Yahoo! finally gets serious about web analytics by releasing Yahoo! Web Analytics, former IndexTools. Based on the screenshots, the tool looks enterprise ready, but it appears to lack partial attribution features, which should be a no-brainer for a company that makes it’s living on display advertising while trying to increase it’s search share. I just reached out to my Yahoo rep for access and look forward to diving in.
<<Yahoo Email >>
It appears Google is having massive performance issues. Gmail, Apps, Search, and applications leveraging the APIs are all affected. This is expected from Twitter but not Google. There is no official statement from Google on the exact issue or an ETA on a resolution. Stay tuned!
Note: This post will appear on Threeminds next week.
The blogosphere has a fascination with rooting for the underdog. A wanting for the new kid on the block to take out the older, established, seasoned, and extremely profitable bully. The new kid we’re talking about here is Twitter and the bully is, obviously, Google.
Santosh Jayaram, Twitter VP of Operations, has ambitious plans to index web pages linked to from Tweets. This would add additional context and relevancy to Twitter search results. I love the idea and can see the value of such a move, but I’m growing wary of are those in those in “The Industry” suggesting Twitter will somehow leap the reigning champ. Before I get in to why Twitter, and others, will have a difficult time competing with Google, here’s a short list of recent “Google Killers”: MySpace, Facebook, Wikia Search, Cuil, Wolfram’s Alpha.
Okay, so why does Twitter have zero chance of defeating Google?
The current Twitter search engine doesn’t work well
If Yahoo or MSN told me they developed the secret sauce to beat Google at it’s own game, after laughing hysterically, I would be interested in what they had say because they, at a minimum, have fully functioning search engines. Twitter Search, in its current state, appears to be a basic full-text search engine that comes standard in most database servers. Twitter has a long road ahead!
No one needs Twitter
I have a Twitter account and I enjoy the service. It’s a fun service that has recently received very good publicity, but no one needs Twitter. We need to find directions. We need to find highly relevant information. Google has proven to be the best available solution for filling this need.
People don’t search they “Google it”
Old habits are hard to break. Yahoo has been able to retain a respectable share of search not because they deliver the best search results but because they’ve retained a loyal following from their days as the leading search engine. It will take some time before we associate Twitter with Search.
Twitter should first set their sights on Facebook
Facebook is far superior to Twitter in terms of execution and technology. Facebook Lexicon ( http://facebook.com/lexicon/new) provides sentiment analysis, trended keywords and topics, keyword associations, pulse, and geography information based on keywords in profiles and search behavior. It’s similar to Google Insights for Search (http://google.com/insights/search/) but on steroids! Twitter will need to face, no pun intended, this battle before taking on Google.
Whatever Twitter can do Google can do better
Google currently has the ability to index social network content including Tweets. I don’t believe it will be very difficult for Google to bake Tweet relevancy, ranking, reputation, and authority into their algorithms. Additionally, Google has developed the most efficient advertising platform in the world. Combining the two equals a world of hurt for those competing in the search space.
Finally my Favorite Compete Graph
This is a rough draft/work in progress mobile search/ppc point of view. Feel free to steal, copy, borrow, or contribute any pieces you deem relevant. If you’re aware of missing or incorrect information, Let me know by adding a comment. This is a community effort. Happy reading.
The second half of 2007 has been classified as the year of mobile search. Better user experiences, enhanced mobile devices, increased adoption, and engaging content has created an environment, that saw a significant increase in global mobile search traffic. Worldwide wireless subscribers are expected to top 4 billion by 2010 from 2.7 billion at the end of 20061, and, for the first time mobile search traffic is showing similarities in Internet search behavior and volume. It’s time marketers took notice.
“The reality is that the audience is maturing faster than the marketers. People are adopting mobile search faster than marketers are adopting it” –Lee Ott, Global Director of Mobile Search for Yahoo!
During the early years, Internet search was far different from what we see today. In a landscape ruled by second tier players, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was in its infancy. Inconsistent ranking algorithms, spamdexing, and other techniques were commonplace making it simple and profitable to game the system. Marketers with the courage to experiment in this new world were poised to create significant competitive advantages and long-lasting relationships with consumers through search. Those not savvy enough to optimize for the platform are still playing catch up and missing out on opportunities today.
The mobile web, and particularly, mobile search is analogous to Internet search during the late 90’s. Dominant and niche search engines, mobile operators, and portals are all getting in the game but there is still no clear winner as the players jockey to understand what “works” and establish themselves as a leader in mobile search. While too few standards exist for optimizing mobile experiences for search, there are well-documented best practices that can position your mobile site for success. The spoils go to those eager to understand, optimize, and leverage this new medium.
Internet search has taught us valuable lessons in terms of relevancy and SEO. Many of these concepts can be applied to mobile search with a few tweaks here and there. One sure way to fail at mobile search is to port, without modification, your Internet search strategy to mobile. While some of the techniques are similar, the mediums and user needs are unique and should be treated as such.
