Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Latest search engine traffic rankings reviewed
The latest search engine traffic has been released by comScore for January 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings
In January 2010, Americans conducted 15.2 billion core searches, with Google Sites accounting for 65.4 percent search market share. Microsoft Sites grabbed 11.3 percent market share, up 0.6 percentage points versus December.
January 2010 U.S. Core Search Rankings
Google Sites led the U.S. core search market in January with 65.4 percent of the searches conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites (17.0 percent), and Microsoft Sites (11.3 percent). Ask Network captured 3.8 percent of the search market, followed by AOL LLC with 2.5 percent.
| comScore Core Search Report* January 2010 vs. December 2009 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch | |||
| Core Search Entity | Share of Searches (%) | ||
| Dec-09 | Jan-10 | Point Change Jan-10 vs. Dec-09 | |
| Total Core Search | 100.0% | 100.% | N/A |
| Google Sites | 65.7% | 65.4% | -0.3 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 17.3% | 17.0% | -0.3 |
| Microsoft Sites | 10.7% | 11.3% | 0.6 |
| Ask Network | 3.7% | 3.8% | 0.1 |
| AOL LLC Network | 2.6% | 2.5% | -0.1 |
* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.
Americans conducted 15.2 billion searches in January, up 3 percent from December. Google Sites accounted for 9.9 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites (2.6 billion), Microsoft Sites (1.7 billion), Ask Network (574 million) and AOL LLC (375 million).
| comScore Core Search Report* January 2010 vs. December 2009 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch | |||
| Core Search Entity | Search Queries (MM) | ||
| Dec-09 | Jan-10 | Percent Change Jan-10 vs. Dec-09 | |
| Total Core Search | 14,737 | 15,167 | 3% |
| Google Sites | 9,688 | 9,920 | 2% |
| Yahoo! Sites | 2,544 | 2,583 | 2% |
| Microsoft Sites | 1,576 | 1,715 | 9% |
| Ask Network | 545 | 574 | 5% |
| AOL LLC | 383 | 375 | -2% |
* Based on the five major search engines including partner searches and cross-channel searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in the core search numbers.
January 2010 U.S. Expanded Search Rankings
In the January analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google Sites led the search market with more than 14 billion search queries, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 2.7 billion queries and Microsoft Sites with 1.8 billion searches. Bing experienced large growth during the month with an 11-percent increase in query volume to reach more than 1.5 billion searches. Craigslist jumped one position to #6 with 636 million searches, while Facebook grew to 395 million searches, representing a 13-percent increase from the previous month.
| comScore Expanded Search Query Report January 2010 vs. December 2009 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations Source: comScore qSearch | |||
| Expanded Search Entity | Search Queries (MM) | ||
| Dec-09 | Jan-10 | Percent Change Jan-10 vs. Dec-09 | |
| Total Internet | 22,741 | 23,163 | 2% |
| Google Sites | 14,019 | 14,045 | 0% |
| 10,101 | 10,378 | 3% | |
| YouTube/All Other | 3,918 | 3,667 | -6% |
| Yahoo! Sites | 2,629 | 2,670 | 2% |
| Yahoo! | 2,605 | 2,647 | 2% |
| All Other | 24 | 23 | -4% |
| Microsoft Sites | 1,620 | 1,772 | 9% |
| Bing | 1,399 | 1,549 | 11% |
| Microsoft/All Other | 221 | 223 | 1% |
| Ask Network | 696 | 736 | 6% |
| ASK.COM | 332 | 336 | 1% |
| MyWebSearch.com/ All Other | 364 | 400 | 10% |
| eBay | 680 | 659 | -3% |
| craigslist, inc. | 583 | 636 | 9% |
| AOL LLC | 588 | 576 | -2% |
| AOL Search Network | 325 | 317 | -2% |
| MapQuest/All Other | 263 | 259 | -2% |
| Fox Interactive Media | 424 | 403 | -5% |
| MySpace Sites | 416 | 398 | -4% |
| All Other | 8 | 5 | -38% |
| Facebook.com | 351 | 395 | 13% |
| Amazon Sites | 302 | 238 | -21% |
The key points are that Facebook traffic is still growing with the other largest moves being a surpring drop of traffic to YouTube- down 3% and the amazon group of sites which may be showing the post Christmas blues as they suffered a 21% fall.
Labels: Facebook, Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Yahoo, YouTube
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, March 09, 2010
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Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Yahoo- 15 years old today
Dr Search the Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic says Happy 15th Birthday Yahoo! and reproduces this message from their founders.
We want to share our pride, gratitude and excitement on this 15th birthday, with all Yahoo! users (600 million of them), customers and partners. It continues to be an incredible ride for the two of us, as well as for thousands of Yahoo! employees we have had the privilege of working with over the years.
We’ve had the unique opportunity to help create an industry and shape the online world, and will continue to focus on the values that brought us here —working hard, having fun, being passionate about your ideas, believing in each other, and always trying to invent the future. And as we celebrate 15 years today, we are even more excited than ever about what lies ahead, and the potential of Yahoo! and the Internet.
Of course, we didn’t set out to start one of the world’s largest Internet companies or be leading a movement that has changed the world. We were just a couple of Stanford graduate students doing our research (supposedly) while our professor was on sabbatical.
More interesting than our research was our total fascination with the web and all the cool stuff it suddenly made available. But it was incredibly hard to keep track of the thousands of great websites sprouting up everywhere. We thought it would be fun to catalog the sites by developing a simple directory. So all this began with nothing more than a hobby to help other early Internet users.
Amazing things happen when we’re doing what’s fun.
We soon learned a huge lesson just as relevant today as then: change and growth on the Internet happen at warp speed—especially if you’re filling a need. With the proliferation of websites and with hundreds of thousands of people accessing our guide, it was simply impossible for us to continue doing this on our own.
Taking big steps takes belief in yourself—and in others.
After many late nights and a lot of pizza, we decided to take the big leap, turn our hobby into a business, raise money and devote ourselves totally to building a company. This was no sure thing. For example, 15 years ago, we wanted a free service that was ad-supported.
But the conventional wisdom was that our business needed to be subscription-based. Few people thought that advertising could be the key revenue generator for the Internet. Of course, the conventional wisdom was wrong and so today we know that August, 1995, the month our first ad went live, was a critical milestone in the history of Yahoo!, as well as the history of the internet.
Focus on the future: it still looks phenomenal.
Internet growth continues to be simply phenomenal, and we’re nowhere near done. Fifteen years ago, there were 18,000 web sites and fewer than 10 million people globally on the Internet—less than one third of a single percent of the world’s population at the time. Today there are more than 200 million websites with 90,000 created daily. There are estimated to be 1.6 billion people on the internet today—about 25 percent of the world’s population.
These numbers are astonishing, but even more important and more exciting is the impact that the Internet is having on so many people around the world. From socio-economic opportunities to more accessible health care to educating the next generation and beyond, the Internet has changed the way we live, work and learn. It has overcome geographic and political barriers and has made it possible for people to raise their voices as they seek greater economic opportunity and freedom. And Yahoo! has been a leader in enabling these tremendous technological advancements every step of the way.
Let’s aim to be even prouder fifteen years from now than we are today!
All this in just 15 years. Yahoo! has been built by thousands of dedicated employees, hundreds of millions of loyal users and scores of advertisers who envisioned a future that was exciting, challenging and at times daunting. To work in the sandbox that is Yahoo! and the evolution of the Internet is truly amazing.
And yet as fast as the Internet and Yahoo! have grown and as remarkably our lives have changed, we are just at the beginning of this great transformation.
