Posts Tagged ‘Bing’

Explicit Core Search Share: Not All Searches Are Created Equal

August 18, 2010

From comScore:

RESTON, VA, August 17, 2010 – comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. With the July 2010 qSearch data release, comScore will now be reporting “Explicit Core Search” results alongside its standard “Total Core Search” results in order to provide transparency around the impact of contextually driven searches. For a more detailed explanation behind this reporting enhancement, please refer to the following blog post: http://blog.comscore.com/2010/08/comscore_explicit_core_search.html

Explicit Core Search Share

Explicit Core Search Share

In general, comScore added the Explicit Core Search Share label to combat both Microsoft and Yahoo from inflating their search market share through inclusion of contextually generated searches – not search engine originated search queries – in their search market share claims.

You can’t blame Microsoft and Yahoo for trying to get their contextually generated searches counted within their search properties but then that wouldn’t be playing fair now would it?

Congratulations go to comScore for catching, announcing and reporting the distinction between the two types of searches in their rankings.

Advertisement

AdNetwork.com

January 8, 2010

Typing AdNetwork.com into your browser takes you to a Bing search page which then prominently features an ad for the Google Ad Network from Google Adwords.

AdNetwork.com

AdNetwork.com

I am so confused!

Which company is trying to get into who’s business?

Bing Down, Ballmer Pines

December 3, 2009

Ironically during the airing of Inside the Mind of Google on CNBC, Microsoft’s Bing decision engine decided to make itself unavailabe to searchers.

Bing Down

Bing Down

Checking around for blog coverage about the Bing outage, I found even more irony.

Search Engine Land’s coverage of the story was inadvertently accompanied by a display ad featuring Steve Ballmer’s upcoming keynote speech at Search Marketing Expo West in March.

Bing Is Down

Bing Is Down

Paradoxically, the ad for Ballmer asks “What’s in store for bing?”

Badda Bing: Visual Search Results But First…

September 15, 2009

Yesterday, Microsoft announced plans for new visual search feature additions to their Bing search engine.

Bing plans to roll out image based searches later this year via Bing’s Visual Search Galleries.

Bing Visual Search Galleries

Bing Visual Search Galleries

Microsoft’s visual search promise comes with one seemingly large caveat, prospective Bing visual search users must first install Silverlight before they can view Bing’s visual search results.

Install Silverlight

Install Silverlight

If having to install an application before searchers can get a search product to work isn’t a friction generating barrier – I don’t know what is.

Microsoft Consolidates Search Market With Yahoo Deal

July 30, 2009

As most everyone in the search industry already knows, yesterday Microsoft and Yahoo reached a long anticipated and rumored search pact.

Microsoft Yahoo Search Deal

Microsoft Yahoo Search Deal

Because of the capital costs of maintaining a competitive global search engine, search engine market consolidation was inevitable.

I have commented about the Microsoft Yahoo search opera on several search industry blogs and wrote a blog post back in February 2008 about the real reason Microsoft needed to do a search deal with Yahoo : Microhoo vs. Google: The Battle for Audience and Keystrokes.

Bing: But It’s Not Google

July 9, 2009

David Pogue has written a piece in today’s New York Times comparing Microsoft’s new search engine with Google.

The article’s title: Bing, the Imitator, Often Goes Google One Better descsribes Microsoft’s long standing strategy of imitating successful products after other company’s have established and developed newer technologies and markets.

To find out whether Bing delivers better search results than Google, Pogue references a new website called Bing-vs-Google.com.

Bing vs Google

Bing vs Google

A search on Bing-vs-Google produces results pages that are hard to differentiate from one another.

Bing vs Google Search Results

Bing vs Google Search Results

Microsoft’s strategy of imitating innovators may have produced market footholds in other categories.

I will be surprised if imitating Google search results produces anything more than a few percentage points of search market share gain for Microsoft.

Search Advertising Competitive Offer from Microsoft adCenter

July 2, 2009

I received the following email offer from Microsoft adCenter promoting search advertising with Microsoft.

From: Microsoft adCenter [media@microsoftadvertising.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 6:58 PM
To: Search Advertiser
Subject: Don’t miss out on free clicks when you let us upload your next search campaign

To ensure that you continue to receive Microsoft adCenter communications, please add our domain (@microsoftadvertising.com) to your safe senders list.

Dear Search Advertiser,

Time is running out on our birthday celebration offer. Our gift to you: We’ll upload one of your campaigns from another search advertising program to Microsoft adCenter—for free!—and you’ll receive a coupon worth $15 in free clicks. 1

How does your free upload work?

Signing up couldn’t be simpler. You’re just a click away. Our birthday offer ends July 6, 2009, so please act fast!

1.  Sign up on our adCenter Anniversary web form.
2.  You’ll receive an e-mail message containing details about how to send us your exported competitive search engine campaign.
3.  One of our Search Specialists will upload your campaign to your adCenter account.
4.  You’ll receive a confirmation that your campaign upload is complete.
5.  Simply activate your campaign, and then use your promotion code to receive $15 in free clicks.