“One of the key questions has always been, once people have mobile data plans and more full-featured phones, what will they do? What we found was that the core need for search, the core need for information, remains very strong across all platforms” – Dilip Venkatachari, Product Management Director, Google Mobile
Mobile search is still in its infancy; therefore information on usage trends is limited. However, on April 25th, 2008 Maghoul and Pedersen, Yahoo, performed the most comprehensive study to-date. The paper titled “Deciphering Mobile Search Patterns: A Study of Yahoo! Mobile Search Queries” examined mobile usage during a 2-month period during the second half of 2007. The study identifies trends from a sample size of 20 million English sample queries, to eliminate language idiosyncrasies, across the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The research compares US versus international queries across the three Yahoo oneSearch interfaces (Browser, Y! Go, and Y! SMS). Below are a few key findings from the study:
1. Number of words per mobile query. The average number of words per query is 2.35 and 2.1 for the US and international, respectively. The average number of words for unique queries is 3.05 and 2.54 for the US and international, respectively. Mobile US words per unique query count is close to the 4 words per query reported by Google for Internet search. This may indicate that mobile users are repeating search habits formed from desktop search on mobile search.
2. Query repetition. There were 2.67MM unique US queries that were performed only once; which corresponds to about 13% of the entire sample query volume. As with desktop search, a small set of queries account for a significant amount of the overall search query volume.
3. Mobile query patterns are dynamic. Mobile users are offered many more ways to search relative to Internet search. Voice, SMS, browser, and mobile applications to name a few. As users learn how to search from mobile devices, we need to watch this space closely to determine which methods becomes dominant and how they’re best utilized.
In an attempt to help marketers (and themselves) identify differences in mobile search volume and keyword demand, Google launched a Mobile Keyword Tool to provide mobile keyword recommendations for mobile search campaigns. This news is most welcome as keyword research has been cumbersome in the past.
Just as you wouldn’t implement a traditional website with JavaScript navigation, blinking text, and table tags, mobile websites should be developed using compliant, accessible markup to ensure pages render properly on mobile devices and are easily indexed by search engines. XHTML Mobile Profile (XHTML-MP) and WAP CSS are becoming the standard adopted by the latest mobile devices. Derived from XHTML Basic 1.0 and CSS2, respectively, XHTML-MP and WAP CSS provide many advantages inherited from its older sibling. A few of the advantages are:
1. You don’t have to learn new languages. If you’ve developed websites in XHTML and CSS, you should have no problems working with their mobile equivalent as its an extension of XHTML and CSS
2. It’s relatively easy to convert existing sites to be mobile compliant. Because the markup is similar, existing sites built on W3C standards-based compliant markup can be ported to mobile devices with minimal effort
3. Separation of content and presentation. As with traditional websites, CSS allows for the modification of a websites look & feel without changes to the underlying markup. This is great for applying unique skins formatted to support different mobile devices
These are just a few advantages of developing websites (mobile or traditional) with standards compliant markup. See the Resources sections for additional links.
Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) has become an indispensible tool for site owners. GWT helps site owners determine how a site performs in Google’s search results, troubleshoot potential problems, and build Google-friendly sites.
GWT also allow for the submission of mobile sitemaps, which notify Google that a site is mobile in nature and allows for inclusion in Google’s mobile index. The file “mobilesitemap.xml” should be placed in the web root and adheres to the mobile Sitemap protocol. Yahoo and MSN Live Search also support the Sitemap standard.
Implementing Webmaster Tools is a necessity for both Internet and mobile websites. Setup is effortless and the price can’t be beat. Free! In return, the search engines provide a wealth of statistics, diagnosis, and tools for helping websites improve their search ranking.
Typing a websites URL directly into a mobile web browser may yield different results when compared to arriving at the site from a mobile search engine. Most major search engines “transcode” traditional websites for mobile viewing. This is more common among mobile devices lacking full browser support. Below is an example of the Chevy.com homepage and the same page when transcoded by Google.
As you can see, the experience is significantly downgraded when run through the transcoder. While a mobile compliant variant of a website is preferred, here are a few key steps to delivering a better mobile experience if one is unable to develop a mobile-specific site:
1. Use compliant markup and CSS. At Organic, we love valid markup and so do search engines. Mobile browsers aren’t as forgiving as web browsers so be sure to run your site through the Validator’s listed in the Resource section to identify errors in markup
2. Create a mobile stylesheet. Developing multiple CSS stylesheets,“screen” and “handheld” at minimum, allow you to hide page elements (e.g. display:none) presented to mobile devices without modifying the markup
3. Less is more. Be concise in your choice of title tags, images, and content. With one site you’re forced to serve two masters so you’ll need to strike a balance between catering to both web and mobile searchers.