The Internet still has enormous and untapped potential. There are billions of more people we need to drive online, and then provide them with relevant content and opportunities that they’ve never dreamed about before.
We are confident that 15 years from today, we will look back in marvel at how far you, and the Internet have traveled in such a short time. Just as we are doing today.
Jerry Yang and David Filo
Co-Founders & Chief Yahoos
From:
Labels: Dr Search, Search Clinic, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, March 02, 2010
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Thursday, February 25, 2010
Buzz causes a storm on privacy fears II
Further to my last post on the botched launch of Buzz the fiasco, it has intensified a feeling that has been growing as Google has sought to extend its reach: that it is deliberately using its dominance in one area to gain a stronger foothold in new markets, much as arch-rival Microsoft did before it.
Antitrust regulators have already rebuffed Google’s attempt to forge a deal with Yahoo in search and are investigating its plans to extend its advertising reach into the mobile arena through the acquisition of Admob.
Antitrust regulators have already rebuffed Google’s attempt to forge a deal with Yahoo in search and are investigating its plans to extend its advertising reach into the mobile arena through the acquisition of Admob.
This week, in clearing a rival Microsoft search alliance with Yahoo, the US Department of Justice highlighted the arrangement’s importance in countering Google’s “dominance” of internet search and the advertising that accompanies it.
In any other industry, Google’s conduct would be considered good corporate practice. In the technology world, however, where start-ups with disruptive new products are romanticised and companies such as Apple and Google have built their brands largely on their ability to out-innovate rather than outmanoeuvre their competitors, it is often seen as unimaginative.
For ordinary internet users, there are clear potential benefits from Google’s strategy of extending its influence into more and more corners of the internet – as well as some obvious dangers.
Yet as the Buzz privacy debacle has shown, internet users have different expectations of the different services they use. Trying to merge them can lead to confusion and distrust.
Facebook has learnt this to its cost. In its pursuit of Twitter, where most communication takes place in public, it recently reset some of the default settings for its users so that more of their information appears publicly. As with Buzz, that brought an outcry from privacy interest groups.
In any other industry, Google’s conduct would be considered good corporate practice. In the technology world, however, where start-ups with disruptive new products are romanticised and companies such as Apple and Google have built their brands largely on their ability to out-innovate rather than outmanoeuvre their competitors, it is often seen as unimaginative.
For ordinary internet users, there are clear potential benefits from Google’s strategy of extending its influence into more and more corners of the internet – as well as some obvious dangers.
Yet as the Buzz privacy debacle has shown, internet users have different expectations of the different services they use. Trying to merge them can lead to confusion and distrust.
Facebook has learnt this to its cost. In its pursuit of Twitter, where most communication takes place in public, it recently reset some of the default settings for its users so that more of their information appears publicly. As with Buzz, that brought an outcry from privacy interest groups.
Labels: Buzz, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, February 25, 2010
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Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Search engines ranking- latest global results 2010
comScore has published a report on the global search market which shows more than 131 billion searches were conducted across the web in December 2009.
The top 5 leading countries in the search market are the United States, China, Japan, UK and Germany:
One of the interesting things to note from the report is the relatively slow growth rate of searches from China.
Whilst they are sitting second in terms of overall volume, their growth rate is by far the lowest amongst the top ten countries.
When you compare this to the high volume and growth rate from Japan, it is foreseeable that the Japanese, British and the Germans may claim second spot in the not to distant future.
Google continues to lead the way as the dominant search engine, followed by Yahoo! and Baidu claiming the number three spot.
If Google follows through on their threat to pull out of China, it’s possible that Baidu could pickup their lost market share and claim the number two spot above Yahoo. Which would be an interesting situation if you work at Yahoo.
Another two thoughts are these figues do not include Twitter, nor do they include the searches on google's You Tube.
Labels: bing, Facebook, Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing, Twitter, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, February 03, 2010
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Yahoo profits increase but sales fall
Online marketing giant Yahoo has posted a £95m net profit in the fourth quarter of 2009, but has seen it's sales continue to fall.
The profit figure is an improvemen on the £200m loss in the same period in 2008, but revenue fell 4% to £1 bn.
Yahoo struggled during the global downturn as advertisers trimmed their budgets. The firm cut more than 2,000 jobs to try to reduce costs.
Shares in Yahoo rose 1% in after-hours trading in New York to $16.17.
"The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to 2009, which was a transformative year for Yahoo," said chief executive Carol Bartz.
"Our business has positive momentum and we feel good as we head into 2010."
For the whole of 2009, Yahoo made a £598m profit, up 43% on the previous year.
The profit figure is an improvemen on the £200m loss in the same period in 2008, but revenue fell 4% to £1 bn.
Yahoo struggled during the global downturn as advertisers trimmed their budgets. The firm cut more than 2,000 jobs to try to reduce costs.
Shares in Yahoo rose 1% in after-hours trading in New York to $16.17.
"The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to 2009, which was a transformative year for Yahoo," said chief executive Carol Bartz.
"Our business has positive momentum and we feel good as we head into 2010."
For the whole of 2009, Yahoo made a £598m profit, up 43% on the previous year.
Labels: online marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, January 27, 2010
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Monday, January 11, 2010
France considers extra tax on Google, Yahoo and Facebook
Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other online companies could be taxed extra under plans being considered by the French government.
A report, commissioned by the government, suggests firms such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook should pay a new tax on their online ad revenues.
The money could be used to fund legal alternatives for buying books, films and music on the internet.
But critics say the tax would be difficult to implement and Google says it could slow down innovation.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a tough line on the increasing dominance of digital content.
France has just introduced tough new legislation aimed at removing those who persistently download illegal content from the net.
It has also gone head to head with Google over its plans to digitise the world's books, with a project to set up its own digital library financed by the government to the tune of £700m.
Additionally it is considering a law which would give net users the option to have old data about themselves deleted.
The proposals for a tax on content is still very much in the early stages and there are few details of how it would exactly work.
Patrick Zelnik, who contributed to the report and is also the founder of the French president's wife's record label, hopes the idea will be taken on board across the EU.
But Google is among those to have voiced opposition to the plan.
"We don't think introducing an additional tax on internet advertising is the right way forward as it could slow down innovation," said Olivier Esper, senior policy manager for Google France.
The better way to support content creation is to find new business models that help consumers find great content and rewards artists and publishers for their work."
A report, commissioned by the government, suggests firms such as Google, Yahoo and Facebook should pay a new tax on their online ad revenues.
The money could be used to fund legal alternatives for buying books, films and music on the internet.
But critics say the tax would be difficult to implement and Google says it could slow down innovation.
President Nicolas Sarkozy has taken a tough line on the increasing dominance of digital content.
France has just introduced tough new legislation aimed at removing those who persistently download illegal content from the net.
It has also gone head to head with Google over its plans to digitise the world's books, with a project to set up its own digital library financed by the government to the tune of £700m.
Additionally it is considering a law which would give net users the option to have old data about themselves deleted.
The proposals for a tax on content is still very much in the early stages and there are few details of how it would exactly work.
Patrick Zelnik, who contributed to the report and is also the founder of the French president's wife's record label, hopes the idea will be taken on board across the EU.
But Google is among those to have voiced opposition to the plan.
"We don't think introducing an additional tax on internet advertising is the right way forward as it could slow down innovation," said Olivier Esper, senior policy manager for Google France.
The better way to support content creation is to find new business models that help consumers find great content and rewards artists and publishers for their work."
