maine web development, web design, internet marketing

We heard about it last year and now we’re finally seeing it action – partly, anyway.  As Amanda pointed out last week, up to 25% of  Yahoo’s organic search results in the U.S. are being powered by Bing and up to 3.5% may see paid listings from Microsoft adCenter.  The difference won’t be noticeable unless you’re one of the lucky searchers to see the “Powered by Bing” badge on the bottom of a results page (they’re currently testing this badge on just some of the results, but once it’s fully rolled out, it will be on the bottom of all the results pages).  I went to Yahoo to see if I could get a glimpse of a Bing-branded results page by performing a million (read: ten) searches but it was not to be.  Seriously, after 10 searches on Yahoo, I had to leave; I felt like a foreigner in a strange land (I’m a Googler).

When will it ALL be Bing?

Microsoft and Yahoo are currently doing tests for organic and paid results and if all goes well, the US and Canada will see all Bing-powered results in desktop and mobile searches as early as August (August/September is the current time frame).  The paid search platform transition to Microsoft adCenter will be undergoing a bit more testing, but is expected to be fully live by October.

Obviously, this is a pretty big transition, especially for those folks who currently use Yahoo Search Marketing for their PPC campaigns.  Yahoo is trying to make this as smooth of a transition as possible, and has a bunch of information regarding the change.  Not only do they have a complete site called the “Yahoo Transition Center” dedicated to it, there are also helpful posts on the Yahoo Search Marketing blog.

What about the rest of the world?

I haven’t read anything yet about when they plan to integrate the Bing-powered organic results internationally, but for PPC, international advertisers should see the move to Microsoft adCenter in early 2012.  Again, this will all be dependent on a successful roll out in the United States and Canada.

On the tail of this news, Yahoo Japan just announced that it plans to use Google’s search engine technology for their organic and paid search instead of Bing.  Although this may be a bit of a blow to Microsoft, Yahoo only holds a minority stake in Yahoo Japan and cannot stop them from using Google as an alternative.  This proves to be an interesting move, considering that comScore’s figures show that Japan has the third largest number of searches conducted as of December 2009 (behind the US and China).  A good portion of Japan’s searches could be Google-powered if everything goes as planned.

Are you excited about this change?  Are you mad because I dissed Yahoo?  Let me know!

Picture it: You’re at Google, searching for more fun facts about Justin Bieber (let’s face it, who isn’t?) and as you look at the search results that are presented to you, you move your mouse over the results as you read.  So could the movements of your mouse determine which of those pages are going to get ranked higher in another search for the same information?

Maybe.

Ranking Factors

Late last year, Matt Cutts (head of Google’s Webspam team) mentioned that there are over 200 variables used in Google’s algorithm to determine how a web page ranks in the search results pages.  We already know some of those variables, such as the quantity and quality of backlinks to the page, use of keywords in title tag and copy, and even how long it takes for the page to load.  For obvious reasons, we’ll never know all the ranking factors and Google changes its algorithm on a daily basis (yes, daily).  However, Google was just granted a patent on something new that could be incorporated into its algorithm: mouse movements.

Why Mouse Movements?

If you use your mouse to help keep you focused on the descriptions that you’re reading in the search engine results, your mouse may be hovering over some search results longer than others because you are more interested in that particular result.  Perhaps you’re even getting an answer to your question in the that text description of the web page, so there’s no need to click on it even though it gave you an answer to your search (when is Justin Bieber’s birthday?!?!).

Part of the patent’s abstract, which was actually filed for in 2005 but just granted last week, states: “Sometimes, a user may review multiple informational items responsive to a search query, moving a pointer over or near each of the informational items that the user reviews. These various pointer activities can provide another way to evaluate the user’s feedback with respect to a particular informational item.”  In a nutshell, the pointer (mouse) may be a tell-tale sign of which results the searcher values.

Is This Really a Good Ranking Signal?

When I first read about this, my reaction was “no way”.  I don’t think that someone moving their mouse along the page as they read is a good measurement of the quality of the results, or the intent of the searcher.  Google also indicates that “a typical user’s behavior is to move the mouse pointer (or any other pointing indicator) over or near a target informational item, keep the mouse pointer there for a period of time while the user reads the item’s information.”  For me, this is not typical behavior.  I keep my mouse to the side of the text and use my scroll wheel to move down the page as I read, and I’m sure that I’m not the only person who does this.  Granted, Google may have this patent and not even want to use it anymore, or maybe they will incorporate it into a more broad consortium of user behavior data they’re collecting.  There’s really no way of knowing how they plan to use this patent.