4. Just like math class … Check your work. Be sure to test functionality and site rendering against the targeted devices. I’ve listed free transcoders and simulators in the Resources section
Blended or Universal search is a method of integrating content from different verticals (e.g. video, news, images, maps, etc.) with search results. This allows for an enhanced search experience for the user and it gives brands the opportunity to present more engaging content. Blended search has become common for Internet search and seems to be the direction mobile search is headed. Below are screen captures displaying Google, Live, and Yahoo mobile search results. One important feature is that both platforms allow users to set their locations. This confirms what we already know regarding location and mobile search (Location sensitive mobile content is weighted more heavily on mobile devices than non-geo specific content). Another note of interest is mobile websites are integrated with Internet search results. And finally, all three search engines provide different blended search capabilities. As with traditional SEO, it pays to optimize image and video content for inclusion in mobile search results. Yahoo currently blends content from Yahoo Answers specifically for searches performed from a mobile device. This brings to light the relationship between the social web and search. I look forward to further advancements in this area.
Internet Paid Search has become the workhorse of online media. Paid search marketing accounts for over half of all online marketing and continues to outperform other types of media (online and offline). Why? It comes down to relevance (see Jonathan Mendez’s blog to better understand the importance of relevancy). With mobile search gaining adoption, search engines see an opportunity to capitalize on this new wave of searchers.
Mobile paid search is performance based just like Internet paid search, but mobile paid search may see faster adoption than Internet Paid Search for a few reasons:
Other features of mobile search include:
http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/
http://validator.w3.org/mobile/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML_Mobile_Profile
http://www2008.org/papers/pdf/fp846-yi.pdf
Webmaster Tools
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/
http://webmaster.live.com/
Sitemaps
http://www.sitemaps.org/
Directories
http://cantoni.mobi/
http://wireless.yahoo.com/resource_center/wapdir
Transcoders
http://www.skweezer.com/
http://www.google.com/gwt/n
Validators and Testing Tools
http://ready.mobi/index.html
http://validator.w3.org/mobile/
http://www.google.com/m/adpreview
Web-based Emulators
http://mtld.mobi/emulator.php
http://iphonetester.com/
Advertising Age wrote an article discussing Google’s latest attempt to monetize Youtube via search ads (see below). Youtube search is estimated to be the 2nd largest search engine surpassing Yahoo. This is an excellent opportunity for advertisers to drive targeted content to their video’s or brand channels.
Because search behavior on Youtube is different from the Search Network, Youtube offers brand channels the ability to integrate Gadget’s into the brand experience. What does this mean for advertisers? With a well thought out API for your website services you can allow viewers of your brand channel to take the key desired actions on Youtube instead of your site (e.g. complete a lead form, browse next fall’s line up, build your own shoe, etc).
I hope to implement a few campaigns for Chrysler in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for the more details.
Everyone’s talking about the importance of paid and natural search but many companies are missing an estimated 10% - 20% of opportunities by not optimizing their internal site search. For the companies that rolled your own internal search or picked a sub par partner, do yourself a favor and pay for Google Site Search. It will probably pay for itself in a matter of months.
I’m in the market for carpet cleaner and decided to give Sears a shot. Being the bad speller that I am, I typed “carpet clearner” instead of “carpet cleaner“. Damn public schools. Anyway, this is what was returned by Sears search engine …
No matches found and it recommends music. Boys on the Side, Putting on the Ritz, and Kelly Clarkston to be exact??? Ugh. Lost sale. I’m outta here. Next, I head over to Bestbuy.com (maybe I should have tried dictionary.com), and, still being a bad speller, entered the same query and this is what I received …
Well what do you know. Best Buy not only recommends the correct spelling but suggests a few products that may interest me. Thank you Best Buy.
Search continues to evolve as sites such as Freebase (not so sure about the name), Powerset, and Yahoo! SearchMonkey continue to innovate. While each application takes a different approach to its implementation of the “Semantic Web”, this article will focus on SearchMonkey, primarily, because it’s getting the most press.
Unless you’ve been in a cave the last month, you’ve probably heard of SearchMonkey. Yahoo! SearchMonkey is a opt-in platform that gives developers and content owners the ability to enhance Yahoo! search results (not rankings). These “enhancements” take bits and pieces of data from across the web and mash them together to add more value to the standard search listing.
I spent a few minutes developing a simple enhancement (see below) and I have a couple of thoughts/concerns regarding the initiative.
Finally, some are comparing SearchMonkey to Google Co-op. Google Co-op did not provide anywhere near the flexibility of SearchMonkey. But, it was much less complicated to implement. Overall, I’m bullish on SearchMonkey, but I still wish it were Google. As Google moves so does the industry and I believe more content owner’s would move towards adopting standards such as microformats, eRDF, RDFa, and others if it carried weight with the Big Guy. For now, I’ll dust off those RDF and XPath books and hope for the best.
Rohit Bhargava, author of Personality Not Included (PNI) and credited for coining the term Social Media Optimization (SMO) will be in the Detroit area for his book signing on July 8th, 2008.
For those that haven’t read the book, PNI is not Yet Another Marketing Book, but a refreshing text on how organizations can look for personality moments to make connections with their customers. You can see a previous post regarding the introduction here.
Stay up-to-date on the latest details by checking out Rohit’s official Facebook event page.
Ken Burbary also has details on the topic.
