back market share and give Google a run for its money.
In the fast-growing mobile market, Google’s Android operating system is gaining ground on Apple, whereas Microsoft remains a niche player. Mobile search holds little hope for a Microsoft / Yahoo! renaissance, but Google faces a tough fight to attain any kind of dominance there.
Facebook, the fast-growing social networking site, has been touted as a potential successor to Google. The two perform very different functions, but both rely on advertising for their revenue, and both follow a similar pay-per-click model. Facebook is no competitor in search – yet. But it’s already eating into Google’s advertising revenue.
In short, Google’s share of the search market looks pretty impregnable in the short term, and it will remain the main target for marketers. In the longer term, it will have to be careful that fighting a war on multiple fronts does not deplete its resources and produce losses on all of them.
Bruce Townsend of ecommerce software specialist, Actinic.
Carlsberg reaps the rewards of England’s World Cup loss
Jul 1st
Drinks brands sponsoring World Cup teams continue to benefit most from increased online traffic, according to Experian Hitwise.
Peroni, sponsors of the Italian team and England sponsors, Carlsberg saw the greatest number of UK internet searches of all World Cup sponsors last week.
Searches for Peroni, increased by 50% between the week ending June 19th and the week ending June 26th, although the Italian team were on their way home from South Africa by June 24th.
Peroni’s Experian Hitwise World Cup Index score increased from 100 to 150 based upon the volume of searches for the brand.
What does mean for advertisers? Products that are easily accessible to consumers can often get the most from major event sponsorships. Why? Because they are also affordable. How many times has World Cup sponsor Hyanidi been in the ‘most searched’ for rankings…well, none. Why, a pint of Carlsberg may set you back £3. A Hyundai is more like between £8,000 and £17,000.
And alcohol can help the punters when highly stressed: the promise of a last-16 tie against Germany saw UK internet searches for Carlsberg increase by a third over the week.
Meanwhile, telecoms businesses T-Mobile and Vodafone (down from fourth place in last week’s index) completed the top five, but with a much lower increase in the volume of searches.
The top five performing brands in the Experian Hitwise World Cup Brands Index last week (w/e June 26th):
The results highlight the relative dominance of drinks brands in generating online buzz in the 2010 World Cup.
Budweiser topped the brand index last week with a 25% increase in online searches, while in the first week of the tournament, beer companies made up four of the top five performers.
Overall the best performing sector was food (comfort food like McDonald’s) and drink, with a 4.8% increase in searches, followed by technology and telecoms with a 2.8% increase.
Robin Goad, Research Director for Experian Hitwise, said, “Last week it was those brands sponsoring relative underdogs that did well in terms of online buzz – Westfield with Australia and Kia with Slovakia to name but two. This week, as the group stage of the tournament drew to a close, it was the so called big guns that started to draw more attention: those sponsoring Italy, England and Germany.
“The brands that will fare well for the remainder of the tournament will be those that can respond quickly to what’s happening, adapting campaigns and targeting people with eye-catching and engaging content that makes them stand out from the crowd.”
Google looks for the China alternatives…but comes up short
Jun 30th
Google is stirring up trouble in China, again. After Beijing voiced its objection to the way Google was diverting mainland internet users to a Hong Kong site, the company has now stopped the automatic redirect function and is asking China to renew its business licence in the country.
At present, users of Google in China are directed to Google.com.hk. This was the result of a lengthy battle between Google and China in January this year, a security scare being the catalyst for what turned out to be a debate over censorship.
But now Google is hoping China will agree to renew its licence as an Internet Content Provider – a precondition of keeping the China site open.
On its official blog, Google said that it has done its best to increase access to information while abiding by Chinese law.
Admitting that the task has “not been easy”, Google has now had several conversations with the Chinese government and says it maintains that it will not back down over censorship.
The Chinese government however, can now exercise the right not to renew the internet giant’s Internet Content Provider license (up for renewal on June 30), which could mean Google exiting China altogether.
And such threats should be taken seriously by Google. China is the most populous internet market in the world, which means advertising dollars times about 1.3 billion. Moreover, any other business that sets up in China has to abide by Chinese law so why not King Google?
Its decision to take on the government hasn’t exactly been looked on favourable either. In the first quarter of 2010, the company’s share of Chinese online search revenues slid from 35 to 30%, according to Analysys. People, especially the hardworking Chinese, don’t take too fondly to big greedy companies.
Google says that the prospect of leaving China is “dreaded by many of our Chinese users,” but adds that it has been looking at possible alternatives.
One such alternative could be that instead of automatically redirecting Google users, the site has started taking a small percentage of them to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk—where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering.
This approach ensures Google stays true to its commitment not to censor its results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of its services from one page.
Over the next few days Google will end the redirect entirely. The company has also re-submitted its ICP license renewal application based on the new approach.
