Starting From Search

Yahoo Calls BS!

Anyone following the "Will Microsoft ask Yahoo to get married" drama are already familiar with Carl Icahn, who started a school yard proxy fight over the future of Yahoo.

Today, Yahoo posted an open letter to Carl Icahn:

Yahoo!'s Board of Directors continues to stand ready to enter into negotiations with Microsoft Corporation for an acquisition of Yahoo!. Indeed, as recently as June, Yahoo!'s independent directors and management approached Steve Ballmer about just such a transaction, only to be told that Microsoft was no longer interested even in the price range which they had previously proposed. Now Mr. Ballmer and Mr. Icahn have teamed up in an apparent effort to force Yahoo! into selling to Microsoft its Search business at a price to be determined in a future "negotiation" between Mr. Icahn's directors and Microsoft's management. We feel very strongly that this would not lead to an outcome that would be in the best interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders. If Microsoft and Mr. Ballmer really want to purchase Yahoo!, we again invite them to make a proposal immediately. And if Mr. Icahn has an actual plan for Yahoo! beyond hoping that Microsoft might actually consummate a deal which they have repeatedly walked away from, we would be very interested in hearing it.

I believe that is Yahoo telling Mr. Icahn where he can stick it. While this type of bickering usually weakens a company in the long run, I think it's actually good for Yahoo. The big Y has been stagnant for too long, and this may be what finally gets the passion back for them.

I Now Call Google to the Witness Stand

In Florida, there is an interesting legal case unfolding. The defendant is accused of purveying obscene material from a web site, but the definition of obscenity is based on community standards. As a way to poke holes in this, the defense wants to show that "the community" is actually a lot less moral than they say they are.

How are they going to show this? By using search traffic data from Google. Essentially, the defense is going to try to point out that people will claim to be more moral than they actually are, but in the privacy of our own homes (based on what types of searches people typically perform at their computers) morality is more ambiguous. After all, based on this chart at Google Trends, it appears that Florida’s appetite for porn has increased steadily since 2004.

But search data is not that easy to parse because the search traffic does not get to the underlying intent of the searcher. Just because someone does a search on porn, does that mean that person was actually looking for pictures? We can guess, but we'll never know for sure.

Slate.com has the full story on the case, and the role of the internet in the definition of "community."

Powerset Now Out of Beta

Powerset has just announced that it is out of beta. It is a search engine for Wikipedia articles. I have never had trouble finding Wikipedia articles, so I think I'm going to take the Seth Godin path here: What problem are they trying to solve? New products can be good, but they only do well if they solve a problem.

Brain Drain at Google?

According to CNN, Google might be facing a brain drain as employees are leaving comfortable jobs to make their own way with their own start ups. (Link: Where Does Google Go Next?)

This reminds me of an article by Robert Cringely that he wrote in May of 2007. In this article (Link: The Final Days of Google), Cringely suggested that Google's downfall would not be Microsoft, but some uber-smart staffer leaving to start their own company.

Of course there will be turn over with 18,000+ employees on the payroll. But these Googlers that left, were not satisfied with developing their projects inside the Google walls. And despite Google offering large sums of cash to keep these people, they left anyway.

It doesn't mean they will create so called Google-killers. But it does demonstrate that even super hot companies cool down eventually and loose some luster.

Does SEO Make the World A Better Place?

Slate.com seems to think so in this interesting article. They touch upon some of the old snake oil perspectives of SEO that need to stay in the past. Certainly there were/are people/firms that are not highly ethical, but SEO better or worse than a financial planner. Some really want to help, some just want your money.

Brilliant!

Now I feel like I need a gimmick. Maybe I could be the stripping SEO?

Know Thy Searcher

For the last week, I’ve been humbled by the flu. I’m honestly not sure what was worse, having the flu or subjecting myself to 5 days of cable TV while I lay on the couch. (I feel very close to Bob Villa now.)

While I sat on couch, cheering my white blood cells on, I did a search for "flu symptoms." I noticed a common search problem—a case of one advertiser knowing who they are talking to and others who are clearly not sure.

Search marketing like other forms of marketing, need to focus on "the who." Not the stellar British rock band of the 60s and 70s, but those who are searching. You must know who you are talking to in order for the brand message to break through the clutter. The keywords you bid on tell you "the who" and what their intent is.

This PPC ad is perfect.

It's to the point and addresses exactly what anyone searching for information on flu symptoms needs.

