Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha is a new type of search engine that computes answers to specific questions rather than redirecting traffic to other sites.

Real-time search

The rise of Twitter and a real-time development from Google mean we can now find information at the same time as it is created – a trend that is catching on fast as brands invest in appearing on these services.

Video

Innovations from all the main search engines are expected in early 2010 as online video content grows with the UK launch of Hulu and video becomes a major medium for brands.

Talking results

Google has launched a voice-search app for the iPhone which recognises speech patterns and local information to return results in seconds. The aim is to make search results easier to access on mobiles.

SearchWiki

Google’s SearchWiki allows Google account holders to reorder search results, removing irrelevant links and annotating sites with their own comments.

People engines

Algorithms have their place; however, sometimes people do it better. The proliferation of people-powered search engines such as Mahalo, ChaCha and PreFound is starting to look promising.

Contextual search

Proximic has developed an iPhone app that lets users highlight a chunk of text and search for appropriate information, providing quick and relevant results.

Images get their place

Flickr has integrated its content with Yahoo!, leading the way for search engines to integrate photos more widely into the text, while Google is drawing closer to its goal of universal search.

Bing gains market share

Microsoft’s Bing has gained market share in the US and aims to do so in the UK when it fully launches before the end of 2009. However, instead of eating into market leader Google’s lead, users are heading to Bing from Yahoo!

Microsoft is touting Bing as a ‘decision engine’, which helps users reach their destinations faster by drilling into websites to provide the most relevant information in the first page of results. It aims to deliver answers, not just web pages.

Although Bing aims to cater for all user queries, the engine is primarily focused on travel, shopping, product comparison and health. For example, a search for ‘weather’ on Bing uses your computer’s IP address to display a local forecast at the top of the results. Similarly, searching for a flight number and destination will show the arrival time, rather than a list of airport and airline sites that host the information.

This location-based service is only available in the US, however, with a UK launch date not yet confirmed. Nonetheless, brands should be thinking about adapting their search strategies to make the most of Microsoft’s new engine.

Bing is Microsoft’s fourth attempt at getting search right. Its first iteration, MSN Search, used results from other engines such as Inktomi and AltaVista. Microsoft did not come up with its own search technology until 2004, long after Google set the standard. Windows Live Search followed in 2006, and was rebranded Live Search in 2007. The name ‘Bing’ was created as a catchy alternative to counteract the problem of brand recognition that had dogged Microsoft for years.

Bing battles Google

On the whole, Microsoft claims internet users are keen to try something different when it comes to search. Cedric Chambaz, marketing manager for search at the internet giant, says: “Consumers were frustrated with the results they got from Google, but they couldn’t see an alternative.”

But others see Bing, its reach strengthened by its ad deal with Yahoo!, as Microsoft’s last bid to take on Google. “Microsoft has been waning for years as people have figured out how to configure their default browsers away from Live Search,” says Warren Cowan, chief executive of Greenlight. “Over the years, its ability to lock down the user and coerce them to use Microsoft properties has evaporated.”

There is a danger Bing could be viewed as a hassle rather than a help to natural-search specialists looking for an easy life. But rebuilding your website shouldn’t be necessary due to the fact that Bing scans multiple pages of single websites.

But Richard Cartmell, head of marketing at Lovemoney, believes in Bing (see Casebook). He sees greater visibility on the search engine because it digs deeper into the site to get the information for the results. “Natural search is about making sure that our link-building and SEO activities are not just focused on Google, because we’re seeing an increase in traffic from Bing. It’s changed the way we think about spending our money,” he says.
But ads are what make Microsoft money, and UK brands have long had an affinity for Microsoft’s search engine because it converts better than rivals. Microsoft converts 6.7 per cent of click-throughs compared with a 4.4 per cent conversion rate at Google, according to Nielsen.

Because Bing allows users to stay on its results page to access information, rather than immediately redirecting them to destination websites, marketers should expect to see the cost of search and display ads rise. “The prominence Bing gives to related topics means if a user hasn’t found what they’re looking for in a paid-for or organic search, they can drop down to a result that’s more relevant,” says Joe Sikorsky, UK head of marketing at Cheapflights.

Change in user behaviour

Chambaz says that although Microsoft’s user base is demographically comparable to its competitors, the users have always been more responsive to advertising. “The behaviour of our user base is different because properties such as Hotmail, MSN and Messenger have a loyal user base, and when they search on Microsoft they are more likely to trust the advertising that appears on our site,” he says.

Quality of traffic is one issue, but volume is more important and Microsoft has long occupied the position of having the highest conversion rate, but the lowest number of users. As a result, it has struggled to attract ad spend from big-name brands.