The easiest thing for Google to do, and in order to remain in the lucrative Chinese market, would be for them to simply abide by Chinese law…unless that is, they have something to hide.
RESEARCH WATCH: 2m more Brits online
Jun 30th
There are 1.9 million more people using the internet than there were last year. But the real surprise is the demographics…
People over 50 years old are responsible for the majority of the increase in the numbers of Britons using the internet over the last year, says a new study from UKOM (The UK Online Measurement Company powered by Nielsen).
The size of the UK internet audience grew by 5% from 36.9 million people in May 2009 to 38.8 million people in May 2010. Of these 1.9 million new Britons using the Internet, 1.0 million (53%) were at least 50 years old.
Men over 50 were responsible for most of this growth, accounting for 722,000 (38%) new British internet users followed by women over 50 who accounted for 284,000 (15%) new users.
Following the 50+ age group, women aged 21-34 accounted for 272,000 (14%) new British internet users and ‘tweenage’ girls aged 12-20 who accounted for 231,000 (12%).
Alex Burmaster, from Nielsen, said, “The internet is getting older in more ways than one. Not only is the medium itself maturing but the audience is shifting towards older age groups. This growth is a reminder, if one was still needed, that it is very much a form of media utilised by all age groups.
“The fact that one in four Britons who use the Internet today are 50 to 64 years old proves it is no longer the sole preserve of the young and technical literati.”
The types of websites where people over 50 years old are most likely to be found are a varied mix of health, video, community, travel, fashion, genealogy, cooking and greeting cards.
People aged 50 or over account for 31% of people online (see Chart 1). Health website RealAge has the highest concentration of people this age amongst its visitors – 89 percent are aged 50 or over. RealAge is followed by video site Flixxy (80%) and community site Saga – of which 78% of the audience is at least 50 years old (see chart 2).
Burmaster added, “This age group have a wide appetite when it comes to the types of sites they are using to supplement the interests and needs they have in the daily lives. Consequently, a number of brands across a range of industries, particularly travel, are showing the rest what a valuable medium online is when it comes to reaching a desired audience who haven’t grown up with the Internet.”
Apple, Google, Microsoft and the battle of the browsers
Jun 29th
There seems to be an all out war going on between the internet browsers at the moment. Internet users have a choice between Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome, Safari and Firefox – and they’re just the big guys. But which is best for you, your computer and your browsing habits?
Here’s a cute video on what an internet browser actually is:
Each and every one of the browsers mentioned is on the marketing trail. They all promise to deliver the best browsing experience, the best visual elements of browsing, faster searches, etc, etc. But here’s the real breakdown:
Google Chrome
Google has just released Chrome 5.0.375.86 to the Stable channel on Linux, Mac, and Windows, with a fix for a number of security issues. More importantly, the integrated Flash Player has now been enabled by default. Built-in Flash was previously only available in the developer and beta releases of the speedy WebKit-based browser, and the release to the Stable channel means the integrated plug-in is now available in its mainstream version.
Not only is Google giving Adobe’s Flash technology another vote of confidence (Flash Player 10.1 for Mobile will be rolled out on Android 2.2 phones first), but the integration also means any updates to Flash Player will be delivered directly via Google Chrome’s updating system, ultimately minimizing security risks that tend to surface when one uses outdated software and components.
Chrome is light weight, colorful, has an easy browse facility, contains its own task manager and a great bookmark facility.
The main advantage of this browser is default searching facility. If you type text in the link bar, the browser automatically shows corresponding search results. If you type website address in the link bar if it is available, the browser will find the site and display it. Otherwise it will search related information.
Chrome also interoperates Java Script super fast and of course, is compatible with all other Google products including Google Docs.
Disadvantages are that as Chrome was developed in 2008, it is available with beta versions as usual. But at the end of the day, Chrome is under a brand name that most internet users have come to love and trust: Google.
Another disadvantage of Google chrome is its history search box will fetch all types of data – even text from HTTPS-protected financial sites.
Internet Explorer
Many internet users have grown up with Internet Explorer (IE). It is the simple, pre-installed easy to use web browser that has never really posed any real problems for internet surfers. However, in an era where everyone is clamoring for a slice of the internet/tech brand pie, IE has become too boring for some internet users.
IE is actually a very typical Microsoft brand. Microsoft was or is the dawn of the internet. When I think of computers I think of Microsoft, but the brand can’t rest on those sorts of laurels when someone like Google is out there waving the ‘cool’ flag.
IE has recently release version 8 of its browser, which is selling itself on the grounds that it helps protect users from evolving online threats. The new SmartScreen filter and other built-in security features help users stay safe by protecting against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise your data, privacy, and identity.
The Microsoft browser also comes with parental controls, so safety is a big selling point of this browser. Its usability should also win over families that have one main desktop computer. However, my main issue with IE is that it tends to be quiet slow, perhaps it’s too busy with all those security checks.