Tylenol, on the other hand, is wasting money (and a consumer’s time) because they don't know who they are talking to.

Simply, I don't have a "common cold," I have the flu. Based on my search—flu symptoms—what I want is pretty clear. Their PPC ad does not begin to address my intent for searching.

Next, I did a search for "flu treatments" and found the same issue. A few very good PPC ads that spoke to and leads to information about how to treat the flu. But again, Tylenol misses:

Once again, I'm not trying to treat a cold. I'm dealing with nausea, a flu symptom not a cold symptom. But, alas, Tylenol is not alone. Vicks also uses off-target copy.

PPC ads must address the intent of the searcher in order to convince them that your site has information they can use. That is why a consumer will click. For some keywords, this can be tricky to judge. Multiple ads can help you test your way into figuring out what ads speak to the consumer the best.

But in some cases, such as with flu symptoms and treatment, the intent is clear. And failing to address the consumer's need will send them clicking somewhere else.

Microsoft Launches Left vs Right

Microsoft has launched a new front end for it's search engine, Live.com. Called Left vs Right, it is reminiscent of Ms. Dewey, a former personification of Live.com.

It is a funny take on political talk shows, with two commentators primed to argue with each other based on the search term you enter. The topics are limited, and as you begin to type in a search, it shows a small drop down box that shows what searches it can provide. The timing for this is perfect as political and issue-based searches are increasing due to the current campaign season.

I still liked Ms. Dewey better, mostly because she was sassy. I like a little attitude with my search engines.

I don't know how much Microsoft spend on Left vs Right, but with their falling market share quarter after quarter, they may want to invest that money into making a better search engine. Just a thought.

Special thanks to Lara for the tip on this one. See Lara, I told you I'd do it!

Changing Search Behavior with SpaceTime

A few weeks ago, I posted about the great things Ask.com is doing. (Read here.) Personally, I think it's a great demonstration of where search should be going.

Now enter an application called SpaceTime. It's not specific to search engines as it is more like a new method for browsing the web as a whole. But the demo does show how searching Google would be different using their application. It certainly have a wow factor, and changes browsing to be a more iTunes like experience. (Gord Hotchkiss has a good review also.)

While it is certainly novel, it won't catch on. Search behavior is getting very ingrained now. Any new search experience has to so greatly improve upon the previous in order for people to put forth the effort to actually change. That is why Windows users will continue to use Windows instead of switching to a Mac. Yes, the Mac OS is better than Windows Vista can ever dream of being. But the benefit a Mac is still less than the the perceived trouble of making the change. It would cause a consumer to learn a new way of doing things when maybe the current way isn't so terrible.

SpaceTime is too large a leap and would require changing too many ingrained behaviors by the general consumer for it to be taken seriously. That is why I think Ask.com is moving in the right direction. It's a big step forward, but builds upon what general consumers are already used to.

The Right to Buy Branded Keywords

This week, 1-800-Contacts sued LensWorld for allegedly purchasing branded terms in order to show LensWorld PPC ads when users are searching 1-800-Contacts. (MediaPost reports.) The key here is one company buying the branded terms of another company.

This is not the first lawsuit of its type. The question is around if it is infringement of any sort. Currently, engines allow advertisers to buy competitive brand terms if the competitors name is not used in the actual ad copy. Complaints to engines over this are handled on a case-by-case basis.

The main problem I see with a competitor buying the branded terms of another competitor is that it drives up the cost for that brand name. Simply, you could end up paying a high pay-per-click rate for your own name if your competitor purchased your brand name as well. (Many people I know in the industry follow an unwritten rule not to buy competitor brand names, often for fear of retribution on their own brand name.)

This is a problem that is very hard to solve, and sadly, will probably have to be sorted out in the court room. Is it Google or Yahoo's job to protect intellectual property? I say no, but engines constantly find themselves in the middle of this issue.

Honestly, it's not much different than two advertisers appearing on the same page of a magazine. It is up the professionals that create the ad to distinguish it among the competitors.

Besides, every company should rank highly in organic listings for their own branded terms. If a company can not stand out on a search results page for their own branded terms, they have much larger issues than a competitors bid price.

Friday Recap

Ask.com gets a new CEO. Ask is doing some great things right now. I hope this does not slow down their progress.

Bill buys Fast. Microsoft said this is to fend off competition from Oracle and IBM. It's not. Everything Microsoft does in search is about Google. All the time, every time.