Labels: Facebook, Google, online marketing, Twitter, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, January 11, 2010
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Monday, December 14, 2009
Now it's Google's turn to blow your personal data
Aftre Facebook did a major overhaul of its privacy settings to open your data to all members, there was an immediate outcry from some quarters as the site was a bit aggressive in setting users’ defaults to “everyone.”
In addition, Yahoo got called out for trying to suppress its surveillance menu for law enforcement. And Asa Dotzler of Firefox railed against Google and urged users to switch to Bing in response to comments from Google CEO Eric Schmidt that made the latter seem indifferent to consumer privacy.
So what exactly did Schmidt say about privacy?
He told CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo, on the cable network’s recent special “Inside the Mind of Google,” that people who have something to hide shouldn’t be doing things online that might potentially expose them if law enforcement seeks access to their search histories.
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” said Schmidt.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have decried that position, especially as others within Google, such as Google VP Marissa Mayer, seek to assure consumers that their privacy is “protected” at Google.
In fairness to Schmidt he was saying that Google (and others) are subject to US law (the “patriot act”) and that law enforcement and government authorities can, as a practical matter, get access to search records because they’re retained “for some time.”
That then — the period of data retention — becomes the practical privacy battleground.
In addition, Yahoo got called out for trying to suppress its surveillance menu for law enforcement. And Asa Dotzler of Firefox railed against Google and urged users to switch to Bing in response to comments from Google CEO Eric Schmidt that made the latter seem indifferent to consumer privacy.
So what exactly did Schmidt say about privacy?
He told CNBC Anchor Maria Bartiromo, on the cable network’s recent special “Inside the Mind of Google,” that people who have something to hide shouldn’t be doing things online that might potentially expose them if law enforcement seeks access to their search histories.
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” said Schmidt.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and others have decried that position, especially as others within Google, such as Google VP Marissa Mayer, seek to assure consumers that their privacy is “protected” at Google.
In fairness to Schmidt he was saying that Google (and others) are subject to US law (the “patriot act”) and that law enforcement and government authorities can, as a practical matter, get access to search records because they’re retained “for some time.”
That then — the period of data retention — becomes the practical privacy battleground.
Google’s new personalized approach to search results generally seeks to retain user data indefinitely, in cases where users don’t actively delete their histories. Danny explains how it works:
In Signed-Out Web History, Google knows that it has seen someone using a particular browser before. Behind the scenes, it has tracked all the searches that have been done by that browser. It also logs all the things people have clicked on from Google’s search results, when using that browser.
In Signed-Out Web History, Google knows that it has seen someone using a particular browser before. Behind the scenes, it has tracked all the searches that have been done by that browser. It also logs all the things people have clicked on from Google’s search results, when using that browser.
There’s no way to see this information, but it is used to customize the results that are shown. It only remembers things for 180 days. Information older than that is forgotten. Google doesn’t know your name. If you use a different browser, Google doesn’t know your past history. In fact, you can’t even see your past history.
In Signed-In Web History, Google knows that a particular Google user is using Google. Behind the scenes, it has kept a record of all the things that person has done when signed-in, regardless of what computer or browser they’ve used. If they’re using the Google Toolbar with the page tracking feature enabled, then it has also kept a record of all the pages they’ve viewed over time. This information can be viewed by the user at any time, and the user can selectively delete info. They can also delete everything, if they want. If they don’t, then Google forgets nothing.
For those not signed in data is retained for 180 days and is associated with a particular browser. For those with a Google account who are signed in, data and web search history are, as mentioned, retained indefinitely until actively deleted.
The Google Chrome browser has a private “incognito” mode where no web history is captured. (Microsoft’s IE8 offers comparable functionality, called inPrivate browsing.) However if you’re signed in to a Google account while in incognito mode Google will still capture your search history:
if you sign into your Google Account while in incognito mode, your subsequent web searches are recorded in your Google Web History. In this case, to prevent your searches from being stored in your Google Account, you’ll need to pause your Google Web History tracking.
All this is not unlike the Facebook default “everyone” settings. Google will capture your search history and behavior unless you take affirmative action to prevent or block it.
In Signed-In Web History, Google knows that a particular Google user is using Google. Behind the scenes, it has kept a record of all the things that person has done when signed-in, regardless of what computer or browser they’ve used. If they’re using the Google Toolbar with the page tracking feature enabled, then it has also kept a record of all the pages they’ve viewed over time. This information can be viewed by the user at any time, and the user can selectively delete info. They can also delete everything, if they want. If they don’t, then Google forgets nothing.
For those not signed in data is retained for 180 days and is associated with a particular browser. For those with a Google account who are signed in, data and web search history are, as mentioned, retained indefinitely until actively deleted.
The Google Chrome browser has a private “incognito” mode where no web history is captured. (Microsoft’s IE8 offers comparable functionality, called inPrivate browsing.) However if you’re signed in to a Google account while in incognito mode Google will still capture your search history:
if you sign into your Google Account while in incognito mode, your subsequent web searches are recorded in your Google Web History. In this case, to prevent your searches from being stored in your Google Account, you’ll need to pause your Google Web History tracking.
All this is not unlike the Facebook default “everyone” settings. Google will capture your search history and behavior unless you take affirmative action to prevent or block it.
You too can opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google Opt Out ad and content network privacy policy and click on the OPT OUT button.
Save your opt-out preference permanently- With this browser plugin you can permanently opt out of the DoubleClick
Labels: bing, Facebook, Google, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, December 14, 2009
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Thursday, December 10, 2009
Tiger Woods sex scandal better for websites 'than Michael Jackson dying', says Yahoo CEO
The Tiger Woods sex scandal has been "better than Michael Jackson dying" for helping websites make money, the head of Yahoo! has said.
Carol Bartz told an investor conference in New York that major Internet businesses and niche publications alike are benefiting from stories about the world No 1.
The scandal is "better than Michael Jackson dying" for helping Yahoo make money, because it is easier to sell adverts against racy stories than tragic events, she said.
"It's kind of hard to put an ad up next to a funeral," she added.
In response to a question, Miss Bartz even said Tiger Woods will "absolutely" help Yahoo hit its targets for this quarter, a comment the a spokesman later claimed was meant as a joke.
Google and Yahoo, which account for more than 80 percent of all Internet searches in the US and an even higher number in Britain, said they've seen a significant spike in traffic from people looking up Woods and his alleged extramarital affairs.
Yahoo says searches for the golfer's name are up more than 3,900 percent over the last 30 days.
However traffic levels have not matched the peaks seen in June following Jackson's unexpected death or Barack Obama's inauguration in January, both companies said.
Revelations about Woods' private life began emerging last month after he crashed his car outside his home in a gated community in Florida.
Yahoo has been more successful in capitalising on the Woods story than Google, according to Hitwise.
Hitwise says Yahoo and Yahoo News captured more than 17 per cent of all the traffic to major sites that came from searches of Woods' name. That's ahead of Tigerwoods.com, CNN.com and Google news.
Carol Bartz told an investor conference in New York that major Internet businesses and niche publications alike are benefiting from stories about the world No 1.
The scandal is "better than Michael Jackson dying" for helping Yahoo make money, because it is easier to sell adverts against racy stories than tragic events, she said.
"It's kind of hard to put an ad up next to a funeral," she added.
In response to a question, Miss Bartz even said Tiger Woods will "absolutely" help Yahoo hit its targets for this quarter, a comment the a spokesman later claimed was meant as a joke.
Google and Yahoo, which account for more than 80 percent of all Internet searches in the US and an even higher number in Britain, said they've seen a significant spike in traffic from people looking up Woods and his alleged extramarital affairs.
