I find this quite interesting and somewhat amusing. This was pointed out by Amit Singhal of Google, in a post called “This Stuff is Tough”.

What does Bing have to say?

And let’s go out on a limb here…Alta Vista?

I find it quite interesting that the most popular search engine only ranks in the top 3 in Alta Vista. I guess this proves that popularity only gets you so far in the world of SEO. No offense Google, I still love you.

In today’s busy world, not everyone can check their analytics on a daily basis to ensure all is going well on the site. If your site is down…hopefully one of your loyal visitors will notify you, but that is not always the case. To help you monitor your website traffic to ensure nothing fishy is going on, Google has released Intelligence in Beta form within Google Analytics. Intelligence allows you to create custom alerts on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. For example, if you want an alert when your site receives no visits on any particular day, you can create an alert that will send you an email notifying you of the situation. This will give you a slight jump on contacting your hosting provider before you lose too much traffic.

Google has also provided several alert templates that are very easy to copy/modify in your alert list. Some of these alert templates include:

• Total visits decreases by more than 50%
• Unique visitors decreases by more than 50%
• Average bounce rate increases by more than 50%
• Goal conversion rate decreases by more than 50%

In less drastic cases as mentioned in my previous example, many of these pre-made templates can be very useful. For example if you see a drastic change in a specific goal day-over-day, there may be something wrong with your checkout process, email sign-up sheet, etc. depending on your conversions. To make things even easier, Google has created automatic alerts that will send you alerts if atypical traffic patterns arise as long as you opt-in to receive these alerts.

This is a great free tool to use as an aid in monitoring your everyday web traffic and site usage. I have incurred any problems with intelligence, but remember it is still in Beta and should not be an excuse to completely ignore your metrics.

A deal between the #2 and #3 search engines was announced today. Microsoft and Yahoo! have agreed to a 10 year deal, hoping to compete with search giant, Google. Some of the details about of the deal are:

• Shortly after the deal is finalized in early 2010, Yahoo! results will show ‘Powered by Bing’
• Yahoo! will continue to receive 88% of the search-generated ad revenue for the initial 5 years
• The deal will allow Yahoo to focus on other areas such as display, the mobile web, and audience properties
• Bing should be able to improve search results, as they will be able to gather information from the newly acquired Yahoo! users
• Everyone at Ask is very happy [RT @dannysullivan over at ask.com, they're prepping the "we're #3" banners]
• Danny Sullivan also provided a great chart at Search Engine Land detailing more changes.

My Question is Obviously…What Will This Do for Search?

At this point much of this is up in the air, but I do have some guesses. It’s a given that focus on Yahoo! optimization will move to Bing. Because they will providing the Y! organic results, optimization should be the same. I also assume that there will be overall changes in Bing optimization practices as the technologies of the 2 engines will apparently be blended. As technologies change, search professionals must adjust. As far as market share goes, I still doubt much will be taken from Google, but I do think that the general public will see this as a positive given the general idea that 2 heads are better than 1. I predict that some people will try switching away from Google simply because of the merger, which may stick given the new Bing look.

As for PPC, I am unsure. According to the Search Engine Land chart (which will be continually updated throughout the day), advertisers may have to purchase ads at both Yahoo! and Bing although Yahoo! will be targeting ‘premium’ users. For the most part, I don’t see a huge problem with this, as it really isn’t a change. There will still be users at both engines, so if you want to reach them through paid advertisements, it’s a necessity. I don’t foresee much of a change in CPCs, at least in the near future. '

What About Google?

Google is not the type to just sit back and let this all happen without some sort of fight. I assume they will have changes or ‘news’ to release in the near future. They do not want their users to have the perception that Bing results will be better because they are now combining technologies with Yahoo!. As I stated before, I don’t expect them to lose much, if any market share because of this deal. I assume that our potential clients will still come to us saying ‘I want my site to be found on Google’ not, ‘I want my site to be listed on the top search engines including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Ask’. Only time will tell, but Google always has something up their sleeve…even if it is not evil.

