Google has received some flack for their behind-the-scenes search personalization, utilizing predictive analysis to anticipate the results you’d be most interested in, before you see them.
But that hasn’t stopped Bing from launching Adaptive Search, Microsoft’s attempt at roughly the same thing. And their release of this new feature slightly downplays the release, viewing it “less as a ‘feature’ and more of what to expect from search”.
That’s how many people see it. An obvious step in the evolution of predictive search technology. Bing provides the example of an obvious film fanatic, based on prior searches, searching for ‘Australia’, you’re probably searching for the film, rather than the country. Now, these filters won’t trap users in a filter bubble, taking a huge assumption and radically altering your search results based on the prediction.
These are simple tweaks aimed at helping you find what you’re really looking for a little bit faster.
Paid search advertising is now bigger than radio advertising. It’s bigger than billboards and movie advertisements combined. It’s almost as big as television advertising, and its numbers are growing way faster.
In fact, by 2016, paid search advertising is projected to be a $60 billion industry.
Currently, Google owns 80% of the search market share, but Microsoft Bing is up to 20% and climbing. Plus, with Bing advertisers experiencing a 12% ROI increase year-over-year compared to Google’s -10%, who knows what the PPC advertising industry is going to look like 5 years from now?
All we know is that it’s going to be huge. So, make sure you’re working with a PPC expert and taking advantage of it.
Google Mapmaker is looking to crowdsource their maps – utilizing individuals to add walking and biking routes to their neighborhoods, since Google employees doing this by hand simply isn’t going to happen.
Bing is taking a different approach. It looks like Bing is manually entering walking routes in key customer locations. In fact, they seem to be focusing on malls. Today, Microsoft’s search engine currently contains more than 400 national shopping malls available in map form on Bing for Mobile.
These venue maps allow you to plan your trips better. “What’s the fastest way to go to Macy’s, Charming Charlie’s, Mrs. Fields Cookies and back to my car?” With Bing maps, you can program your walking route to those specific locations on your mobile phone.
I like the long-term possibilities of Google MapMaker. But, I love the short-term benefits of Bing employees doing the work for us.
Whenever an individual or business makes a terrible mistake using social media, we at Windy City Strategies want to make sure we call it out, in order to help us all avoid similar social media gaffes in the future.
Today’s lesson comes at the expense of Microsoft, who shortly after the tragic death of singer Amy Winehouse, tweeted, “Remember Amy Winehouse by downloading the ground-breaking ‘Back to Black’ over at Zune…” with a link to their Zune music service. C’mon Microsoft.
You could have been more subtle than that. After all, her album sales increased 37 times after her death, jumping to the top of the charts. Apple simply posted an image of Winehouse on the front of their iTunes store with the caption, “Remembering Amy Winehouse.” Amazon posted a brief obituary and a link to her music.
All similar tactics. But, Microsoft’s just wasn’t subtle enough.
Microsoft Office 365 has been released. Deemed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as “where Microsoft Office meets the cloud”, industry insiders are calling it “Google Docs catchup”.
But, while it may not be incredibly sexy from an innovation standpoint, is Microsoft Office 365 a huge deal? We have to remember that for 2 decades, Microsoft Office productivity software has dominated the industry. And this online suite brings Office, Sharepoint, Exchange and Lync to cloud computing, making it possible for you to create, edit and share your documents from wherever you are.
But, this is Microsoft. Not Google. And depending on what online apps you want, your monthly subscription will range from $2 to $27 per month. In my opinion, this hugely incentivizes individuals to switch to Google Apps and Google Docs in particular. But, Microsoft may get a bunch of new business customers and revenue from this. And that’s been their bread and butter lately, so it probably makes sense. But, why don’t more businesses make the leap to Google? Only if they’re tied to the legacy tools they’re used to.
As the tech community continues its evolution to a universal standard of Web programming (think HTML5), the new world of mobile operating systems is already starting out completely fragmented.