Yahoo says searches for the golfer's name are up more than 3,900 percent over the last 30 days.
However traffic levels have not matched the peaks seen in June following Jackson's unexpected death or Barack Obama's inauguration in January, both companies said.
Revelations about Woods' private life began emerging last month after he crashed his car outside his home in a gated community in Florida.
Yahoo has been more successful in capitalising on the Woods story than Google, according to Hitwise.
Hitwise says Yahoo and Yahoo News captured more than 17 per cent of all the traffic to major sites that came from searches of Woods' name. That's ahead of Tigerwoods.com, CNN.com and Google news.
Dr Search isn't surprised- "It's the old adage- Sex Sells".
Labels: Dr Search, Google, online marketing, Search Clinic, search engine marketing, search engines, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, December 10, 2009
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Thursday, December 3, 2009
Top Yahoo! searches in 2009
Yahoo! Year in Review for 2009 has arrived!
Perhaps bigger and better than ever, this year’s Yahoo! roundup includes in-depth pictorials and a slew of popular topics to sort through, as well as some bonus features – such as the decade in sports, Yahoo Answers highlights, and a Twitter contest where you can share your top moments of 2009 for a chance to win one of the most popular products of the year, the iPod Touch.
Don’t have the time to scan them all? Here are the highlights of the most popular searches on Yahoo! in 2009:
Top 10 Overall Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape
Top 10 Celebrity Farewell Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Farrah Fawcett
3. Patrick Swayze
4. Natasha Richardson
5. Jett Travolta
6. Billy Mays
7. David Caradine
8. Steve McNair
9. Jade Goody
10. Ted Kennedy
Top 10 Sudden Fame Searches
1. Jon & Kate Gosselin
2. Erin Andrews
3. Susan Boyle
4. Kris Allen & Adam Lambert
5. Nadya Suleman (aka Octomom)
6. Carrie Prejean
7. Mark Sanford
8. Portuguese Water Dog
9. Falcon Heene (aka “Balloon Boy”)
10. Sonia Sotomayor
Top Finance Searches
1. Coupons
2. Unemployment
3. Stimulus Plan
4. Cash For Clunkers
5. Student Loans
6. IRS Refund
7. Foreclosures
8. Government Jobs
9. Bernard Madoff
10. Health Care Bill
“Market Darlings” Related Searches
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Hulu
4. Bing
5. iPhone
6. LinkedIn
7. Dollar Stores
8. Palm Pre
9. Rosetta Stone
10. Kindle
Top Yahoo! Mobile Searches
1. Megan Fox
2. Mobile Games
3. Michael Jackson
4. Movies
5. Rihanna
6. Mail
7. Lady Gaga
8. NFL
9. Ringtones
10. iPhone
Top Obama Searches
1. Obama Inauguration
2. Obama Biography
3. Obama Speech
4. Obama Stimulus Plan
5. Obama Family
6. Obama Health Care Reform
7. Obama Approval Ratings
8. Obama Facebook
9. Obama Overseas
10. Obama Dramas
Among the other must read lists ae the Top Travel Destination Searches 2009 and the Top Viral Videos of 2009 which has a number of funny vids.
Don’t have the time to scan them all? Here are the highlights of the most popular searches on Yahoo! in 2009:
Top 10 Overall Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape
Top 10 Celebrity Farewell Searches
1. Michael Jackson
2. Farrah Fawcett
3. Patrick Swayze
4. Natasha Richardson
5. Jett Travolta
6. Billy Mays
7. David Caradine
8. Steve McNair
9. Jade Goody
10. Ted Kennedy
Top 10 Sudden Fame Searches
1. Jon & Kate Gosselin
2. Erin Andrews
3. Susan Boyle
4. Kris Allen & Adam Lambert
5. Nadya Suleman (aka Octomom)
6. Carrie Prejean
7. Mark Sanford
8. Portuguese Water Dog
9. Falcon Heene (aka “Balloon Boy”)
10. Sonia Sotomayor
Top Finance Searches
1. Coupons
2. Unemployment
3. Stimulus Plan
4. Cash For Clunkers
5. Student Loans
6. IRS Refund
7. Foreclosures
8. Government Jobs
9. Bernard Madoff
10. Health Care Bill
“Market Darlings” Related Searches
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. Hulu
4. Bing
5. iPhone
6. LinkedIn
7. Dollar Stores
8. Palm Pre
9. Rosetta Stone
10. Kindle
Top Yahoo! Mobile Searches
1. Megan Fox
2. Mobile Games
3. Michael Jackson
4. Movies
5. Rihanna
6. Mail
7. Lady Gaga
8. NFL
9. Ringtones
10. iPhone
Top Obama Searches
1. Obama Inauguration
2. Obama Biography
3. Obama Speech
4. Obama Stimulus Plan
5. Obama Family
6. Obama Health Care Reform
7. Obama Approval Ratings
8. Obama Facebook
9. Obama Overseas
10. Obama Dramas
Among the other must read lists ae the Top Travel Destination Searches 2009 and the Top Viral Videos of 2009 which has a number of funny vids.
Labels: Dr Search, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, December 03, 2009
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Friday, November 20, 2009
Cyber Monday is coming- is your website ready?
Cyber Monday (the first Monday after US Thanksgiving), marks the start of the online holiday shopping season for most retailers.
With a flurry of online activity expected on this day, it’s important to ensure your website’s going to capture the attention of as many shoppers as possible.
In 2008, Cyber Monday spending hit a record high, with consumers spending a whopping $846 million online.
In 2008, Cyber Monday spending hit a record high, with consumers spending a whopping $846 million online.
The good news for retailers is that Cyber Monday is only the start - with strong online sales expected to continue right through until the New Year.
So the big question is: are you ready? The key to improving your sales during this period is to focus on marketing that can deliver instant results.
In the online world, this typically includes:
* Google AdWords / PPC Advertising
* Local Search Listings
* Featured Listings on smaller search engines
Google AdWords (PPC) Advertising
Google AdWords advertising would definitely be the number one way to target holiday shoppers. It offers pinpoint targeting and instant exposure enabling you to get on the first page of Google when customers are searching for your products and services.
Key Benefits:
* Campaigns can be live within hours.
* Ability to target customers via keyword and location.
* First page placement on Google.
Local Search Listings
If you’re targeting local customers, a local search listing across Google, Yahoo and Bing is another way to get on the first page of organic search results. It’s simple to setup and there’s no limit to the number of people who click on your listing.
Key Benefits:
* Once verified, listings are live almost immediately.
* Can be included on the first page of results.
* Free organic traffic.
Featured Listings
If your customers use a search engine besides the top 3, there’s no harm in being found there either. Top 10 featured listings can help boost the efforts of your PPC and Local campaigns.
Key Benefits:
* Listings are live within 48 hours.
* Traffic is free – no click fee’s.
* Keyword targeted traffic.
This year, Cyber Monday falls on the 30th November, so there’s only a few weeks now to get prepared. But don’t leave it to the last minute!
So the big question is: are you ready? The key to improving your sales during this period is to focus on marketing that can deliver instant results.
In the online world, this typically includes:
* Google AdWords / PPC Advertising
* Local Search Listings
* Featured Listings on smaller search engines
Google AdWords (PPC) Advertising
Google AdWords advertising would definitely be the number one way to target holiday shoppers. It offers pinpoint targeting and instant exposure enabling you to get on the first page of Google when customers are searching for your products and services.
Key Benefits:
* Campaigns can be live within hours.