What else?

Well the first thing that comes to my head…Is Yahoo! really ready for this?

Honestly, I don’t think anyone can really be ready for that. But, we at protocol 80 hope the best for Bing and Yahoo!

I thought everyone should end their Friday with a chuckle..

Ok...well you probably only found this amusing if your are a search nerd or tech geek, but I thought it was worth sharing. Thank you to Adam Ostrow at Mashable.com for bringing it to my attention.

Prior to the announcement of Google's Chrome OS, Italian artist Federico Fieni shared this cartoon. Who would have thought it would be so relevant only months later? Google's Chrome OS which is set to be released late in 2010 will be geared mostly towards netbooks and is said to be able to startup in seconds. Much of the OS is web based, meaning many features will be launched via the internet allowing the limited netbooks to run at a faster rate. It has been speculated for quite a long time now that Google would release an OS of their own, but with the growing popularity of netbooks, there is no better time than now.

What will this mean for Microsoft, users, and even Google? I can't answer that accurately, but don't be surprised if the Chrome OS grows in popularity as quickly as the Chrome browser did. When not using SEO plugins on Firefox, Chrome is my go-to browser. As people begin to use the Chrome OS, which no doubt will be used optimally with the Chrome browser, expect the browser to gain even more browser market share. Users...hopefully you like other Google products because I am sure it will be similar.

I wonder if ads will show up on the desktop?

I am sure at this point many people have already developed their own opinions of bing and how it compares to Google. But, how do bing and Google compare in terms of search? I how found many differences so far and also talked to other people in the search industry who have shared their opinions.

First, the verticals. Bing considers themselves a 'decision making' engine more than just a search engine. They are focused on helping users make easier decisions in 4 verticals: shopping, travel, health and local. In my opinion people in these verticals will benefit from bing. Not necessarily because they will show you better results...but because as bing catches on and people learn more about the engine, more people will use it. I am not saying they are going to catch up on market share, just that people will try it out...and they may just like it. For instance, these are the results that show in both engines when I searched "chicken pox":

In this case I like bing better for a few reasons. Please note these are my personal opinions. First, when I am searching for health issues I would not want to be inundated with advertisements...I just want to know about the issue. Bing shows only 1 ad, while Google shows about 10. Yes...I know Google has more advertisers, but I have done several related searches and have not yet felt overwhelmed with ads on bing. Second, I really like the related searches on the left. I have found these to be extremely relevant when searching for health or travel related terms...which in turn I do think can help me make a decision. Third, I like the categories bing provides when searching for a specific ailment. Every time I searched a specific 'issue' it has offered me the category choices such as articles, symptoms, virus, etc. As far as the organic results themselves, I found both Google and bing to be relevant. Therefore, I can see traffic picking up, at least in these areas.

I did find this quite interesting...

I searched "PA SEO". I found that in this search, Google understood user intent better. (I cleared my cache and cookies and made sure I was not logged into either account before searching). Google understood that I was searching for something related to 'SEO' versus 'Paseo'. Why would bing combine the words? I assume because they are somewhat focused on travel, they thought I meant a place. Whatever the reason, they were wrong.

What are other 'search' people saying?

I have heard various opinions...but at a small conference last week, one person stated that bing was 'The most search friendly engine I have seen.' She went onto explain why and gave several examples of certain terms that her clients rank so-so in Google, but rank 1,2 or 3 in bing. In comparing our clients ranks between Google and bing, I found it very hit and miss. Sometimes the term would show in the same position, sometimes higher and sometimes lower. I could not find a concise pattern whatsoever. Hopefully we (or someone else) can find a pattern between the two in the near future.