Critics rail Wikia. They were right to call Wikia incomplete. Founder Jimmy Wales said Wikia would need 2 years to reach any real quality. In the search realm, 2 years might as well be 20.

What Has Your Search Engine Done for You?

While I was attending SES Chicago in December, this video was displayed at one of the Orion Panels.

It's a great commerical that shows where search is going -- more toward a helpful, portal-type interface. Frankly, I think Ask3D kicks Google's Universal Search in the junk.

While I'm on an Ask.com lovefest, they recently posted a wrap-up of what they have done this past year. Worth a quick read to see how far Ask has come.

I Have Two Words for You

And evidently, so does everyone else. According to this article on Clickz, citing research compiled by OneStat, most searchers use two keywords when conducting a search.

Internet users who type two words for on a search engine query account for 31.9 percent of searches worldwide. Three-word phrases are used for 27 percent of searches. A single word accounts for 15.2 percent of queries, and four words are used for 14.8 percent of searches.

Importantly, it also points out that the vast majority of searches aren't single word searches. An important fact to consider if you are trying to optimize pages for a single word.

Q: What Activity does 95% of the Online Population do?

A: Search.

From a press release from comScore

RESTON, VA, October 10, 2007 – comScore, Inc.  (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released the first comprehensive study of worldwide search activity, based on data from its qSearch 2.0 service. comScore qSearch 2.0 offers the first panoramic worldwide view of online search activity, providing granular, in-depth analysis of the search universe reported from the top 50 worldwide Internet properties where search activity is observed. The study found that more than 750 million people age 15 and older – or 95 percent of the worldwide Internet audience – conducted 61 billion searches worldwide in August, an average of more than 80 searches per searcher.

Another question: If 95% of the online population is averaging 80 searches per month, where should you move your marketing dollars?

Slate Uncovers Fun with Google Suggest

I love Slate.com. Their articles range from informative, to shocking, to totally tongue-in-cheek.

Today, Slate takes a fun look at Google Suggest.

After a couple of months of serendipitous delights, I decided to use Suggest to conduct a serious study of human behavior. Google Toolbar makes it easy to practice armchair sociology—just conjure the first half of any question or statement, and Google fills in the back end. Want to know what questions are flummoxing mankind? Type in "is it true that." The fourth suggestion: "is it true that if you don't use it you lose it." The fifth: "is it true that ciara is a man."

The Search-to-Store Experience in DM News

Special thanks to DM News for running my article on the Search-To-Store Experience.

It's an important concept, especially for retail brands. But as eStara's Multichannel Musings points out, it can apply any time consumers move from one channel to another.

What Search Engines Can Tell Us about Us

I wanted to get back in touch with a friend that I haven't seen in about 3 years. In college we were close, but lost touch when life got busy. We both got married, had kids, etc. So I decided to Google him, hoping to turn up his phone number via a phone book entry.

The very first result told me that he was caught and convicted of a significant crime.

With just a few searches on Google and Yahoo, I learned that he was arrested about 18-months ago. I learned exactly which law he broke, how much time he served, where he served it. Obviously, I was concerned about his family. With a few more searches I was able to learn that he and his wife recently purchased a home in a suburb, indicating they must still be together.

With a few searches I was taken right into the darkest part of his life.

Search is clearly more than just a bridge between keywords and web sites. It is having a cultural impact. How large that impact will be won’t be known for many years. They are becoming an alethiometer of sorts, begging the question: are we really ready to have the answer to every question we seek?

Google is now indexing public government records. In the near future it’s possible someone could do a search on you, and uncover, for example, your divorce records. Is that the first thing you would want someone to know about you?

By the way, I did get his new address and phone number. I'm not sure if I should contact him or not. Google told me his story. I’m wrestling with the question: do I let him tell me his story, or is Google's version enough? Search engines may well now be able provide us information at a rate well beyond our human conditions ability to deal with.

Lewis Black on Google's Street View

Lewis Black, on The Daily Show, had some funny thoughts on Google's new street view application. Enjoy the laugh.

The Daily Show: Back in Black

Google of Today is the New Microsoft of the 90s

Google is on track to be the new Microsoft?

SAN FRANCISCO - The Federal Trade Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into Google Inc.'s proposed $3.1 billion purchase of ad-management technology company DoubleClick Inc.