* Ability to target customers via keyword and location.
* First page placement on Google.
Local Search Listings
If you’re targeting local customers, a local search listing across Google, Yahoo and Bing is another way to get on the first page of organic search results. It’s simple to setup and there’s no limit to the number of people who click on your listing.
Key Benefits:
* Once verified, listings are live almost immediately.
* Can be included on the first page of results.
* Free organic traffic.
Featured Listings
If your customers use a search engine besides the top 3, there’s no harm in being found there either. Top 10 featured listings can help boost the efforts of your PPC and Local campaigns.
Key Benefits:
* Listings are live within 48 hours.
* Traffic is free – no click fee’s.
* Keyword targeted traffic.
This year, Cyber Monday falls on the 30th November, so there’s only a few weeks now to get prepared. But don’t leave it to the last minute!
Labels: Adwords, bing, Dr Search, Google, online marketing, online marketing uk, Pay Per Click Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, November 20, 2009
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Monday, November 16, 2009
Loca Social Search- a powerful marketing channel for small businesses
The combination of social networking and local search will result in a marketing opportunity which diversifies the mix of sales tools and empowers circles of families, friends, co-workers and organizations to share experiences and opinions in the local search space.
For a number of years, consumers have had a collective, powerful online voice through ratings and reviews. That voice continues to grow and has never been more powerful thanks to social media. Now, small businesses must learn how to harness “local-social search” or risk missing important growth opportunities.
Social networking has taken ratings and reviews to the next level by giving them a real influence on a local scale. Early local-social search products like Yelp raised the bar.
For a number of years, consumers have had a collective, powerful online voice through ratings and reviews. That voice continues to grow and has never been more powerful thanks to social media. Now, small businesses must learn how to harness “local-social search” or risk missing important growth opportunities.
Social networking has taken ratings and reviews to the next level by giving them a real influence on a local scale. Early local-social search products like Yelp raised the bar.
Now Twitter, Facebook and Google’s new local-social search efforts are fortifying the movement. Google recently launched Place Pages, which will aggregate reviews, photos, details and maps. Also, Google Maps recently integrated a user review feature, and Yahoo! Local modified its relevance engine to include review content in its index.
And so it goes. Mobile search has mutated into mobile-local-social search. Some local search destinations have recently launched user-generated content. YellowBot, for example, offers local search results based on networking and tagging. Unique users? One million since March.
While Yelp catered to foodies, and vice versa, should we expect to see such social network forums for florists, dog groomers, hair salons, doctors, etc.? I’d say, most certainly.
Social networking companies are providing local-social search platforms targeted to their unique audience demographics. For advertising and product marketing, local-social search enhances the ability to promote products and identify micro-target markets. And for business listings, local-social search provides a fundamental change in how listing information is collected.
User-generated content not only enhances the local-social search experience, it changes the game. And local search companies not embracing social search are ignoring an important avenue in how local information will be found today and tomorrow.
As local business information becomes less static through the partnership of social networking and local search, businesses must take advantage of the growing and ever-changing environment to help consumers and businesses connect in meaningful ways, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, or new platforms that have yet to be launched.
And so it goes. Mobile search has mutated into mobile-local-social search. Some local search destinations have recently launched user-generated content. YellowBot, for example, offers local search results based on networking and tagging. Unique users? One million since March.
While Yelp catered to foodies, and vice versa, should we expect to see such social network forums for florists, dog groomers, hair salons, doctors, etc.? I’d say, most certainly.
Social networking companies are providing local-social search platforms targeted to their unique audience demographics. For advertising and product marketing, local-social search enhances the ability to promote products and identify micro-target markets. And for business listings, local-social search provides a fundamental change in how listing information is collected.
User-generated content not only enhances the local-social search experience, it changes the game. And local search companies not embracing social search are ignoring an important avenue in how local information will be found today and tomorrow.
As local business information becomes less static through the partnership of social networking and local search, businesses must take advantage of the growing and ever-changing environment to help consumers and businesses connect in meaningful ways, whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, or new platforms that have yet to be launched.
Labels: Dr Search, Facebook, Google, Search Clinic, search engine marketing, social media websites, Twitter, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, November 16, 2009
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Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Bing gains search engine share in October
Bing and Microsoft can smile at the latest search engine market share report from Experian Hitwise.
Google is still light years ahead of Yahoo, Bing, and Ask … but Experian Hitwise shows Bing with a 7% increase during October, while both Google and Yahoo saw small drops in search share.
Experian Hitwise also updates some stats related to search queries:
“Longer search queries, averaging searches of five to more than eight words in length, increased 3 percent between October and September 2009. Searches of eight or more words increased 4 percent. The same time period showed that shorter search queries – those averaging one to four words long – decreased 1 percent from month to month.”
Labels: bing, Google, Microsoft, search engine marketing, search engines, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, November 11, 2009
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Yahoo’s closure of GeoCities.com could decrease your ranking
Yahoo! has officially shutdown all GeoCities.com websites.
If you perform a search for site:geocities.com in Google, Yahoo, or Bing - you’ll notice the major search engines have also removed all links to these pages.
The SEO impact of this shutdown is potentially huge. Let’s take a look at the numbers:
* There were 7,450,000 GeoCities URLs indexed in Google
* GeoCities.com had around 10 million visitors in September
* GeoCities URLs ranked in the top 20 of Google for around 680,000 different keywords
* There were 7,450,000 GeoCities URLs indexed in Google
* GeoCities.com had around 10 million visitors in September
* GeoCities URLs ranked in the top 20 of Google for around 680,000 different keywords
All of this content, images and links, are permanently gone as of the 26th October. If you end up following a link to an expired geocities page, you’ll be presented with this generic message from Yahoo:
When you think about the huge amount of content that’s simply been deleted, this puts a sizeable black hole in the overall link structure of the web. The bad news for website owners is that you may have lost a whole bunch of valuable incoming links from GeoCities.com pages.
If these links were from high PR pages, this might also have an impact on your website’s PageRank and even ranking in search results.
Did you just lose some incoming GeoCities links? Please let us know via the blog comments below.
Labels: search engine marketing, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, November 10, 2009
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Friday, October 30, 2009
Bing and Google keep gaining search market share in September
The September search share statistics are out and Yahoo! is the biggest loser yet again as Google and Bing increase their traffic.
According to statistics released by Compete, Yahoo’s search share continues to take a steady dive. It lost another 1% market share last month and has now lost a total of 5% since September 2008.
It’s a whole other story for the new kid in town, Bing, whose search share continues to rise and unlike many of the other major search engine also had an increase in the number of total queries.
Here is a rundown of the market share for each search engine.
The all mighty Google remained pretty stable from last month, but has grown over 4% from this time last year. I wonder if we will see this same growth this time next year or will Bing cause Google’s growth to slow in 2010?
The introduction of Bing to the market seems to have had little effect on AOL and Ask. Both search engines market share has remained quite constant over the last few months. Although with less than 4% market share combined, it’s hardly going to cause any sleepless nights for Bing.
So how did search do overall in September? Not too good actually! Searchers submitted 200 million less queries than in August. There’s no cause for concern yet though as this will likely bounce back with with Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all just around the corner.
Labels: bing, Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, October 30, 2009
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Saturday, October 17, 2009
Yahoo to drop paid inclusion program
Yahoo has announced that their paid inclusion program will cease at the end of this year.
Partners were informed this week and a Yahoo representative confirmed the move on a panel discussion moderated by Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan at the iProspect/Range Online Media Client Summit today. We’ve also received a statement from Yahoo, which is posted below.