What do you think, is this a good indication of search result interest?  Do you use your mouse to follow along as you read?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for new ways to brainstorm potential keywords. I come up with my own list of terms that I think might be suitable; I ask my friends, coworkers and husband for what they might use to search for different products and services; I pinpoint longtail keywords by using the auto suggest feature in Google’s search box; I use various keyword tools for their related keywords function, and so on and so forth – but I always want more.

Being the self-proclaimed Queen of Keywords that I am, I was surprised when I stumbled across a Google tool that I hadn’t seen before: Google Sets.  Apparently Google Sets is one of the first applications created in the Google Labs and it was made to help identify “groups of related items on the web and uses that information to predict relationships between items.”  Well that sounds cool, let’s give it a whirl!

Since I wanted to know what the “kids” are into these days, I typed in two popular tweens, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus, and giddily clicked “Large Set” to get all the related words on the interwebs:

As you can see, many other teen-worshiped celebs pop up such as Hilary Duff and Zac Efron. Given all we know about Lindsay Lohan, I don’t know that she’s the best role model for today’s youth, but I digress.

For pure brainstorming purposes, this is a great tool to add into the rotation to really expand your list before you start the process of validating those keywords.

A Note About Content

Even if you discovered a lot of great keywords using Google Sets or any other keyword tool and are ready to use them, take a moment to assess the content on your current site.  Does the text on your website contain these new keyword discoveries?  That’s great if it does, but highly unlikely.  If you’re going to target some new keywords for your site, please, please, please don’t forget to expand and tweak your content to include those keywords.  Search engines need to see the keywords reflected in both the on-page SEO elements AND the content on your site.

So have I just been living under a rock these past years?  Are you guys already using Google Sets?  Let’s discuss!

There has been so much “buzz” about Google Buzz, and the 100 other things Google launches every week, I’ve been wondering what Bing has been up to lately.  I’ve seen various blog posts and comments from people stating they are becoming less endeared to Google due to all the new features they’ve introduced into the SERPs (such as the real time results) and that Bing may becoming a more viable option for search.  With this in mind, I found some very interesting Bing developments in its quest to steal some search market share from the almighty Google.

Bing Provides Facebook Web Search Results

Did anyone else notice that the new Facebook layout now displays the Search box at the top of every page you’re on?  Kind of like a search engine, no?  But that’s a topic for a whole different post.  For now, check out the “Web Results” for a search I did in Facebook on Google Buzz:

Yep, Bing’s search deal with Facebook allows it to power the web portion of all searches people type into the social networking site.  Plus, when you click to the next page for more web search results, the top of the page says “Find more Web Results on Bing.com“.  This could definitely result in an increased search volume for Bing if Facebook really starts emphasizing the search feature.

Bing + iPhone

It’s rumored that Apple will make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone with its next software update, replacing Google.  Apple and Google used to get along and play nice, but now they are competing in the same markets (phones, browsers, operating systems, etc).  If the deal goes through, Bing will start covering some ground in the mobile search area as well.  Obviously, it’s not going to oust Google from the top spot, but it would take a nice bite out of the search numbers if this comes to fruition.

Microsoft-Yahoo Search Deal Finalized

The news dropped in July 2009 that Yahoo will be ditching its search technology in favor of Bing’s.  What does that mean exactly?  You will still be able to go to Yahoo.com and do a search, but the results returned to you will be provided by Bing.  Essentially, Yahoo and Bing will have become one and Bing will be the #2 search engine in the game.  The two companies finally came to terms with exactly what the deal will encompass back in December.  The only thing left is an investigation by the US Department of Justice, which is mandated when two businesses strike a deal of this nature.  Microsoft and Yahoo don’t anticipate any problems with the review and are hoping to make it all official in the first quarter of this year.

I do not believe that Bing will ever be numero uno when it comes to search engines, but Microsoft is not letting any opportunities go to waste.  If Bing is the default search on the iPhone (and it’s already the default on various non-Droid Verizon phones), it could potentially start cutting similar deals (Firefox maybe?) and really start to put some heat on Google.  And why not? I think it’s nice to see some healthy competition and give searchers some different options.