Target's PPC Ad Fails Expectations

This time of year is very exciting for my family. We have a small pond in our backyard and when spring arrives, it comes alive with activity. The fish come out of hibernation, birds gather to bathe and drink, and my kids look for new tadpoles. My six year old started asking a lot of questions about tadpoles, so we hit the web to search for information and pictures of the frog life cycle.

When looking for what types of food tadpoles eat, I noticed the PPC ads.

Wow, Target sells everything! They even have tadpole food. Or, they don't, which is what I found when I clicked the link to their landing page.

Target could have become part of my son's exciting adventure into tadpole care. With their ad they built an expectation, then failed to deliver. Leaving me, the consumer, and a 6-year old boy, frustrated with their brand.

Why would Target place such this PPC ad? Probably sloppy set up from their search vendor. When you get into SEM—or any advertising for that matter—you have to deliver upon the expectation you build. Not meeting those expectations will cost you customers.

iGoogle

iGoogle is simply a way to make Google.com a portal site. Sound familiar? It should. It also goes by another name: Yahoo.

I called this back in February 2006, when I said Google is trying to be more like Yahoo. This is also evident in Google's recent acquisitions that are turning Google into a larger media company—something Yahoo has already been for years.

Robert Cringley: Using Search to Stop Tragedy

Robert Cringley has an oddly touching article about the recent Virginia Tech tragedy. He has an interesting twist on how one could use search engines, indexing public content, to possibly uncover the hints of alienated kids crying for help—crying for help before they possibly load up a gun.

Read it here: Mean Time Between Failures: We need a search engine for hate

I would be interested on your thoughts about this. Without getting caught up in the emotion of the recent tragedy, is it wise to use a search engine spider to probe our culture looking for angry souls?

Marge Simpson Uses Google

Google seems to increases their market share each day. Now they can count Marge Simpson as a dedicated user.

Google's New SEO Firm

Ross Dunn has a great write up in which he intelligently questions Google's acquisition of SEO firm Performics as part of the DoubleClick deal.

The fact of the matter is a leading search engine like Google who claims to highly value its "don't be evil" mantra will rapidly lose any remaining credibility if it continues to operate a SEO/SEM company.

Search Engine Rankings, March 2007

comScore Networks has just released their search engine rankings for March 2007. They measured 7.3 billion searches in the US, a 14% increase from March 2006.

Break down by market share:

Google: 48.7%
Yahoo: 27.5%
MSN: 10.9%
Ask: 5.2%

All engines increased their share by some degree, expect Yahoo which fell 0.6%.

Spring Hill Nursery's Earth Day Sale Forgets Search

I love Spring Hill Nursery. I've been getting their catalog for years and frequently order from them. Yesterday they emailed me to let them know about their Earth Day sale.

They obviously took time to plan the sale and get the email together to send out. Yet Spring Hill did not reflect their sale messaging in the PPC banner they have for their own name. That would be a perfect place to also announce the Earth Day sale, and connect it right to their site.

I'm am not knocking email in any way, but I do get tons of it each day - and that's just the email that I want. In other words, I could have missed the Spring Hill email. As a brand, you have to be ready to consistently message to your customers in multiple marketing channels. You may never know in which channel a consumer will see and react to first.

ChaCha Search Reinforces the Importance of Customer Service

I'm a big fan of the Bob & Tom morning radio show. In fact, I'm a VIP member on their website. So I was highly interested when I found out they would be talking to Scott Jones the co-founder of ChaCha Search.

He mentioned a few interesting facts about the new search engine, such as the working name of ChaCha was SNI, or Scott's New Idea. After a few months and a few thousand name ideas later, they came up with ChaCha based on the meaning of Chinese meaning of "Cha" which is "search." Scott Jones also said that in the near future ChaCha will offer a custom home page as well. Similar to a My Yahoo, this MyChaCha page will allow a user to set up their own portal page with news, sports scores, and other items of interest.  Also coming: a mobile version of ChaCha.

ChaCha, still officially in beta, launched as a search engine with a guided search feature. You can search independently or you can search with the help of a guide. With an instant message-like window, you can talk to a human guide about what you are looking for and they can push search results to your screen.

ChaCha has gotten a fair amount of press coverage, as indicated by the Bob & Tom coverage this morning. Since ChaCha launched, a few colleagues and I have tested the service and found it lacking. Maybe Scott Jones should spend less time investing in PR and more time investing in training for their guides.