As far as optimizing for bing...I have always said that we should NOT focus on just one engine because even though you may generate the most traffic from Google, any of the other engines could convert at a higher rate. Optimizing only for certain engines may make you lose out on sales. But, with Google still dominating the market, a lot of focus is geared that way. So I guess the short answer would be...optimize for bing as long as it doesn't harm your Google ranks (unless of course you find you are converting more in bing).

What about Paid Search?

As far as paid search goes I cannot give you an accurate answer as to which is better. Reason being, ROI is all that matters for paid. You are going to see different results based on your industry and your strategy. It was the same with Live...some clients achieve a high ROI in Google, but very low (or negative) in Live and vise versa. Paid search requires an adjustment to strategies based on performance. If you are not currently participating in bing paid search, try it out and you may just be surprised at the results.

So?

Overall I think bing is an improvement over Live, but I doubt it will be true competition for Google. I actually like the appearance of bing better. There would be many benefits to having competition as far as search engines go. CPC's would hopefully lower, it would force the engines to continuously improve, and it will just give people actual options...which is always a positive. Please share your thoughts about bing!

Which search engine do you use?  Raise your hand if you didn’t say Google.  I’d be surprised if more than 5% of you raised your hands.  Even with the default engine in Internet Explorer being Live, many people change it to Google.  Microsoft has been hard at work trying to outdo the search giant and recently launched Bing.com.  I truthfully haven’t used it at all since it’s launch, but came across a website that will let me test out whether or not I should consider switching:

   www.Bing-vs-Google.com

The split screen view allows you to compare speed (visually), and results.  It also allows you to make the split screen vertical or horizontal.  The horizontal split screen isn’t as effective as the vertical because you have a natural tendency to only read the top results.

My Initial Impressions of Bing

So far, I am pleasantly surprised by some of the features in Bing.  For instance, the mouse-over feature on the right that gives you a little more information about a specific search result (shown below) is very nice:

The Search History (on left, above) is nice, but I can see how some people might get in trouble with this one.  What if you share a computer/login with your spouse or children and happen to be searching around for the best price on a gift for them?  Or, what if you are not a fan of your boss and are looking for a way to oust him from his position?  Then, while researching something for him, he walks in your office and sees the history?  There are several other inappropriate examples that I could highlight, but I’ll leave that to your imagination…

On the plus side of the history, it’s nice to be able to quickly re-search a topic.  For parents, it’s a great way to see what your child is researching online.

The Look of Bing

Microsoft is no stranger to “borrowing” functionality/features that work well.  They clearly went with a more Google-esque look for their results, which I think was a good idea, simply because so many people are comfortable with it.

What’s To Come?

Who knows?!?!  When you pit two giants against each other, there’s bound to be progress made on both sides, which ultimately benefits all of us.

Blog Post Invite

I would like to extend an invitation to Josh Curcio, our Director of Client Marketing to provide some feedback on Bing with respect to Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing.

Google has recently updated their user interface for Adwords users. If you are looking for a quick answer, I like it so far. I have also talked to a few other SEM professionals and the general consensus has been, "Well, it seems to be an improvement. But no matter how you look at it, the Adwords UI is still better than anything Yahoo! or MSN has to offer!" I think we can all agree there.

First, efficiency has greatly improved. It is easier to access everything without traveling to separate pages. For example, I can easily edit bids, keywords, and ads for campaign A and with a click of a button I can move to campaign Z. Another nice feature is being able to access all keywords and ads by campaign, instead of only by ad group.  Also, the ability to change campaign settings is easily accessible from the campaign view without venturing too far from everything else you were doing. I have also found some new reporting features, additions to campaign settings, easier access to Analytics, and couple more things here and there. Overall, usability and efficiency gets an A in my book.

One thing I don't like is the automatic selection of ad serving to mobile devices. If you upload your campaign through Adwords Editor, it automatically chooses to show your ads to iPhones and other mobile devices. You have to go in the the UI to remove this selection. I never run campaigns to mobile devices unless they are optimized for mobile devices. You will see much better performance if you create a campaign which includes keywords, ads, and landing pages that cater to these devices. Google did include the option to duplicate campaign settings if you start your new campaign through the UI, another nice feature which can alleviate this problem for the most part.