Yahoo wasn’t sure how they would handle paid inclusion when asked on the Yahoo/Microsoft press conference a few months back.
Yahoo wasn’t sure how they would handle paid inclusion when asked on the Yahoo/Microsoft press conference a few months back.
Historically, there has been a lot of controversy over paid inclusion. Accepting money to be included in a free, unbiased, organic search index is a bit “hypocritical,” as former Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone would say.
If you try to access Yahoo’s paid inclusion sales page you are redirected to advertising.yahoo.com. Both the “Search Submit Basic” program that charged an annual fee per URL and the “Search Submit Pro” cost-per-click program will end as of Dec. 31, 2009.
Yahoo has sent us a statement on this change:
We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit. We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.
Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.
If you try to access Yahoo’s paid inclusion sales page you are redirected to advertising.yahoo.com. Both the “Search Submit Basic” program that charged an annual fee per URL and the “Search Submit Pro” cost-per-click program will end as of Dec. 31, 2009.
Yahoo has sent us a statement on this change:
We are committing our resources and efforts to our core areas of focus, including improving the search experience and relevancy of our ads to increase user engagement and ROI for advertisers, and as a result, have decided to exit Search Submit. We have stepped up innovation in Search Marketing, recently rolling out search retargeting, Rich Ads in Search and improved matching technology, and in Consumer Search, with enhancements like the new search results page. These enhancements deliver value, control, innovation and relevance to our advertisers, leading to increased ROI.
Yahoo! will exit Search Submit at the end of 2009. Yahoo! is providing those advertisers affected by the decision a sufficient lead time to assist in the transition. In addition, Yahoo! has recently announced a series of important enhancements to its Search advertising business and will work closely with many Search Submit advertisers to provide them with search solutions that will benefit their businesses.
Labels: search engine marketing, search engines, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Saturday, October 17, 2009
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Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Yahoo search gives up on meta keywords tag
Yahoo has long been the only major search engine that supported the meta keywords tag.
However, the search engine revealed last week that like the other majors, it no longer supports it.
The news came during the Ask The Search Engines session at SMX East in New York. The search engines were all asked about their support of the tag. Moderator Danny Sullivan noted that only Yahoo provided support of the tag — prompting Cris Pierry, senior director of search at Yahoo, to announce that support actually had been ended unannounced “several” months ago.
Bing doesn’t support the tag- as does not Google.
The news came during the Ask The Search Engines session at SMX East in New York. The search engines were all asked about their support of the tag. Moderator Danny Sullivan noted that only Yahoo provided support of the tag — prompting Cris Pierry, senior director of search at Yahoo, to announce that support actually had been ended unannounced “several” months ago.
Bing doesn’t support the tag- as does not Google.
Dr Search however says don't give up on the keywords metatags.
W3C and other accessibility organisations continue to look for these. So deleting keywords from your metatags may hurt your search engine ranking as website accessibility is still a consideration.
Labels: Dr Search, search engine marketing, search engines, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Wednesday, October 07, 2009
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Thursday, September 24, 2009
Yahoo unveils ambitious new marketing campaign
Yahoo on Tuesday rolled out its most ambitious marketing campaign in an effort to persuade consumers and advertisers that it can take on Google as an advertising power.
As we saw in yesterday's post, Google dominates the market for search ads, which boast easily quantifiable results and have survived the recession well, leaving Yahoo to prove that a general campaign including display ads, an area in which it leads, can be just as effective.
The $100m, 10-country campaign, unveiled by Carol Bartz, chief executive, showed off television, print and online elements at New York's annual Advertising Week, underscoring the group's need to reach the audience of professional ad buyers that drive Yahoo's revenue.
"Advertisers follow consumers," Ms Bartz said. "If you want to talk in a parlance of advertising, you always need to build circulation by having more and more engaged, users."
Elisa Steele, Yahoo marketing head, told the Financial Times that half of the impressions in the campaign would be displayed digitally, and that the company would monitor results and shift the ads accordingly.
"One of our visions inside the company is to become our own best case study," Ms Steele said.
Since Ms Bartz's appointment in January, Yahoo has ceded its long battle to have the best search technology, striking a revenue-sharing deal to let Microsoft shoulder the expense and provide algorithmic results to users.
Instead, she has emphasised making Yahoo more helpful to consumers in its core businesses while selling off or closing ancillary sites so it can capture a bigger piece of the advertising market should a rebound occur.
Yahoo's US audience grew to 158m in August, according to ComScore, up 12 per cent from a year earlier and was just behind Google. Most of the largest sites saw similar growth as broadband spread and people spent more time online. Google's audience increased 11 per cent and Microsoft's 5 per cent.
The ad campaign, scheduled to last 15 months, will start in the US on Monday and move to the UK and India on October 5. It will also reach Brazil, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea and Taiwan.
With a tagline "It's you", the company wants to emphasise the improved capability for personalisation and customisation on its home page and other properties.
Labels: search engine marketing, search engines, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Thursday, September 24, 2009
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Bing now has 10% of searches- soon to overtake Yahoo!
The latest search engine results figures have been released by Nielsen, and its more good news for Bing.
According to their data for August 2009, Bing now captures a total of 10.7% of all U.S. searches. This strong figure also makes Bing the fastest growing top 10 search engine with an increase of 22.1% month-over-month for August.
With the growing importance of Bing, website owners need to ensure they are claiming their share of Bing’s search traffic.
Labels: bing, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Tuesday, September 22, 2009
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Monday, August 3, 2009
Do website load times impact on your rankings?
Have you ever considered how your website’s loading time might impact your search engine rankings?
It might be time to take a closer look at this as Google and Yahoo! have both brought some attention to the issue recently.
On Tues, May 26, 2009 we looked at the Recommended webpage file size
http://www.searchclinic.org/2009/05/recommended-webpage-file-size.html
Google’s stance on the issue has always been that page load times do not have an impact in their algorithm – until now. As part of their initiative to speed up the web, Google have said that page load times could become a consideration in the future.
Google’s Matt Cutts has stated that, “We want the web to be faster, we want sites to load quickly”, so it’s very possible that Google could be looking to encourage and reward this through their ranking of sites. You can have a listen to what Matt Cutts had to say about the topic below:
Another interesting development on this topic has been from Yahoo!, who recently filed a patent with regards to webpage loading time. Their patent abstract describes:
Methods and systems are provided that may be used to characterize in some manner the performance that a user may experience when accessing a web document.
The patent application goes on to discuss establishing some kind of “user experience information” which could be used to rank search results. Obviously webpage load time is going to play a big part in the user experience so this would be a contributing factor. From the patent:
For example, information relating to whether a user might abandon or wait for a web document to be displayed may be useful when establishing certain quality or relevance factors for the web document.
With both search engines placing increased importance on the issue of page load times, it could be a wise idea to optimize your load times now ahead of any future algorithm changes.
Aside from potentially helping with your SEO, it’s guaranteed to improve your sites appeal to users.
It might be time to take a closer look at this as Google and Yahoo! have both brought some attention to the issue recently.
On Tues, May 26, 2009 we looked at the Recommended webpage file size
http://www.searchclinic.org/2009/05/recommended-webpage-file-size.html
Google’s stance on the issue has always been that page load times do not have an impact in their algorithm – until now. As part of their initiative to speed up the web, Google have said that page load times could become a consideration in the future.
