RT @bgtheory: This is crazy; smallest & decent ($74) computer ever? http://t.co/cmRfZyTf #
Archive for the ‘Microsoft’ Category
Microsoft begins revealing New Decision Engine – Bing
Thursday, May 28, 2009
I suspect Microsoft has long felt the burr under their saddle when talking about Google. Looks like their competitive nature has them back in the headlines. They are unveiling the newest updates to their Search Engine technology called Bing. The biggest question is, can it be a competitor to Google?
We do recognize that Search is improving and changing. Bing as being billed as a Decision Engine and you can see short presentation about it at www.decisionengine.com.
In the first versions, Bing will focus on four areas:
- Making a purchase decision
- Planning a trip
- Researching a heath condition
- Finding a local business
This new view of search engines is very much about comparing information. People using search engines for finding information are often looking for a one best answer. But decisions are more focused on reviews, trust, location and sometimes filtering out what you don’t need. This is where we see search taking on the role of negotiation. Bing seems to take a first stab at search as a negotiation in each of the four verticals. Bing will be revealing results based on Best Match, Deep Links and Quick Preview to provide relevancy and minimize the need for additional clicks. They will provide customer insight built in pages to provide comparisons, reviews and even price predictors in some cases. Really, the market share is open for improvements.
Bing’s advertising campaign will begin to sell the idea that today’s search engines don’t really work as well as thought to solve problems. Even if this turns out to be a better version of search/decision, they will have to compete with the Google brand. Tests showed people still preferred search results with the Google Brand logo, even if the results were not Google results. Positioning may be their biggest hurdle. Oh yeah… the name?
Branding shop Interbrand helped conceive the name Bing, which was chosen because it was memorable, easy to spell around the world and could be used as a verb, as Microsoft hopes to convert people from "Google it" to "Bing it."
Finding words like that these days "is getting harder and harder," said Paola Norambuena, senior director-head of verbal identity at Interbrand. She added that linguistically Bing had a lot of applications. "It's the sound of found."
from Advertising Age
For more information please contact the Search Engine Marketing Team at Schipul – sem@schipul.com
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State of the Search Engines Winter 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
A lot has happened in the strange and wonderful world of Search Engines over the past year so lets recap:
January 31 2008 – Microsoft offers up it’s services to run Yahoo! in an unsolicited take over bid. Yahoo! thinks it over.
March 17 2008 – Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt says the deal is bad for the internet.
Meanwhile Yahoo!s stock rises on the news and Microsoft’s dips
Early April 2008 – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer tells Yahoo! if it doesn’t except the offer they should expect a hostile takeover.
April 9 2008 – Yahoo! and Google announce a partnership in Pay Per Click ads. Yahoo! agrees to run some Google ads in Yahoo!s search results
April 30 2008 – Microsoft states that it wants to keep Yahoo! employees in court documents.
May 5 2008 – Microsoft announces that the deal is off. Ballmer states Yahoo!s deal with Google is a factor
Nothing happens for a little while
July 14 2008 – Microsoft does something we’ve all done once or twice in our life time – drunk dial. Microsoft teamed up with Yahoo! stock holder Carl C Ichan in a bid to take over Yahoo! giving them 24 hours to decide. Hahahaha, that was a funny one.
November 6 2008 – Google breaks off it’s deal with Yahoo! in shared advertising leaving some to question whether Google simply helped Yahoo! to thwart Microsoft’s take over attempt
November 18 2008 – Jerry Yang is out as Yahoo! CEO and Guy Kawasaki tells me to hold my breath 
January 14 2009 – Carol Bartz is announced as the new head at Yahoo! only to be overshadowed by the Social Media Inauguration a week later
Search Engine Stocks Over the Past Year
Everyone took a hit over the last year, even Google but they still remain on top with shares trading at $303.08 as I am writing this.