Essentially ChaCha reinforces the importance of good customer service. The nature of customer service is that its only as good as the person providing it. ChaCha search it is no different. Results can vary based on the knowledge and customer service ability of the guide helping you. Scott Jones claims 30,000 human guides behind the technology that "self-select" their area's of expertise.

In order to test it out, myself and five other colleagues went to ChaCha at different times and conducted a guided search on the same topic to see how our results would vary. We all acted like we were in the market to buy a computer and was considering a laptop but didn't know much about them. I wanted to see what types of questions we would be asked, such as if we considered a Mac or PC, a brand preference, or if we were directed to big brand sites like Dell, or toward informational sites.

Overall, the guides asked very few or no questions. Here is an example of a typical guided search conversation we experienced:

Status: Connecting...
Status: Looking for a guide ...
Ring: ...
Ring: ...
Ring: ...
Status: Connected to guide: Brian(73486)
Brian(73486): Welcome to ChaCha!
Brian(73486): Hi there!
Brian(73486): What can I help you with on this topic?
You: Hi Brian
You: I'm looking for a laptop
You: and wanted to get more info about what's out there
Brian(73486): Please wait a moment while I search for your results.
Brian(73486): Are these results sufficient?

In all five instances, we found the experience lacking. Overall the guides did not ask any questions. The true X-factor behind all search technology is trying to determine user intent of the search. A user will find the search experience to be positive if the search results match their intent As an example, if I type in "flat panel TV" as a search term, the results are more helpful if they match the intent of my query. If I'm looking for brands that sell flat panel TVs, but brand information is not part of the search results, I'll feel my search was not satisfied. This is whereChaCha could stand out, but only if the guides ask relevant questions to get to the nature and intent of the search.

The only question one of my colleagues was asked was about desired laptop battery life. I would think anyone would want the longest battery life possible for a laptop, so it seemed like a strange question. If these guides are self-selecting their areas of expertise, one should expect knowledgeable help.

But how about the actual search results? Here is a typical set of results that we were shown:

1. Notebook and Laptop Reviews
Notebook and Laptop Reviews
http://www.notebookreview.com/
2. Laptop Review - Compare prices from Office Depot, EcomElectronics and more at Brilliantshopper.com
Laptop Review - Compare prices from Office Depot, EcomElectronics and more at Brilliantshopper.com
http://www.brilliantshopper.com/results.php?q=laptop+review&src=NG&ntwk=OVT&k...
3. Laptop Reviews, Best Laptop, Laptop Computer Reviews
Laptop Reviews, Best Laptop, Laptop Computer Reviews
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/computers/laptops/index.html

Overall, these results contained the same basic information as results I received from Google when I typed in "Laptops." The guides were not offering any more information that a user could have easily found on their own by doing the most basic of searches elsewhere.

For all five guided searches we did, we where shown an average of four results. As one of my colleagues said: "When you search on Google, you get the feeling they are searching the universe for results. Seeing only four listings on ChaCha feels limiting."

The experience a user has with ChaCha is only as good as the guides knowledge, much like walking into a BestBuy and inquiring about a product. The perceived positive/negative experience with BestBuy comes down to the specific salesperson you end up talking with. If they are knowledgeable  and have good customer service, then the experience is positive. In this case,ChaCha's technology of guided search has nothing to do with the experience - ultimately it comes down to the specific guide that helps you.

In short, ChaCha offers an interesting technology. But despite what may be happening behind the scenes, the true experience comes down to simple customer service and in our experience, even that was lacking.

Pot Calls Kettle Black?

Mircosoft is urging a review of the Google-DoubleClick deal saying it would, "hurt competition."

Bradford L. Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said in an interview yesterday that Google’s purchase of DoubleClick would combine the two largest online advertising distributors and thus “substantially reduce competition in the advertising market on the Web.”

The Importance of Trigger Points in Search

Last Friday, as I was getting ready to head home for the weekend, a Barnes & Noble email jumped into my inbox. It was about a book just covered on Oprah that afternoon called Scam Proof Your Life. Kudos for the up-to-the-second relevance of the email.

Barnes & Noble obviously knew it was going to be featured today on Oprah. The email was designed in advance and waiting for the show to air. So I ask, why did they not also launch PPC banners in tandum? They could have also been prepared in advance and set to launch at a specific time of day. Barnes & Noble missed a chance to be truly effective in leveraging the influence of trigger points.

Trigger points are the influencers that drive people to a search engine to find information. Having a good search strategy also requires an understanding of how and why people use engines.

