Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

Alright - I'm actually starting to get tired of reporting on good news from Bing and there's now a part of my looking forward to slamming them for some stupid mistake they're making but today is not that day. For anyone who's followed the Beanstalk blog you'll know that thus far I've been very impressed with Bing and the first successful attempt Microsoft has made in challenging Google. It's been successful tot he point where Google is actually paying close attention and responding to what's going on.

Rumor has it (as reported in the New York Post article "Fear Grips Google") that "[Google] co-founder Sergey Brin is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft's rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service." Really? Do they fear Bing THAT much? Their sudden launch of their "Explore Google Search" page might indicate that they're playing catchup. As Danny Sullivan points out however - Google is constantly launching new features and tools so this *may* be a coincidence of timing. I agree that they were likely working on it previously however the timing sure is suspicious.

And to make matters "worse" for Google - The folks over at Microsoft earlier today announced the launch of new malware filters that go beyond their "Drive-By-Detection" systems and adds additional detection that Doug Caverly of WebProNews.com refers to as "Ahead-Of-The-Curve" filtering. As security and safety are (and should be) huge concerns and as Google battled this very issue just a few month's back.

To top things off, our friends over at Ask.com (remember them?) is now indexing over 300 million questions and answers from numerous sources to provide what they consider to be a great database that sorts through the generic clutter of the web and get people the answers they need if only they "Ask" (my pun - not theirs so you can blame me for the cheese). I know my eldest son will just love this as he's always using Yahoo! Answers for video game tips (yes - we're all geeks in my house) but he prefers using Ask.com as an engine so I know he'll be happy when I get home and tell him about this launch.

And on the note of clutter on the web, I'm going to end this post with what I consider to be a very humorous ad by none other than Bing (them again?). It plays on this very thing.
(ironically I'll be drawing the video from YouTube - a Google property)

Labels: ask, bing, brin, google, malware

Well the fine folks over at Google have come up with a response to Friday's bid by Microsoft for Yahoo! Now, believe me - I understand that business is business and that Google has to respond with a negative spin against their competitors but the blog post and press release they put out made me smirk more than think. The official line, put forth by David Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer for Google, was:

"So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over another. It's about preserving the underlying principles of the Internet: openness and innovation."

Ummmmm, OK - you've got to be kidding me. Now I mean no offense to Google - love them to bits and use them daily but seriously, the two properties search market share combined still only account for slightly over half of Google's so exactly what is the threat to competition? Google will still have the overwhelming majority of search so really - they can decide how much innovation goes into it. And please - openness !!! When I get my weekly email updating me on the algorithm or when the numbers get put out on searches/day even - THEN that argument might stand. :) He then writes:

"Could Microsoft now attempt to exert the same sort of inappropriate and illegal influence over the Internet that it did with the PC? While the Internet rewards competitive innovation, Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies -- and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets.

Could the acquisition of Yahoo! allow Microsoft -- despite its legacy of serious legal and regulatory offenses -- to extend unfair practices from browsers and operating systems to the Internet? In addition, Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts. And between them, the two companies operate the two most heavily trafficked portals on the Internet. Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors' email, IM, and web-based services? Policymakers around the world need to ask these questions -- and consumers deserve satisfying answers."

Ouch.

Now, they raise decent points regarding the past practices of Microsoft but again - what competition? If anything the deal will raise the bar on competition in the industry - but Google knows that. Whenever Google's doing something or buying someone everyone makes a big to-do about it. Well now the shoe is on the other foot and Google gets their chance to point the finger.

In the end the likelihood of Google getting their way and the deal being blocked is low. Heck, the fact that Google's against it probably has some FTC people thinking it's a pretty good thing and heck - it might be good for Google as well. Let's consider this - who is the master of search? (hint - it's Google).

People will choose MSN/Live because it's easy (part of their browser, etc.) people will chose Yahoo! because it's part of other services they use or because it's not Google. Well the former will see their services changed dramatically when Microsoft takes over and the later won't like being part of Microsoft any more than Google and so they'll either give up and go to Google or, the company that I view as the true likely winner in this - Ask (come on - give them a chance :)

Of course only time will tell but I'm looking forward to the journey. This is going to be a very VERY interesting story to follow.

