Google jumps to 60% search market share September 1, 2008
Category : SEO News , comments closedComscore as well as Nielsen Netratings estimated Google’s U.S. search engine market at more than 60% in July. While the market research firms have come up with substantially different numbers for their July report, both agree that Google now runs more than three times the numbers of searches of its closest rival and more than twice the searches of Yahoo and Microsoft combined.
Comscore and Nielsen Netratings posted market share numbers for Google at greater than 60% for the second time this year. However, while the April result could have been considered as a blip, the July result fits the pattern of Google chipping away market share from its rivals, bit by bit.
Nielsen Netratings estimates that Google was used for 60.2% or more than 4.8 billion of 8.0 billion searches started by U.S. users during the month of July. Comcast came up with a 61.9% share for Google and 7.3 billion searches of a total of a total of 11.8 billion. Both Yahoo and Microsoft keep losing ground: Nielsen puts the two companies at 17.4% and 11.9%, Comscore at 20.5% and 8.9%. Google’s market share gains appear to have accelerated in 2008, with much stronger growth than in previous years. According to Nielsen Netratings, Google had a market share of 46.2% in July 2005, 49.2% in July 2006 and 53.3% in July 2007. Over the past year, Google was able to increase its market share by almost seven percentage points – more than in any other 12-month period before.
Microsoft acquires Ciao Euro price comparison and shopping site August 31, 2008
Category : SEO News , comments closedIn an effort to put the Yahoo buyout fiasco behind them, Microsoft is moving forward aggressively to bolster its online search presence, given the very poor growth of its existing MSN / Live search platform developed in house, their growth depends almost entirely on acquisition.
Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire Greenfield Online, the owner of Ciao, a European price comparison and shopping site. This seems to be in line with Microsoft’s strategy of focusing on building up focused areas of search.
Ciao also includes consumer reviews and ratings with its search results. They boast a multimillion-user-strong online community and see more than 26.5 million unique visitors per month across seven countries. So far, more than 5 million product reviews have been generated.
Ciao joins Farecast, FAST, and Powerset in Microsoft’s portfolio of search-related acquisitions for 2008.
“Ciao’s success has been led by a team of talented people who took a unique combination of intuitive technology and the insight that comes out of their passionate consumer community to become one of Europe’s leading shopping comparison sites,” said John Mangelaars, vice president, Consumer and Online, Microsoft Europe, Middle East and Africa. “This makes the company a fantastic asset to the future of our search offer. Integrating Ciao’s capabilities into Live Search will provide a strong launchpad for our commercial search offer in Europe and enhance our e-commerce offering on MSN.”
Another nail in MSN search coffin July 2, 2008
Category : SEO News, Search Engines , comments closedAs Web content has grown increasingly dynamic, some of it has also become harder to find through conventional search engines. Adobe Systems is hoping to rectify that situation somewhat with new technology it is providing to search giants like Google and Yahoo.
The software manufacturer announced yesterday that it would begin providing optimized Flash technology to leading search engines that will make rich Internet applications (RIA) and dynamic content created using Flash more easily identifiable.
“Up ’til now, Flash content just hasn’t been as thoroughly searchable as we’d like,” said Justin Everett-Church, senior product manager for Adobe Flash Player. “The text was just being pulled out in strange ways and left it looking really incomplete, as though you were reading the index of a book rather than the book itself.”
The optimized Flash technology will now allow search engines to identify text within Flash programs that would otherwise have escaped them without requiring any change in behavior on the developers’ part. The result should be millions of newly searchable RIAs and dynamic experiences, including brand experiences on the Web.
Adobe is also hoping this will convince developers to use Flash in places where they otherwise would not have, as the search problems had long been a sticking point with the program.
Using Flash “has always been a bit of a tradeoff,” said Everett-Church. “You get all the great graphics and experiences but you lose some search capability. Hopefully this will remove some of those barriers to entry.”
At least one prominent digital agency executive applauded the move, but warned developers against using this as an excuse to go overboard with Flash.
“I think this makes Flash more attractive to use, but you also have to be careful not to fall back into the old times when Flash first came on the market and people went crazy with it,” said Andreas Roell, CEO of Geary Interactive.
While a certain amount of Flash can enhance a users’ experience, too much can make a site unwieldy, ultimately turning away the consumers you are looking to engage, he said.
“Flash should add to the experience, but never be 100 percent of it,” he said. “We’re defeating the purpose of what Flash is meant to be if we get too extreme. The old principles still apply.”
That said, he applauded Adobe for addressing the biggest drawback to the popular program.
“I’m really actually very pleased that Adobe is tackling this,” he said. “Obviously there is a big drive for getting additional market share with developers, but overall I think this checks off one major problem that allows us to focus more on [serving clients].”
Top search keywords of 2007 May 6, 2008
Category : SEO News , comments closedFastest Rising (global) - Google
1. iphone
2. badoo
3. facebook
4. dailymotion
5. webkinz
6. youtube
7. ebuddy
8. second life
9. hi5
10. club penguin
Whats club penguin?
Yahoo
Top 10 on del.icio.us
1. Design
2. HDTV
3. Games
4. Music
5. Web 2.0
Top 10 in tech
1. YouTube
2. Wikipedia
3. Facebook
4. iTunes
5. iPod
Top 10 on Yahoo! Kids
1. Games
2. Animals
3. Dinosaurus
4. Math
5. Hannah Montana
Ask.com
Top Real Deal Searches of 2007
1. MySpace
2. Dictionary
3. Google
4. Themes
5. Area Codes
Top Celebrity Searches of Pregnant Stars in 2007
1. Jennifer Lopez
2. Salma Hayek
3. Christina Aguilera
4. Julia Roberts
5. Halle Berry
6. Nancy Grace
7. Nicole Richie
8. Milla Jovovich
9. Tori Spelling
10. Bridget Moynahan
Google slashes the number of adverts per page search result October 25, 2007
Category : SEO News, SEO News for Mobile , comments closedGoogle recently slashed the number of adverts it carries alongside its search results to try to weed out the least relevant messages.
A Google sourse claimed “We’re showing a very low number of ads relative to what we were historically,” said Mr Fox. That had left a large volume of unsold search inventory that Google believed it could make money on as it reached more specialised and local advertisers, he added.
Microsoft, if you fail on search, try try again September 27, 2007
Category : SEO News, SEO News for Mobile, Search Engines , comments closedMicrosoft unveiled on Wednesday the 26th of September 2007, that the first major upgrade to its Live search site since it was launched over a year ago will be going live shortly, adding new shopping, entertainment and health verticals and improving video search. But most of the changes, particularly in the core search relevancy, mirror what competitors already offer.
The company demonstrated the new features at an event dubbed “Searchification” at its Mountain View, Calif. offices.
Time will tell if there search performs any better.
Tags: Microsoft, Live Search, Searchification