Trigger points happen all the time - everyday - and if you recognize them as they happen, your brand can leverage search just as people are arriving at engines to begin their information quest.

DoubleClick's DART and Google

The mainstream press and the blogosphere is jumping with the news of Google acquiring DoubleClick. As I have had time to learn more details, I see that Google appears to have outbid both Microsoft and Yahoo in this deal.

My big concern with this is how DART for Advertisers factors into this. DART can be used as a single doorway to PPC campaigns on mutliple engines, such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and ASK.

Once the acquisition is complete, I would like to know how much DART information Google have and use? I assume all of it. And therein lies the rub.

I don't want Google to be able to see what and how I'm running campaigns on Yahoo, MSN or ASK. Quite frankly, that is none of their buisness.

Google to Acquire DoubleClick

As just announced by Google:

Google Inc. announced today a definitive agreement to acquire DoubleClick Inc., a global leader in digital marketing technology and services, for $3.1 billion in cash from San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman along with JMI Equity and management. The acquisition will combine DoubleClick's expertise in ad management technology for media buyers and sellers with Google's leading advertising platform and publisher monetization services.

Google has been moving further from building applications from the ground up, and has been moving into acquisition. A la Microsoft of the late 80s?

The Search-to-Store Experience

Search is the most powerful way to drive traffic to sites, outshining email, banners, and other forms of online advertising. Search is also effective at driving foot traffic to brick & mortar stores. Many people conduct research online—starting at a search engine—for a product they would rather buy, or end up buying, in-store. But there is more to connecting the two beyond just providing your street address to online customers.

I developed a process that I call the Search-to-Store Experience. It is a process that enables a consumers that enters the buying funnel at a search engines to easily complete the process in a brick and mortar store. (The issue of tracking that process from start-to-finish via metrics to determine ROI is also important. Maybe I'll discuss that side in later posts.)

The focus of the Search-to-Store Experience is to connect the two channels more seamlessly and in a way that feels natural to a searcher. It is most valuable to the consumer that begins by conducting a search then switches channels to complete the sale in store. The entire process has to feel like a natural progression to the consumer.

Here are some tips in creating your own Search-to-Store Experience.

Make Usual connections between channels.
Investing in a SEM campaign to help sell blue widgets? Then have a blue widget display near the front entrance of the store. When the person that started with an online search walks in, they make the instant "there it is" connection. They'll put the blue widget right in their basket.

Contextualize messaging.
As the consumer moves along the search channel (from search, to PPC ad or organic listing, to a landing page) the messaging needs to mature with that progression. Don't repeat the same thing at each step, but rather go a level deeper. Reinforce, but open the messaging to more detail or product features. The landing page not only needs to have a picture of the product but a full description, the stores that are near them, and a printable coupon to redeem in store.

Uniform branding.
Brand messaging can easily change as it is applied in different marketing channels. Messaging in print ads need to match messaging on a web site. But importantly, messaging carried out in a search engine, either via PPC ad copy or meta descriptions in organic listings, needs to also match your brand messaging. The continuity of brand messaging is key is the different channels feeling unified to the consumer.

Connect other business areas.
If other areas of your business are connected, regardless of channel, a consumer will use the channel most convenient for them at the time. Using different doorways to your brand will feel natural. And if the branding is uniform, the consumer won't feel lost. Allowing online purchased to be returned in-store, loyalty programs and promotions to be redeemed in-store, online or over the phone. This makes any channel switches your consumers make feel like a comfortable part of doing business with your brand.

Yahoo, Where Did Search Go?

"Yahoo!, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., also reorganized its 11,000 employees in December from many overlapping subgroups into three distinct business units: Web communities, advertisers and infrastructure." -- TIME, How Yahoo Aims to Reboot

Yahoo, I have a question: Where did search go?

The only way to compete with Google for search market share is to make search a core value and discipline of the company's business. Google excels at search because it has been a core value of the company since it started. And since 99% of Google's revenue comes from their search offering, it will be a core business value for a long time.

Any search engine in the game can only beat Google if they are as passionate about the search offering as Google is. (Are you listening ChaCha?)

A company that gets into the search game because of the profits in the industry will never be a Google-killer. (Are you listening Microsoft?)