Let’s say you decide to make an app. Well, you have to decide who you’re going to make it for. Because if you want your entire customer base to enjoy the fruits of your labor, you can’t just make it for Apple. (<– like that pun?)
Because Apple’s iPhone App Store sells 33 million App downloads each day. But Google’s Android App Store sells nearly 17 million a day. Plus Blackberry, Nokia, Palm and Microsoft. And your decision becomes not what kind of app are you developing, but who won’t get to use it.
Watch this video, and tell me Windows 8 is playing it safe. You can’t. You can no longer argue that Windows is playing catchup to Apple anymore. This is clearly something WAY different. Of course, it may be awful…
Because let’s be clear, all of the raves regarding Windows 7 surely had to have been from people who hadn’t used a Mac before. Because Windows simply copied the best that Mac offers, and put those features in their operating system. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. That’s the sort of competition that leads to true innovation. But Windows 7 wasn’t innovation. This is.
Windows 8 touch technology is crazy. It’s weird. But what is it? Well, it looks like it’s simply a simplified front-end navigation option. You are greeted with a tile grid, rather than the traditional start screen. You can think of these app links like the front page of your smart phone. You probably have your favorite 8 on that page, rather than the current Windows 7 setup (and Mac setup) that lists every icon in your dashboard. This is different. This is mobile-y. This is app-y. Will Windows 8 be great on the desktop? Will Windows 8 even be great on mobile?
We’ll see. But, you can no longer excuse Microsoft of unoriginality.
Search engine optimizers everywhere are feverishly working to understand exactly how Google +1 can benefit their site listings in search results. So, let’s give a run down.
Google +1 is a Facebook “like” equivalent. Similarly to how Bing search results incorporate Facebook “likes”, Google search results incorporate +1′s. If your friends, family or the aggregate Internet community has +1′d a page, you will see it in your search results, when signed in to Google. The idea is to screen Google’s search results before diving in. If a friend or the aggregate community have socially approved a site, there’s a tacit approval of the content that follows.
Google PPC ads will also incorporate +1 social approval when possible. Now, while Google Buzz, Google’s last attempt at social relevancy, was deemed a failure – due to non-use, there’s a legitimate fear that Google +1 may have the same fate. But, bottom line, this is a new ranking signal. Odds are that Google will prioritize it in order to promote it. Google is still 80% of the search market. Yeah, I’m going to start incorporating it. And it’s important to note that the Google +1 button is customizable for the technical Web programmers among us.
The next Windows phone OS has been announced: Code Name “Mango”. And the question is, is Microsoft simply trying to catch up to the iPhone, or leading the way in a whole new direction.
Well, there are some key differences. App Connect recommends apps via Bing search engine results. For instance, if you search for a movie via Bing, normal prioritized search results will be returned to you, but in Mango, so will recommended apps like Fandango, that lets you purchase the ticket directly within the app. A Windows rep references this predictive thinking as “from Binging to buying in seconds.”
Windows Mango OS’ “People Hub” also features deep social media integration with your contacts. It’s an interesting industry to watch right now. As mobile provider, mobile OS developer, mobile app developer and mobile hardware manufacturer all seek to develop proprietary functionality to bring in the user, who’s going to be playing catchup when the next generation of evolution comes to pass?
What happened to Yahoo? Do you remember when it used to be THE search engine. THE Internet company to be afraid of, to be in awe of? Years later, that same company ended up in a search deal with Microsoft, which has definitely helped Bing, but it doesn’t look like it’s helped Yahoo.
So that begs the question, what delusions of grandeur does Yahoo have within them? And also, what’s their realistic play to maintain their role as a player in the industry? Because, Yahoo’s talent pool is running dry. Their reach is much much smaller than its ever been. The perfect size to focus on their core strengths, if they can decide what those might be.
Perhaps they need a new and visionary leader that can breathe life into their business model? Although, I think Steve Jobs is busy.