In a game-changing move, Microsoft is seeking to gain more users by teaming up with Yahoo!. The deal will see Microsoft power Yahoo!’s search engine and Yahoo! will handle premium ad sales across both engines. Microsoft aims to take on all Yahoo!’s search infrastructure costs while Yahoo! will, to all intents and purposes, become an ad-management platform because it will not be developing its own search products.

The merger of search operations is set to create a viable second string to Google, and should convince even its biggest fans that spreading ad spend can be beneficial. Rebecca Jennings, principal analyst at Forrester, predicts the deal with Yahoo! will result in premium brands being wooed with lucrative ad deals as Bing concentrates on building long-term relationships with suppliers. “They will be moving away from the month-long contract to getting brands to sign up for one or two years and giving them preferential rates,” she says.

Even though the deal will make it easier for marketers to port their campaigns across both engines, there are fears the sales excellence that sets Microsoft apart from Google will be lost.

Jonathan Williams, emarketing director at Trader Media Group, says his firm has a good relationship with Microsoft, and appreciates how the sales team worked to understand his business. “My concern is whether the sales excellence at the core of the culture at Microsoft is going to be transported across to the Yahoo! sales team,” he says. “Are they going to get all the insight and resources that were behind MSN search? Even if the Microsoft sales team didn’t have the best product they still did a good job of talking to brands and selling to them.”

Martin McNulty, director of online marketing at TrafficBroker, is also not convinced, and says the ramifications of the deal are huge for advertisers. “Bing’s platform for search advertisers is vastly inferior to that of Yahoo!, so consolidating Bing and Yahoo! on a single platform will reinforce the inferior experience compared to Google,” he says.

Deal awaits clearance

McNulty’s concerns may be unfounded, though, because the deal is subject to regulatory clearance in the US and Europe and will take up to two years to implement. “The majority of the population’s existing search engine is serving its purpose. It’s going to take more than a nice, clean interface with interesting additional tools and layout to change people’s habits,” says Paul Mead, managing director at VCCP Search.

A multimillion-pound UK ad assault should help but what of Google, which has been quietly watching Microsoft launch an attack on its core territory? In response to the Yahoo! deal, the official Google line reads: “There has traditionally been a lot of competition online, and our experience is that competition brings about great things for users.”

No doubt Google will hit back once Google Squared, its newly launched semantic product, gains a foothold, but for now the focus is on Microsoft. Increased market share and click-through rates mean that Bing is at least worth experimenting with. And once it is UK-ready, Google should finally have some worthwhile competition.

Smart think!ng: Making the most of Bing

1. Make sure you consistently update your site with fresh content so that Bing can register updates

2. Engage in conversations, as blog posts, forum activity and tweets all appear in Bing search results

3. List information in the way most users will search for it – this will help your information appear at the top of Bing’s results

4. Make your content easy to share by adding Facebook, Twitter, Digg and Delicious links

5. Be diligent in reviewing your search strategy because the slightest change in user behaviour will make a massive impact on your click-through rate

The naysayers believe that keyword-led paid search will become obsolete. Searchers will be much more specific and business-like, so outmoding the scale of paid search. But I can’t see fully automated services ever satisfying the infinite needs of human thought processes. I’d like to think that only humans will be able to understand human thought.

Take search-management techniques, for example. We often create bespoke landing pages for the campaign sites we run, directing people to the content that they really want to see, leading them closer to an ultimate sale.

Would total automation be able to interpret search terms, and dynamically alter the content of landing pages accordingly? It’s dangerous to assume that new semantic online packages will automatically offer a bells-and-whistles creative solution that turns searchers into buyers.

The best paid-search practitioners harness a mix of cutting-edge technology and top-notch account managers to run successful campaigns. While any online innovation is welcome, the semantic web should not mean the end of human involvement in search.

Rob Pierre is the managing director of Jellyfish

As part of its search strategy, lovemoney.com aims to appear in results for personal-finance products and people looking for monetary advice. The company has been using MSN in its paid-search strategy for several years, but it has been a limited source of traffic compared with Google and Yahoo!.

Cartmell says traffic coming through Microsoft’s previous search engines tended to be of better quality, and “Google offers volume, while Google offers higher volume. But since the launch of Bing, Cartmell has seen no difference in pricing, while volumes have almost doubled. And because Bing provides such high-quality traffic with a good rate of conversion, Lovemoney can afford to spend considerably more to capture a click on Bing, says Cartmell. He says he spends 75p per click on Bing – double what he is prepared to pay on Google.

As Lovemoney’s target audience is everyone over the age of 18 in the UK, Bing’s location targeting is not of interest to Cartmell, but he says he’s impressed with Microsoft’s video search. He believes it will become an important source of traffic for Lovemoney, and as result has started to investing in its video products. Cartmell reckons Bing will offer even more when Microsoft concentrates on the UK market, but for now he’s impressed with the returns Lovemoney has gained in the short time that Bing has been around.