A Keyword may be Cheap, but Damaging Your Brand is Expensive

A few days ago my friend sent me an IM asking me if I knew where he could buy a bag of salt for his driveway. Here in the mid-west, Old Man Winter isn't quite done with us yet. Being a search fanatic, I quickly consulted Google by typing in "Snow Salt."

I found these two pay-per-click ads:

What exactly, are they trying to sell me? It’s certainly not snow salt.

Whenever a pay-per-click ads messaging does not match consumer expectation, it creates a disconnect that can damage a brand's reputation. As a consumer, it starts to feel like a brand is trying to trick me into a click.

Maybe "snow salt" was a very cheap keyword to bid on. But damaging a brand's reputation is very expensive.

Google Can't Spell?

The blogosphere is raging over whether or not Google made a spelling error on their logo on Valentine's Day.

Google's response:

When you look at the logo, you may worry that we forgot our name overnight, skipped a letter, or have decided that "Googe" has a better ring to it. None of the above. I just know that those with true romance and poetry in their soul will see the subtlety immediately.

Purposeful or not, I say if you have to release an official statement about your logo, then at the very least you did a terrible job with the design.

Using Search to Build Brand Trust

Over the weekend I went to one of my favorite stores – Woodcraft. I was working on a small woodworking project and was stuck. I ran into Woodcraft, ready to buy a new tool to help me finish my task. I started talking to the manager of the store, told him my minor issue and told him I thought I could fix it by buying another tool. Instead of agreeing with me and pointing me in the direction of the tool I was eager to have the excuse to buy, the manager told me how to fix my problem with tools I already have. I ended up walking out of the store not buying a thing—and feeling empowered that I could get on with my project.

From a business perspective, I found it interesting how quickly the store manager actually steered me away from a purchase I was ready to make. While he didn't make the sale, right then, he earned my trust by arming me with the information I needed. Trust that will undoubtedly pay off in many more sales down the road.

It's important for retailers to realize that not all searchers want to buy something—or buy something now. Some searchers are looking for information, so for them, a positive search experience does not end in an immediate sale. Retailers can use search marketing to help build trust in the brand.

A brand can build this trust by creating pages on its site that provide valuable information, like showing consumers how to use their products, offer new ideas, troubleshoot, etc—and, of course, optimizing these pages so that they are accessible to searchers.

Just like I'm going to return to Woodcraft again and again, consumers who trust your brand will return. Using search to build trust eventually builds sales.

Google Announces Q4 2006 Revenue

Today, Google announced their revenue from Q4 2006, and the numbers are impressive. The numbers mirror the market share growth repeatedly reported by HitWise.

Highlights:

• Google reported revenues of $3.21 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2006, an increase of 67% compared to the fourth quarter of 2005 and an increase of 19% compared to the third quarter of 2006.
• Google-owned sites generated 62% of total revenues
• Google's partner sites generated 37% of the revenue
• Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and our AdSense partners, increased approximately 61% over the fourth quarter of 2005 and approximately 22%

Books.Google.Com

The New Yorker has an interesting story and update on Google's Book Search (books.google.com), as well as the legal issues surrounding the project.

A few choice quotes from the article:

Google won’t say how many books are in its database, but the site’s value as a research tool is apparent; on it you can find a history of Urdu newspapers, an 1892 edition of Jane Austen’s letters, several guides to writing haiku, and a Harvard alumni directory from 1919.

As Marissa Mayer put it, “Google has become known for providing access to all of the world’s knowledge, and if we provide access to books we are going to get much higher-quality and much more reliable information. We are moving up the food chain.”

Google's Metaverse

Lot's of press this last few days about Google's Metaverse project. (See here, here, here and here, just to list a few.)

These articles are interesting, not because of what they are saying about Google but because of what they are not saying about Google.

Here is what these articles won't say:

• While everyone is trying to "kill" Google, there will be no mention of how Google is moving into other markets with the same ferocity of Microsoft
• If this were Yahoo, pundits would criticize their "lack of product focus"
• If this were Microsoft... see the first bullet
• That this is likely just an attempt to find more eyeballs for AdWords. See the second bullet

Does Google = King Midas?

Search and Open Brands

During iCitizen, Resource President Kelly Mooney provided a glimpse into Open Branding – an innovative concept about how brands can embrace and benefit from the user-generated content model the Web has become.

Beginning to open a brand does not always mean investing in a tactic that feels fringe. It can be a challenge to convince a brand to invest in a viral video where ROI can be hard to determine. Many brands are also still trying to figure out if and how YouTube and Flickr should be part of their marketing strategies. But search is now a proven marketing initiative with easily trackable ROI and it’s a very effective first step to opening a brand.