Extend your reach with adCenter
Your adCenter campaign upload can help you expand your search advertising reach with:

*   Higher-quality clicks: adCenter can offer you a more targeted audience, which can mean more clicks from the customers you want.
*   Better conversions: Consumers who click adCenter ads can be three times more likely to engage than those who click Google ads. 2

If you have any questions, contact us at (800) 518-5689, Monday through Saturday, from 6:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Pacific Time. Please keep this e-mail for your records to refer to offer details. We look forward to working with you to upload your next adCenter campaign!

Sincerely,

The Microsoft adCenter Team

1 Offer details: Offer valid only for new campaigns submitted by July 6, 2009, that go live by July 15, 2009 (midnight Pacific Time). Participation in this program is limited and this offer is being extended at the sole discretion of adCenter to existing customers of adCenter who are original recipients of this e-mail from Microsoft. Any portion of ad credit not used within 90 days from the date the credit was applied to your adCenter account will expire. Ads must be stopped after ad credit is used up or within 90 days from the time ad credit was applied to your adCenter account, whichever comes first, or your credit card/invoice will be charged for advertising clicks. Offer valid for residents of the 50 United States and Washington, D.C., only. Limit: one ad credit and one free campaign upload per adCenter customer. Offer may not be combined with any other offers or discounts, separated, redeemed for cash, transferred, sold, or bartered. There is a minimum bid requirement of $0.05 per click-through when using adCenter. Search or Contextual Advertising listings are subject to editorial review. See Microsoft Advertiser Terms and Conditions for more details. Other terms and conditions may apply. This offer may be terminated by adCenter at any time and without notice.

Upload requirements: A new campaign is defined as a campaign containing broadly different keywords and ads when compared to others that are live on adCenter. A new campaign must have a minimum of 150 keywords. Campaign names must not exceed 100 characters and ad group names must not exceed 60 characters in adCenter. If adCenter receives files exceeding character limits, it may be renamed to reduce length by removing any additional characters, except where this would duplicate another campaign or ad group name. Subject to all necessary data being accurately submitted by you and your compliance with Microsoft adCenter Terms and Conditions, and the Offer Details above, your unique promotional code will be sent via e-mail to you by Microsoft which will enable you to redeem your ad credit.

2 Conversion is defined as a web visitor entering into a secure session on a website. comScore Quality of Click Custom Study (MSN – Windows Live Search), March – May 2008.

Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052

Interesting strategy.

Why doesn’t Microsoft promote this on the Bing home page?

Free: Enjoy The Wall Street Journal Online Courtesy of Bing

July 1, 2009

While searching for an article on the Wall Street Journal online today, I found the following banner ads from Microsoft’s Bing strewn across the site.

Bing Wall Street Journal

Bing Wall Street Journal

When I initially logged into my account via Firefox, the Bing banner ad consumed over half my screen then it shrunk to the size above.

According to their display ad below, Bing has also made the online version of the Wall Street Journal free today.

Bing Free Wall Street Journal

Bing Free Wall Street Journal

Any ideas how many Bing searches were generated via these Wall Street Journal banner ads?

Or how many Wall Street Journal subscribers will convert to lifetime Bing users as a result of their exposure to Bing ads?

Search Arbitrage: Bing Targeting Local Search… On Google

June 12, 2009

Last week, I wrote about how Microsoft’s was buying ads on Google to promote its new search engine Bing.

With Bing’s launch, Microsoft said it planned to target four distinct categories: shopping, local, travel and health.

Today while logged into my Gmail account, I noticed the following Google Adwords ad for Bing targeting local search.

Bing Local Search Decisions

Bing Local Search Decisions

The Official Bing site ad reads: Local decisions. Get Pricing, Maps and Reviews For Local Businesses.

Clicking the Bing ad takes visitors to Bing.com/Maps site where the Bing search box is prepopulated with the “Business, category and/or location” prompt.

Bing Business Category or Location

Bing Business Category or Location

Upon entering a business name, Bing presupposes my search is for a local business and provides a list of results from my city.

Bing Local Business Search

Bing Local Business Search

Entering a business category produces search results from the same locale as the business name search.

Bing Local Category Search

Bing Local Category Search

A Microsoft brand search produces a list of businesses that apparently carry Microsoft branded products within the same locality.

Bing Local Brand Search Microsoft

Bing Local Brand Search Microsoft

Any predictions on how this search / search arbitrage will pan out for Microsoft’s Bing?

Oops, Bing: Just One Thing

June 5, 2009

As we all know by now, Microsoft has launched its highly hyped new search engine called Bing.

Instead of gushing about Bing the product’s attributes or shortcomings, I instead will concentrate on its one glaring strategic flaw – market positioning.

According to Search Engine Land, in developing its marketing and advertising campaign to position Bing as a “decision engine” among other things, Microsoft relied on its own limited perception of what searchers wanted from a search engine ie., Microsoft’s own limited internal search data.

Having a myopic self view of a market may work in segments where your products enjoy an effective monopoly like say desktop software.

However, extrapolating a markets wants and needs from a subset of the search audience can ultimately only produce an incremental increase in search market share at best.

Experienced search marketers understand the differences between the Google, Yahoo, Bing (Live) and even AOL search audiences.

Apparently the same can’t be said for the search technology team at Microsoft, I guess that’s why they work at Microsoft.