posted
10/07/09
Compete.com recently released it’s June data, and in the email announcement they designate an entire article to Bing. Reading my previous post, without basing my thoughts on any real numbers, I did have a feeling Bing was off to a great start in comparison with Live Search. Microsoft has managed to stir the pot, and Compete.com helps us gauge just how shaken the search industry is.
For starters, Bing managed to drive a 58% increase in traffic to Microsoft Search sites soon after it was announced. That’s quite a feat in itself, but as Compete points out, that’s not the most interesting part. The interesting news is that when looking at Google, Yahoo and AOL, it was Google’s search audience that was most likely to go check Bing out. This might indicate that Google searchers are more likely to consider other search options. Could this be a chink in Google’s armor? Looking at this Compete Graph, it very well may be…
posted
15/06/09
Bing Search
It’s amazing how web technology has influenced our vocabularly. Some brand names have become verbs in the dictionary. Google it, Facebooked – and now, Binging? On May 28, Steve Balmer unveiled a new search service dubbed “Bing”.
It’s fairly safe to say that Microsoft has been struggling in the world of search. Live Search was never really branded well, nor did it generate the buzz Bing has already amassed. After reviewing search engines, Microsoft found that only half of searchers are successful on their first query. One quarter of the time, people have to re-search what they’re looking for with a new query. 15% of the time, they abandon the search altogether. So, how does Microsoft plan to correct this “search failure” with Bing when Google’s approach was simply a powerful suggestion tool?
In part, they will have a focused part of the Bing service dedicated to shopping, local, travel and health. Health, for example, is reported to search only a handful of trusted websites. Having so much information at our fingertips can actually be dangerous to our own health. Afterall, we’re not doctors – just because we read a list of matching symptoms doesn’t always mean you have a particular ailment, misdiagnosing yourself can be a huge mistake!
Bing Travel is also an interesting portion of Bing (ironic that when you search for Bing Travel in Google, TechCrunch and Facebook rank ahead of the actual search engine). None the less, Bing Travel does a decent job of simplifying the organization of travel online. It brings flights & hotel bookings together, and puts cars and cruises right on the homepage. It even has pre-packaged vacations for you to peruse, courtesy of Orbitz. The flight price predictor is also an interesting feature, although I can see how a feature like this could end up being called the “weatherman of travel”. No matter how much data you have available to you, you won’t always be right. But if it is right, travel from Vancouver to Toronto will be relatively cheap early July!
Finally, many have cited Bing Image Search as a huge jump beyond Google Image Search. It’s definitely pretty cool, how it displays hundreds of photos on one page, but only loads them if you scroll to make them visible on your screen, Blackberry style. You can look at 400 pictures on one page! You can change their icon size, you can preview slightly larger versions without clicking through. But it still comes down to relevance – search for something with a number of possible outcomes (why not Bing), and see what you get. I get Bing cherries, Bing Crosby, Anine Bing – everything but the Bing Logo I was hoping for. So, I had to re-enter my query, the exact thing Microsoft said Bing was out to solve!
Will Bing become a verb like other web based brand names? I don’t think so. We use the phrase Google it because we all associate Google with search. “Hey, did you Facebook those pictures you took when you were camping?” Fairly self explanatory. But Bing? Binging? Binged? The search platform has some strengths, and has already grabbed some market share in the search engine world. But because there’s no one single thing Bing does extraordinarily well, I just can’t see it gaining the status other, more focused brands have achieved.
posted
08/05/09
Back in February I started a new “experiment” website covering the little maqui berry native to Patagonian region of South America. This isn’t a new concept for me, in July of 2007 I started an experiment website covering the acai berry. The acai berry exploded with popularity and suddenly my site had a ton of competition – which makes ranking well in the search engines for a 2-3 hour per week hobby very difficult. So I decided to level the playing field when I heard about the maqui berry, a berry that reportedly has a higher antioxidant concentration than the acai berry with much less hype and media coverage – therefore less competition.
But that’s enough background – to the point. In it’s 4th month of existence www.maquiresource.com is now ranking on the first page for “maqui berry” in Google. The new goal? Improve that 9th place ranking into the top 3. That top 3 position can be the difference between hobby revenue and revenue that might actually help me make my car payments every month 
posted
20/10/08
Yet, there are some places less competitive than others. Of course I mean this from a web development, search engine optimization perspective.
I’m not going to get into the details, but after meeting with an old friend who was visiting from Germany , an idea crept into my head. Maybe my hobby website, Acai Resource, would be of interest in Germany. I’m not too sure how information travels from country to country, but what I do know is there is 1/10th the competition for the German equivalent of the acai berry. I’m having difficulty getting the site to rank well for “acai” and “acai berry” – when I started the site there was very little competition, but then the acai berry got some good press and overnight the competition in Google doubled. Although there are some longer phrases that perform well for the website, I’m not content with sitting on the 10th page for “acai”. So I’m trying a new angle – lets see if climbing to the top of google.de is a worthwhile endeavor.
posted
04/09/08
I haven’t made a post in over two months as I my effort has been throw at the acai berry website I’m attempting to bring out of obscurity into the realms of a respectable secondary income. So far it’s slow going.
As many know, Aaron Wall manages the respected SEO website called SEO Book. This is one of my favorite websites as his posts are always well researched, interesting and informative. SEO Book has a tool called Rank Checker which really sheds light on the true liquid nature of Google search results.
Firstly, if you use Google Webmaster Tools you may notice that it tracks where you rank within different Google properties for a handful of keywords. You may also have noticed that when you go double check those rankings, your site is often no where near that position. Apparently my side project has ranked on the first page for “antioxidants”, yet I’ve never seen it there. This is where Rank Checker comes into play. Set Rank Checker to check specific keywords for any domain at intervals throughout the day. You will notice not only does your ranking change constantly, but often significantly. Something to keep in mind next time you’re looking through your Webmaster Tool statistics.
