The Bing-Yahoo alliance continues to grow, with a 3% month-over-month increase. This while Google, the overwhelming search market leader, lost 1% month-over-month. These have really become the only 2 players (if we consider Bing and Yahoo to be a single player, which we should), with the next 64 search engines making up the remaining 6% of U.S. searches combined.
Secondly, it looks like longer search queries are becoming more and popular, with 5-8 word queries increasing by 3% month-over-month. In the past, users had to simplify their queries to find the information they need. As search engines become more and more sophisticated though, we can be as specific as we want and still find an answer.
Twitter has renewed their search partnership with Bing, and sort of publicly teased Google about it via Twitter. In a tweet that referenced “Search w/o Twitter = old news”, Twitter makes fun of the fact that Google’s search engine no longer carries Twitter feeds, which are turning into the industry’s most real-time news outlet out there.
It’s a big differentiation for Microsoft, specifically in terms of news searches. And they seem quite happy to brag about it.
Of course, Twitter probably can’t be thrilled about Google’s new attempt at social with Google+ and probably had a little bit of fun with these Twitter teases.
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.
The whole idea behind the Yahoo-Microsoft alliance was to combine forces, knowledge and funding in order to give Google a run for its money as the industry leader in paid search.
It turns out they’re just giving Google money instead.
Because it turns out that Bing has actually hurt Yahoo’s numbers by powering their search advertising. Before teaming up, Yahoo was better at presenting ads to match particular search queries (moving reportedly from 60% of broad matched traffic down to 40% post merger.)
And this is the secret behind search advertising. Making it match the user request. Offering up a hyper-relevant product or service at the very moment someone is looking for it. And it looks like the alliance that was designed specifically to achieve this – is failing at this.
The recent Google Panda Update has left search engine professionals scrambling, trying to understand what Google is looking for in terms of quality content, and more specifically, what they’re looking to slap. So, many content providers have been re-habbing their entire organization for Google search. And they’re probably smart to do that. After all, Google is far and away the leading search provider.
But let’s not forget about Microsoft Bing, which also powers Yahoo search. And Bing has recently come out with their own list of red flags to avoid in order to avoid getting on Bing’s bad list.
Don’t duplicate content. Produce authoritative content that displays topic expertise. Make your content easy to share.
This largely overlaps Google rules – focusing on a good user experience. So, like most search engine experts will tell you, if you’re optimized for Google, you’re largely optimized for everyone else, too.
With Bing’s integration with Facebook and the release of Google’s +1 social metric, what can you do to help your site rank higher for social search?
Well, it looks like Google has already started prioritizing content that has been socially shared, not just through their proprietary +1 button. So, encourage the social sharing of your content. Start a blog if you don’t have one. Tweet articles, posts and case studies that are relevant to your industry so that they will be re-tweeted. Post things that are more likely to be shared, such as infographics, video and multimedia.
Start making news, and create original content that’s helpful enough to be shared.
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.
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.
Microsoft adCenter is looking to help Bing advertisers reach local users, with new features including radius targeting, local search attributes and something entitled “Bing Vision”. Many of these features are simply playing catch-up to Google AdWords.
For instance, the ability to target specific radiuses, 5-100 miles away from a city, listing the merchant’s address and phone number. “Bing Vision”, however, is the new one. Bing Vision helps customers already in store, further investigate product information, reviews and prices.
As Bing continues to chip away at Google’s market share, and more and more advertisers start to take notice, kudos to Microsoft AdCenter for not only catching up, but looking to innovate.
I’m writing this post using Google’s Chrome Internet browser. I marvel at Google’s self-driving cars that are currently being tested on real California highways. And for a minute, I start to question who Google is anymore.
Because they used to be a search engine. The very best data aggregate and refiner in the world. And they still are. But, as their competition catches up (Bing), they seem to be moving focus to other things. Now, Google’s official mission still is, “Google’s mission is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
At the very least, it seems like self-driving cars are a stretch, doesn’t it? Perhaps Google thought they had won the search war, and were simply moving on the next one. But if they’re not careful, they could slowly lose search before the next real war comes to be.