Search Engine Stats Over the Past Year
So now that we are up to date how much was gained and lost by the search engines over the last year? Well you don’t have to be an analytics guru to see that Google made out quite alright in Market Share over the last year;
Google’s market share in March of 08 was 77.70%. As of last month they are now at 81.48%. Yahoo! went from 12.06% to 10.22%. Microsoft went from 3.25% to 2.95%
So while the #2 and #3 duke it out #1 continues to take over the market
So what does this all mean?
I’ve thrown a lot of information at you and the take away is this; if you are planning a marketing campaign in pay per click or SEO go where the market is. In the case the market is clearly in Google.
For more information please contact the Search Engine Marketing Team at Schipul – sem@schipul.com
Live Search Now Lets You Find the Perfect Image
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Live Search announced it’s new image search function that allows you the ability to find similar images to ones that you like.
In their example on their blog they show a search result of Muhammad Ali that returns a variety of results
Hovering over an image you are given an option to ‘show similar images.’ Pick an image you like and show similar images to that image.
That’s pretty cool!
I wish I could send you a link to this but their blog provided no link to their image search function. Oh I’m sure I could find it pretty easily but I’m lazy and don’t want to have to figure it out.
So if you are listening:
Microsoft ‘Please make it easy for people to use your stuff’
TinEye Image Search
Another great image search tool is TinEye. This neat search engine allows you find similar images or what an image is by either uploading it or inputting a URL of an image.
As they put it ‘TinEye does for images what Google does for text’
I’ve used it in the past to find out what a certain image is, I highly suggest using it
For more information please contact the Search Engine Marketing Team at Schipul – sem@schipul.com
Microsoft & Yahoo! the Saga Continues
Monday, July 14, 2008
Yahoo! was again courted by Microsoft this past weekend in a deal that might be akin to drunk dialing. Drunk Dialing, you know, you’ve had too much to drink and its late and you really want to talk to someone so you convince yourself that you should call them even if it is 4 in the morning. Basically, you throw away any hint of reason and against your better judgement you do it anyway. Well it seems that Microsoft did a little drunk dialing on the weekend, called up Yahoo! and made another offer that left many heads shaking and gave them 24 hours to decide.
Microsoft teamed up with Yahoo! stockholder Carl C Ichan in a bid to take over Yahoo! and completely replace(fire) the entire board of directors and the top management team.
Wow, they must have had a few too many Grey Goose martinis if they thought that one would have passed.
Yahoo! Chairman Roy Bostock had the following to say in an official release from Yahoo!;
“This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!’s stockholders in mind. Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr. Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. Yahoo’s Board of Directors will not allow that to happen. Yahoo!’s Board remains open to any transaction that delivers full value to our stockholders – we just do not believe such a transaction should be dictated by Microsoft and a single short-term investor…"
…After negotiating among themselves without the involvement of Yahoo!, Carl Icahn and Microsoft presented us with a ‘take it or leave it’ proposal under which we would be required to restructure the Company, hand over to Microsoft Yahoo!’s valuable search business and to Carl Icahn the rest of the Company, giving us less than 24 hours to respond. It is ludicrous to think that our Board could accept such a proposal. While this type of erratic and unpredictable behavior is consistent with what we have come to expect from Microsoft, we will not be bludgeoned into a transaction that is not in the best interests of our stockholders”
In business speak that translates to; ‘Are you out of your *&$%@#^mind? Look we were never together. I’m with Google now, ok? You need to move on. Go buy Apple or something’
In the press release Yahoo! references its new deal with Google and refers to it as having ‘superior financial value and less complexity and risk than the Microsoft/Icahn proposal’
This doesn’t mean the dance is over yet. Later in the press release Yahoo! states that it ready to sell to Microsoft for the original $33 but Microsoft balked at that deal. I’m not certain but the recent deal with Google’s AdWords, that has come under scrutiny, might have something to do with it.
Whatever happens this sure has been fun to watch, sort of like Desperate Housewives for search nerds
Stay Tuned next week as Steve Balmer cuts the break lines on Jerry Yang’s Mercedes – that is a total falsehood but would make for a good movie though, wouldn’t it?
For more information please contact the Search Engine Marketing Team at Schipul – sem@schipul.com