Google’s Matt Cutts has stated that, “We want the web to be faster, we want sites to load quickly”, so it’s very possible that Google could be looking to encourage and reward this through their ranking of sites. You can have a listen to what Matt Cutts had to say about the topic below:
Another interesting development on this topic has been from Yahoo!, who recently filed a patent with regards to webpage loading time. Their patent abstract describes:
Methods and systems are provided that may be used to characterize in some manner the performance that a user may experience when accessing a web document.
The patent application goes on to discuss establishing some kind of “user experience information” which could be used to rank search results. Obviously webpage load time is going to play a big part in the user experience so this would be a contributing factor. From the patent:
For example, information relating to whether a user might abandon or wait for a web document to be displayed may be useful when establishing certain quality or relevance factors for the web document.
With both search engines placing increased importance on the issue of page load times, it could be a wise idea to optimize your load times now ahead of any future algorithm changes.
Aside from potentially helping with your SEO, it’s guaranteed to improve your sites appeal to users.
Labels: Google, search engine marketing, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, August 03, 2009
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Friday, July 31, 2009
Microsoft and Yahoo search merge- as predicted by Dr Search last week
Dr Search of the Search Clinic predicted yesterday's Financial Times lead story that Yahoo and Microsoft are to merge their search engine business.
On my post of Monday, July 20, 2009 Microsoft and Yahoo! deal is getting close
http://www.searchclinic.org/2009/07/microsoft-and-yahoo-deal-is-getting.html
The ongoing saga that is the Microsoft and Yahoo! deal is back on again. And apparently this time it’s a more realistic proposition than ever.
The Financial Times story also reads:
Yahoo ran into a fresh wave of doubts in the financial and technology worlds yesterday as it bowed out of the race to compete with Google.
In a deal that caps more than two years of effort by Microsoft to secure a foothold in Yahoo's search business as a way to challenge Google, Yahoo will hand control of its internet search technology to the software group on terms that fell short of expectations.
Although less drastic than the $48bn (£29bn) acquisition of Yahoo that Microsoft proposed last year, the move would be costly for Microsoft and difficult to implement, but could for the first time make it a credible long-term rival to the search group, according to analysts.
News of the technology alliance brought an abrupt end yesterday to the six-month honeymoon that followed the appointment of outsider Carol Bartz as Yahoo's chief executive. Yahoo shares slumped by 12 per cent as Wall Street expressed doubts about the financial benefits and the long-term impact on the internet media giant.
"The market is disappointed, justifiably," said Larry Haverty, money manger at Gamco, which has 1.6m Yahoo shares. He said Yahoo now resembled a consumer media company such as Time Warner and might not still be independent in five years.
Ms Bartz said that the deal would free Yahoo to focus on its main strengths of media and advertising, while greatly reducing its costs. "If you got the chance to offer the same service at no cost, you'd be crazy as a business leader not to do that," she said in an interview with the Financial Times.
The focus on display advertising and media drew comparisons with AOL, which has struggled to find an effective strategy since the dotcom bust at the beginning of the decade. Ms Bartz has failed to ex-plain how Yahoo will stay com-p-et-itive in the long term, said Allen Weiner, an analyst at Gartner.
Yahoo stockholders were alarmed that it was surrendering its technology position while gaining far less than anticipated annual savings, which had been estimated at as much as $1bn. Ms Bartz, who had earlier promised "boatloads of money" from any deal, said she had given up the idea of an upfront payment in favour of a larger share of future search advertising revenues from Microsoft.
The deal will face intense antitrust scrutiny, since opposition in Washington blocked a proposed Yahoo search deal with Google last year.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said the deal was the only way to ensure viable competition in the long term, and said he knew of no other case where a company with as great a share as Google had objected to two smaller companies combining forces.
Several advertisers who had complained about a Yahoo-Google tie-up praised the new partnership, saying it would provide a real alternative to Google. "It is very welcome for our clients as it brings more balance to the search marketplace and may moderate pricing," said Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world's largest advertising agency.
The FT article is at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/990c90c8-7c9f-11de-a7bf-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
On my post of Monday, July 20, 2009 Microsoft and Yahoo! deal is getting close
http://www.searchclinic.org/2009/07/microsoft-and-yahoo-deal-is-getting.html
The ongoing saga that is the Microsoft and Yahoo! deal is back on again. And apparently this time it’s a more realistic proposition than ever.
The Financial Times story also reads:
Yahoo ran into a fresh wave of doubts in the financial and technology worlds yesterday as it bowed out of the race to compete with Google.
In a deal that caps more than two years of effort by Microsoft to secure a foothold in Yahoo's search business as a way to challenge Google, Yahoo will hand control of its internet search technology to the software group on terms that fell short of expectations.
Although less drastic than the $48bn (£29bn) acquisition of Yahoo that Microsoft proposed last year, the move would be costly for Microsoft and difficult to implement, but could for the first time make it a credible long-term rival to the search group, according to analysts.
News of the technology alliance brought an abrupt end yesterday to the six-month honeymoon that followed the appointment of outsider Carol Bartz as Yahoo's chief executive. Yahoo shares slumped by 12 per cent as Wall Street expressed doubts about the financial benefits and the long-term impact on the internet media giant.
"The market is disappointed, justifiably," said Larry Haverty, money manger at Gamco, which has 1.6m Yahoo shares. He said Yahoo now resembled a consumer media company such as Time Warner and might not still be independent in five years.
Ms Bartz said that the deal would free Yahoo to focus on its main strengths of media and advertising, while greatly reducing its costs. "If you got the chance to offer the same service at no cost, you'd be crazy as a business leader not to do that," she said in an interview with the Financial Times.
The focus on display advertising and media drew comparisons with AOL, which has struggled to find an effective strategy since the dotcom bust at the beginning of the decade. Ms Bartz has failed to ex-plain how Yahoo will stay com-p-et-itive in the long term, said Allen Weiner, an analyst at Gartner.
Yahoo stockholders were alarmed that it was surrendering its technology position while gaining far less than anticipated annual savings, which had been estimated at as much as $1bn. Ms Bartz, who had earlier promised "boatloads of money" from any deal, said she had given up the idea of an upfront payment in favour of a larger share of future search advertising revenues from Microsoft.
The deal will face intense antitrust scrutiny, since opposition in Washington blocked a proposed Yahoo search deal with Google last year.
Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, said the deal was the only way to ensure viable competition in the long term, and said he knew of no other case where a company with as great a share as Google had objected to two smaller companies combining forces.
Several advertisers who had complained about a Yahoo-Google tie-up praised the new partnership, saying it would provide a real alternative to Google. "It is very welcome for our clients as it brings more balance to the search marketplace and may moderate pricing," said Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the world's largest advertising agency.
The FT article is at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/990c90c8-7c9f-11de-a7bf-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
Labels: Dr Search, Google, Microsoft, Search Clinic, search engines, Search Marketing, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Friday, July 31, 2009
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Monday, July 20, 2009
Microsoft and Yahoo! deal is getting close
It’s amazing what a several months and a new search engine launch can do for bargaining power in the search game.
The ongoing saga that is the Microsoft and Yahoo! deal is back on again. And apparently this time it’s a more realistic proposition than ever.
If you cast your mind back to late last year, rumors about a Microhoo (Microsoft and Yahoo!) deal were filling our feeds daily (almost). The last roll of dice saw Yahoo! desperately seeking a Microsoft buyout after Google walked away from an advertising deal.
Even with extensive public discussions about being “ready to sell” by Jerry Yang (Yahoo!’s CEO at the time), Microsoft and Yahoo! never got any closer to the closing the deal.
Since then Microsoft has been busy working it’s Bing angle. With a massive amount of fanfare, Microsoft relaunched its search offering under the Bing brand, and whilst only new, has made some inroads into the search share that has eluded it for years.