Search has grown into the first step of every Web experience, becoming the filter by which people manage their Web experiences. According to comScore, Almost 60% of Web users use a search engine every day. Consumers have become accustomed to finding and making brand introductions in search engines.

A recent Nielsen BuzzMetrics study demonstrated that more than 25 percent of search results on Google for the world's 20 largest brands are links to consumer generated content. Search marketing and open branding go hand-in-hand.

At the end of September 2006, I launched an SEM campaign for MI Homes on the Google and Yahoo networks. The main purpose of this was to increase exposure to their brand in 13 different markets. With an industry average SEM click-through-rate of 1%, the MI Homes campaign experienced double that under the guidance of my search team.

Creating this accessibility benefited their brand, not just from increased conversions, but for the ever important mind share. A 2004 Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Nielsen/NetRatings study found that there is an effective brand lift from SEM campaigns. Consumers responded, as was evident by the high click through rate.

Text-Rich vs Keyword-Rich

It's great to see more and more sites incorporating HTML text and headlines. As general knowledge of search increases, site owners understand that plain text is an important way for search engines to make sense of a site and to rank it. Obviously there are many other factors, but it's hard to beat good, well-crafted copy in a search strategy.

But there is a difference between a text-rich site and a keyword-rich one.

HTML text is only as good as the keywords it contains. Plain text for the sake of plain text is not enough. To be effective, the text must be based on, and reflective of, the words searchers actually use. Intelligently incorporating those terms into the headlines and copy on a site can make a big difference in rankings.

Yahoo Introduces Quality Score in Ad Ranking Starting February 5

Beginning on February 5, Yahoo will be changing the way they rank pay-per-click ads. The rankings currently us bid price as the ranking method, meaning the higher the bid price, the higher the ranking of a pay-per-click ad. This coming change will include bid price and a quality score to determine relative rank, similar to what is already in place with Google AdWords.

What is a Quality Score?
A quality score applied to pay-per-click ads means that bid price is not the sole ranking method. This means that an ad with a lower bid price could rank above a higher bidding advertiser. While the exact factors involved in the quality score have not been divulged by the engines themselves, one influence is historical performance and performance relative to other ads displayed at the same time. Simply, if more people click on an ad, it can be assumed by democratic process that the ad is more helpful to searchers and could get preferred rating.

The quality score was devised to try to keep the playing field even. In a pay-per-click process based solely on bid price, nothing can stop a large advertiser with big pockets from taking top spots. In theory, with a quality score feature that effect is minimized as a small advertiser could compete with Wal-Mart by strategically picking keywords and writing well-focused copy for customers. In other words, better quality ads help with better placement.

This process has been used by Google AdWords for some time now, and it does make pay-per-click campaigns a bit more of an art form than a simple function of calculating a bid price. If your SEM vendor can't tell you why your ad is not increasing in position despite bid increases, the quality score is the reason. (Interestingly enough, the quality score feature can also reveal which PPC vendors are truly savvy marketers versus those that practice "simple" SEM.)

Between now and February 5th, it would be a good idea to scrutinize your PPC ad copy. Also be prepared for some wild position fluctuations that week as well.

Keyword Choice

An interesting thing happened while I was title and meta tagging a client site – a major national lawn care provider. They had some nicely descriptive copy throughout their site about their products and its benefits to healthy lawns. But incidentally, I realized that many of the modifiers being used to describe their products were very similar to another site I worked on a few weeks ago in the hair care industry.

It turns out people want thick, lush grass and thick, lush hair.

While it is sort of funny that searchers in two very different industries would use the same modifiers, it is also important to pay attention how those modifiers are used. In that instance, both of those companies will have to be sure that they offer more to engines (and users) than just the use of simple adjectives to distinguish products.

Over the summer, I was working with a house paint manufacturer. "Paint" is an obvious keyword choice, but without a good modifier it's of little use. Every October as Halloween approaches, searches for "face paint" sky rocket. Minus a good modifier, optimizing for "paint" as a general keyword would have placed my client's site with listings for costume stores. In this instance, it was the modifier that made the difference.

Here's the thing: modifiers don't always add specificity to keywords. "Face" paint, or "house" paint makes the keyword more specific and targeted. "Lush" hair, or "lush" lawns do not.

Keyword choice