Firefox
I downloaded Firefox 3.6 this morning, and I must admit, I really love it. I’m not being bias though, on my MAC desktop computer at home I have Safari. I use Firefox on my laptop and at work I switch between Firefox and IE. I tried Chrome once and to be honest, it kept asking me to update it so I became annoyed and uninstalled it – to give Google credit though, this was Chrome beta. But back to Firefox…
This morning I downloaded the new version and it asked me to pick a theme, a persona. So now the top of my browser has a nice green design with the Firefox logo. It looks cool, and I can change it. At the moment I can have FIFA logos, Harry Potter themes, Snoopy cartoons or a nice picture of a sunset. I love that sort of personalization…and wasn’t it just last week that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the web was moving towards personalisation?
On the technical side, I’ve always found Firefox extreme quick. I also love the brand, it’s not too flashy and overdone and so ‘in your face’. It’s very subtle which is less intrusive, it’s a browser after all, it doesn’t have to therefore penetrate every aspect of your internet life (as Google often does).
Firefox calls itself a “global community”. It’s a public benefit organization “dedicated not to making money but to improving the way people everywhere experience the internet”.
The browser is also an open source software project whose code has been used as a platform for some of the internet’s most innovative projects.
Firefox is super fast and it’s the ideal browser for watching TV online. What is also brilliant about Firefox is that if your computer crashes or your internet restarts, Firefox can restore your browsing sessions. It also is able to remember your tabs so if you cross out of Firefox, it’ll ask you if you want it to remember those tabs for the next time you launch the browser.
The browser also allows you to store your favourites as tabs on the actually browser interface, as does IE, for easy access.
So what are the disadvantages? Firefox’s tendency to crash with Flash downloads.
Safari
Apple’s Safari browser was mad especially for MAC OS. Safari is a graphical web browser Safari is also the native browser for the iOS. A version of Safari for the Microsoft Windows operating system supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. The latest stable release of the browser is 5.0. Apple and Google are neck and neck with their browsers, however Safari’s disadvantages are that it is compatible with all MAC programs, leading users to think it is only really worthwhile on MACs.
But some cool features include bookmarking links to particular pages as “Web Clip” icons on the Home screen, opening specially-designed pages in full-screen mode, pressing on an image for 3 seconds to save it to the photo album and it supports HTML5 new input types…not Flash though, a sore point with Apple.
Somewhat sneakily, Apple uses software updates to make it easy and convenient for both Mac and Windows users to get the latest Safari updates, which kind of makes Safari the default regardless of users preferences and borders on malware distribution practices.
So there you have it, which browser do you prefer?
Google moves to Hong Kong. Is it a sure fire solution though?
Mar 23rd
Google has moved its China internet search engine offshore to Hong Kong, but how long will the ‘quick fix’ last?
The search engine will now provide uncensored search results while still maintaining some business operations in the country with traffic to the mainland google.cn site being redirected to google.com.hk.
But, the Chinese government will still be able to block access to the services, which include Google search, news and images. How long can this solution last?
Google is intending to continue research and development work in China and maintain a sales presence there. However, the size of the sales force will be dependent on how many Chinese users will actually have access to google.com.hk.
Hong Kong – a former British colony – is a special administrative region of China and enjoys more freedom, such as uncensored internet, but China is still able to monitor it carefully.
On Google’s official blog, David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, said: “Today we stopped censoring our search services. We are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.”
SEO – beyond the page
Mar 11th
Bruce Townsend, ecommerce software supplier, Actinic
As a search engine optimisation specialist, people often ask if I can guarantee to get their web pages into top three positions on Google. The answer of course is, ‘no’ – at least, not for useful phrases that lots of people are actually searching for. Anyone who gives such a guarantee is either focussing on the wrong phrases, or using questionable techniques that could backfire in a big way.
For any given phrase there are plainly only three top three places, and probably hundreds or even thousands of web pages competing for them. Moreover, with Google’s heavy emphasis on inbound links, rankings take time to build.
That doesn’t mean that top rankings are no longer achievable. But it’s not a short-term ambition, and it cannot be guaranteed.
Fortunately, it’s no longer just your web pages that can get you into search.
All the main search engine listings now incorporate results from a variety of sources, not just web pages. They include images, video and news; links from blogs and social bookmarking networking sites like del.icio.us, Facebook and Twitter; and in the case of Google, product listings and results from Google Maps.
So as well as optimising your web pages, try some of the following:
· Upload video about your products to YouTube, optimising the title
· Save useful bookmarks, including some of your site pages, to del.icio.us
· Join Facebook and Twitter
· Build up networks of friends and followers on all of the above
· Optimise image filenames and Alt attributes
· Submit your products to Google Products
· Get listed on Google Maps
· Publish news to online PR sites
And if you do those things and constantly link back to your own web site, guess what? You will gain traffic from many more sources – and your page rankings will improve as well.
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