Now that Bing is live and eating into Yahoo!’s share of the search engine market, discussions have reignited over search and advertising between the two companies, and industry insiders suggest they’re very close to signing the deal.
From a report in the 24/7 Wall Street blog:
Sources at a major client of investment house ThinkEquity say that the firm considers a Microsoft (MSFT) link-up with Yahoo! (YHOO) in the search business to be “imminent”.
And in the same post, speculation about the details of deal included:
Yahoo! will be paid $3 billion upfront and will get 11o% of the revenue that its searches provide after traffic acquisition costs in each of the first two years. In the third year, that figure would go to 90%.
While both companies continue to trail Google by such a significant amount, a union of forces like this will boost the appeal of their advertising offering, but it will take more than an advertising deal to change user search habits and that’s where the sustainable advantage lies.
The ongoing saga that is the Microsoft and Yahoo! deal is back on again. And apparently this time it’s a more realistic proposition than ever.
If you cast your mind back to late last year, rumors about a Microhoo (Microsoft and Yahoo!) deal were filling our feeds daily (almost). The last roll of dice saw Yahoo! desperately seeking a Microsoft buyout after Google walked away from an advertising deal.
Even with extensive public discussions about being “ready to sell” by Jerry Yang (Yahoo!’s CEO at the time), Microsoft and Yahoo! never got any closer to the closing the deal.
Since then Microsoft has been busy working it’s Bing angle. With a massive amount of fanfare, Microsoft relaunched its search offering under the Bing brand, and whilst only new, has made some inroads into the search share that has eluded it for years.
Now that Bing is live and eating into Yahoo!’s share of the search engine market, discussions have reignited over search and advertising between the two companies, and industry insiders suggest they’re very close to signing the deal.
From a report in the 24/7 Wall Street blog:
Sources at a major client of investment house ThinkEquity say that the firm considers a Microsoft (MSFT) link-up with Yahoo! (YHOO) in the search business to be “imminent”.
And in the same post, speculation about the details of deal included:
Yahoo! will be paid $3 billion upfront and will get 11o% of the revenue that its searches provide after traffic acquisition costs in each of the first two years. In the third year, that figure would go to 90%.
While both companies continue to trail Google by such a significant amount, a union of forces like this will boost the appeal of their advertising offering, but it will take more than an advertising deal to change user search habits and that’s where the sustainable advantage lies.
Labels: bing, Microsoft, Search Clinic, search engines, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, July 20, 2009
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Monday, June 22, 2009
Blind Test- Google v Yahoo v Bing
Dr Search has been having a lot of fun recenly blind testing Google against Yahoo and Microsft's new search engine Bing.
Since Microsoft launched their new search engine Bing.com people all around the globe have been testing the site and providing their feedback on the results.
Initial reports have been quite positive, with many people saying they’re impressed with the quality of Bing search results. Statcounter is even reporting that Bing has overtaken Yahoo! as the number two search engine in the U.S!
While these stats will probably level out in the coming months, the Search Clinic does agree that Bing is a significant improvement from Microsoft’s previous ‘Live’ search engine.
But is it possible that Bing’s results are actually better than Google’s?
For most of us, we’d quickly dismiss the idea because we’ve considered Google to be the holy grail of search results for such a long time. But if you were subject to a blind test, an unbranded comparison between Bing, Google and Yahoo! – would Google still come out on top?
Take the test for yourself: Blind Test Search Engines at http://blindsearch.fejus.com
Using the site above, you’ll be presented with 3 unbranded columns of search results and you simply pick which one you think is most relevant. After you choose, it will let you know which search engine provided the results. Keep a tally and after 10 or so searches, let us know which search engine came out on top! You may be surprised!
In the tests taken so far Bing does seem to rank our websites better than Google.
Bing also seems to concentrate on shopping, so if your website provides online goods or services Dr Search strongly recommonds that you factor this into your optimisation and links.
Since Microsoft launched their new search engine Bing.com people all around the globe have been testing the site and providing their feedback on the results.
Initial reports have been quite positive, with many people saying they’re impressed with the quality of Bing search results. Statcounter is even reporting that Bing has overtaken Yahoo! as the number two search engine in the U.S!
While these stats will probably level out in the coming months, the Search Clinic does agree that Bing is a significant improvement from Microsoft’s previous ‘Live’ search engine.
But is it possible that Bing’s results are actually better than Google’s?
For most of us, we’d quickly dismiss the idea because we’ve considered Google to be the holy grail of search results for such a long time. But if you were subject to a blind test, an unbranded comparison between Bing, Google and Yahoo! – would Google still come out on top?
Take the test for yourself: Blind Test Search Engines at http://blindsearch.fejus.com
Using the site above, you’ll be presented with 3 unbranded columns of search results and you simply pick which one you think is most relevant. After you choose, it will let you know which search engine provided the results. Keep a tally and after 10 or so searches, let us know which search engine came out on top! You may be surprised!
In the tests taken so far Bing does seem to rank our websites better than Google.
Bing also seems to concentrate on shopping, so if your website provides online goods or services Dr Search strongly recommonds that you factor this into your optimisation and links.
Labels: bing, Dr Search, Google, Search Clinic, search engines, Search Marketing, SEO Services, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, June 22, 2009
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Monday, April 6, 2009
Yahoo! Update rumors- rankings algorithm changes
There has been speculation across various search marketing blogs that Yahoo! has recently updated their ranking algorithm.
According to reports on Webmaster World and Digital Point forums, many different webmasters have noticed a change in their Yahoo! rankings.
The update appears to have started around the 29th March and resulted in a general shuffle of the SERPs with no major changes being reported. Here are some reports on the change:
"Minor moves, both up and down, for most of my keywords;
yes… this happened to me as well. one of my main keywords was number 10 in yahoo (was number 2-3 about 1.5 month ago)and yesterday and today I rank number 1 for my keywords;
I’ve also seen some drops in Yahoo SERPs for some of my main keywords from about 3rd position to 7th and now 6th. Hoping I get back to the top shortly."
Yahoo! last updated their algorithm on the 27th Feb, so the timing of this update sounds about right based on Yahoo’s monthly update cycle.
While there has been no official word from Yahoo just yet, they still hold around 21% of the search market, so it would be a wise idea to check your ranking just to be safe.
If you’ve noticed a change in your Yahoo! traffic or rankings, let us know in the comments below!
According to reports on Webmaster World and Digital Point forums, many different webmasters have noticed a change in their Yahoo! rankings.The update appears to have started around the 29th March and resulted in a general shuffle of the SERPs with no major changes being reported. Here are some reports on the change:
"Minor moves, both up and down, for most of my keywords;
yes… this happened to me as well. one of my main keywords was number 10 in yahoo (was number 2-3 about 1.5 month ago)and yesterday and today I rank number 1 for my keywords;
I’ve also seen some drops in Yahoo SERPs for some of my main keywords from about 3rd position to 7th and now 6th. Hoping I get back to the top shortly."
Yahoo! last updated their algorithm on the 27th Feb, so the timing of this update sounds about right based on Yahoo’s monthly update cycle.
While there has been no official word from Yahoo just yet, they still hold around 21% of the search market, so it would be a wise idea to check your ranking just to be safe.
If you’ve noticed a change in your Yahoo! traffic or rankings, let us know in the comments below!
Labels: Dr Search, Search Clinic, search engine marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, Yahoo
# posted by Dr Search- Principal Consultant at the Search Clinic : Monday, April 06, 2009
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