Yahoo: when all else fails, advertise
When Carol Bartz took over as CEO of Yahoo in January of this year, she was handed a huge task: recapture some of Yahoo's past glory. Most agreed that doing that meant figuring out what to do with Yahoo search.
Plan A: hand off the search business to Microsoft. But signs are mounting that regulators may not let the deal proceed smoothly, if at all. This led Search Engine Watch's Danny Sullivan to ask a simple question: "what's Yahoo's Plan B for search?"
Mobile app review: Flickr on iPhone
The Flickr iPhone app was released this week, with many of the features that are available on the main site, browsing photos as well as uploading and tagging photos taken on the phone.
We use Flickr for hosting the photos used on this blog, and to upload iPhone screenshots I've had the option of uploading via email, or plugging the phone into the laptop and uploading this way, which can take some time.
I'm hoping that the app can make this process a little easier...
Bing ads just might be working. Microsoft's paid click share is up 44%
Microsoft may have received heckles when the company announced plans to spend $100 million advertising its new search engine Bing. But two month into that outlay, Microsoft's paid click share is up 44% and that spend is starting to look less laughable.
Why? Because search dominance is as much about performance as it is about perception. And getting people to think you have the best search engine is basically the same thing as having the best search engine. The trouble is that's easier said than done.
FriendFeed's real value for Facebook is in search
Facebook has been increasingly compared to Google of late, and the social network's acquisition of FriendFeed yesterday might make some large strides toward getting its functionality closer to that of the search giant. FriendFeed may not have the audience or cache that Twitter has right now, but it has something else that Facebook values: search functionality.
Twitter's popularity has escalated as FriendFeed has stagnated, but the company offers more than just executive programming talent to bring to the Facebook team. If Facebook expects to be the dominant player in the social media space (and it does), it's going to need to make itself an important aggregation tool. And FriendFeed can help with that.
How to impress the different search engines
There are many tactics used to drive a website up in the search rankings and they all have benefits with the various search engines.
But each of these engines uses a different algorithm to determine which pages should rank highly, so how can you impress each of them?
What support for the Microhoo deal says about Google
Not everyone is sure that the deal between Yahoo and Microsoft will work out the way Yahoo and Microsoft hope but by in large, advertisers and search marketers are excited about the deal.
While Google will still hold a dominant lead in the search market, Microhoo becomes a strong number two, something that should create more competition. As David Kenny of Publicis' VivaKi told AdAge, "Anything that creates a credible platform and more innovation in search is going to be good for consumers and, therefore, good for advertisers".
RIP Yahoo search: 1994-2009
When Google tried to boost Yahoo's search business last year with a revenue sharing deal, regulators and advertisers cried foul. But that deal had the potential to do something that this one will not: help Yahoo prop up its flailing search business.
Today Yahoo and Microsoft announced a search merger that will cede Yahoo's marketshare to Microsoft, making the software giant the defacto runner up to Google in the search category. But what will it mean for Yahoo? The Sunnyvale-based company will get a large chunk of their combined search revenues for the next few years, but for many it looks like this deal is the death knell for Yahoo search.
Microhoo: WWUD? (what will users do?)
So they finally did it. The months of will-they-or-won't-they dissolved into years before Microsoft and Yahoo finally forged a marriage, of sorts. Reams are being written about what the deal means for advertisers, for investors and for the companies themselves. Really, though, it all boils down to one question: what will users do?
Let's say they do create a search engine that's better than Google - way better than Google. Will it matter? Will users use it?
Search experts react to the Yahoo / Microsoft deal
So after one of the worst wrong turns in corporate history, Yahoo has finally acceded to Microsoft by crawling into bed with the Bingmaker. In a nut, Microsoft will power Yahoo’s search engine and Yahoo will sell the ads globally.
Microsoft’s search market share will rise to around 21.5%, according to figures released by Hitwise last month, or roughly one quarter of Google’s share.
The deal lasts for 10 years, proving a little about my previous assertion that Microsoft is only five or so years into a 25-year search strategy. It is playing the long game, and this deal has solidified its position.
From where I’m sitting this signals three things:
- Yahoo has totally given up on proprietary search. It might become a media company after all.
- Microsoft has strengthened its hand and the deal should help prise further market share from Google.
- Advertisers may benefit in the long run.
But what do the search marketing professionals make of the deal? I’ve been asking a few questions, so let’s hear what they have to say…
Are Bing users flocking to advertisers — or away from Yahoo?
Are web surfers that use Bing more susceptible to advertising? If they are — and continue using the search engine — that could be very good news for Microsoft.
A new study by search-advertising network Chitika found that Bing users clicked on an ad 1.5% of the time on average, versus a 0.97% clickthrough rate for Google visitors and a 1.24% clickthrough rate for Yahoo.
If that means Microsoft and Yahoo users pay more attention to advertising, it could be very good news for the smaller search engines. But it could also spell trouble for both if users are simply switching between the two services depending on which has the best advertising at any given moment.
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Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