You will have to try the new UI out for yourself to come up with your own opinion. You can also check out some of the material directly from Google for more information. Again, overall I am pleased. It may not be the prettiest thing out there, but if it makes my job more efficient I am happy!

A great article at Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim discusses the continuous growth of Google's Market share...and also points out that searchers are still becoming more sophisticated. To me, these 2 things go hand in hand. I think many people agree that Google provides the most relevant search results, especially for longer search terms. The only reason searchers are able to use longer keywords, is because of the impressive intelligence of the search engines. If it were the days of old, search results would be very poor  for queries longer than 3 words. So it makes sense...more and more searchers are using longer search queries, so more and more searchers will use the most intelligent search engines will use their results. Check out these statistics from Hitwise:

Even over a one month span, multiple word keywords grew. Though, the change year over year is quite impressive. If you would have said last year that 8 or more word queries (and clicks) would increase by 20%, I would have certainly questioned that statistic. The data still shows that 1, 2, and 3 word queries consume 65% of the searches. How far will this grow? Just how sophisticated will searchers and engines become? How does the growing use of longer keyword searches effect SEO?

My opinions: The increase of longer search queries will continue to grow as long as the search engines continue to provide relevant results for the queries. Google market share will continue to grow...lets face it, there hasn't even been an engine that has threatened it in the slightest bit. But, as I said before, as searchers continue to use longer queries and demand relevant results, the engine that produces these results will also grow; they go hand in hand. I think it is great for SEO. It will demand the use of extremely targeted keywords. This is something I preach to clients on a daily basis. Yes, maybe you can get more hits for 1 or 2 word searches, but you will still convert on the highly targeted, longer tail key phrases. These terms catch the user later in their buying decision.

That is enough of my rant. Check out the article at the Marketing Pilgrim as well as the Search Engine Land article, 'Search Queries are Getting Longer: Hitwise Report'.

We knew that search terms related to the recession would rise...but I did not expect them to rise this significantly. eMarketer released statistics showing %  change from 2007 to 2008 in regards to economy-related search terms. The most significant changes were 'unemployment benefits' and 'unemployment', rising 247% and 206% respectively. Other terms mentioned were 'coupons', 'discount', 'mortgage', 'bankruptcy', and 'foreclosure'.

What does this mean for your business? Well if you are able to provide something for people searching for these terms, now is the time to prosper. Unfortunately many people are in very bad shape financially...but there will be some businesses that will be able to thrive from this.

It will be interesting to see which types of terms lead the way once the economy is back to normal. Any guesses?

Whoa, slow down Google...we still want options. Or do we? As long as I am getting the best I don't need many options I guess...at least when it comes to my map source. That is a little selfish of me, I know some still prefer other map sources. An article at Search Engine Land pointed out that Google Maps is catching up to MapQuest, the long time Internet leader for online maps and directions. I love Google Maps and I am not afraid to admit it. Sometimes I have more fun playing with Google Maps than actually taking a trip.

I do not prefer Google Maps over MapQuest only because of  features such as street view and local search, but I find the directions to be more accurate. On multiple occasions I had received incorrect directions to my location from MapQuest. I am not saying that this doesn't happen on Google Maps, but it has not yet happened to me. I do remember a couple of years back when Google Maps gave walking directions from NYC to Paris...I didn't try taking the trip, but assume I would not have made it.

MapQuest obviously is not terrible, but it lacks in local business search, ease of use, accuracy and features. People are already using Google, so it is just easier to click on the map instead of going to MapQuest to get your directions.

I am not advocating that Google should take over everything, but they just do many things better, so they deserve to be the leader in these categories.

Check out the Search Engine Land article.