Labels: ask, google, market share, microsoft, msn, yahoo

I realized upon setting up to write this post that I need to apologize to you, our valued blog visitor. In logging into Bl0gger I noticed that it was in fact a week ago that I wrote last. Unacceptable. To remedy these delays between posting I'm going to try to post more often AND within the next couple weeks you'll start reading from some new voices over here at Beanstalk including those of Daryl Quenet and Ken Nichol. This will also provide some different perspectives and topic than just my one lone voice can provide. So stay tunes and don't forget to Bookmark us (and if you use Google bookmarks or one of the other great social bookmarking sites ... all the better :).

But now onto the real post:

Today, being Thursday - I did my weekly show on Webmaster Radio. It was a great show with a great guest and, as always, I was joined by Jim Hedger. As we usually do, Jim and I spent the first 15 minutes discussing some of the major goings-on in the search engine world. Today this included:

• Jim Lanzone leaving Ask - The Internet Marketing community mourns the loss of Jim Lanzone from Ask. Jim revitalized Ask.com and under his leadership turned the engine into a world leader (if not in market share then in technology). He will be missed but at the same time we're all excited to see what his successor Jim Safka can do.
• Microsoft To Buy Fast Search Engine - Microsoft has made an offer of $1.2 billion for the Fast search engine. This move stands to shake up Enterprise search considerably and will be a "need to watch" issue after the sale completes (likely in Q2 of this year).
• Google hits 66% market share - Hitwise has releases their stats for December in regards to search market share. It appears Google is up yet again. The stats are:
  
  Google - 65.98%
  Yahoo! - 20.88%
  MSN - 7.04%
  Ask - 4.14%
  
  
• Aaron Wall PPC v SEO Debate - Aaron Wall yesterday posted a blog on the SEO vs. PPC debate. Jim and I quickly discussed how one affects the other and how it's difficult to track what campaign is providing what result when the combination may be increasing overall conversions. We skipped through this section and when we came back we were able to discuss it with ...

Andrew Goodman from PageZero.com. Page Zero just launched into organic SEO - a jump from pure PPC Management they have provided thus far. Jim and I pelted Andrew with questions and got some great info. I'm going to be a jerk though and make you visit the Webmaster Radio site and download the podcast or read the transcripts on the Webmaster radio site. They should be available in the next 24 hours (at least the podcast - the transcripts can take a bit longer).

Labels: aaron wall, andrew goodman, ask, google, market share, microsoft

Today is a good day. As we all look towards a weekend that extends for a couple extra days, as many of us share the opportunity to get together with friends and family and as we ponder all the resolutions we're going to break in the new year. But for none of us is today as special as it is for the folks at Google - well - perhaps even happier are the folks at DoubleClick.

Today Google, "... welcomed the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's clearance of its planned acquisition of DoubleClick Inc." This opens the door for Google to purchase the provider of display advertising technology earlier this year (on the last day of SES NY in fact).

Now all that stands between Google and the deal is the European Commission. Eric Schmidt obviously " ... hopes that will soon reach the same conclusion."

But what does this mean for us? Not a whole heck of a lot really - it means that Google get to get better at targeting ads. Yeah, not something they'd do anyways right?

In this SEO's opinion, the deal in no way compromises the right or ability of other companies to compete with Google. In fact, it appears to be the companies themselves that are helping Google take more and more market share. Yahoo! focuses too much on communities, Microsoft got in the race too late, Ask dropped Jeeves, etc. etc. Google has yet to make a major misstep and has enough trust and market share at this point to live through one.

I would also argue that the purpose of insuring competition is to protect consumers and to insure that better products get a shot rather than being crushed by larger properties. That fact of the matter is, the product (search) is free to consumers - the advertising side isn't free but is fixed in it's cost by what the market will bear (which is the same as it would be if Google did have a monopoly) and let's face facts - while I'm not happy with every algorithmic shift, Google has the best and most comprehensive search utility ever created. They aren't crushing their competition unfairly - they're just producing a better user experience.

Now I'm not trying to say that they're completely following their "Don't be evil" motto to the letter each and every day. They're definitely done some questionable things but overall they're providing the service they promise and they're providing it well. And to their favor, when something they do screws up, they can shift the algorithm again a couple days later. If only Microsoft had that same ability when they put out Vista. ;)

If you'd like more information on this purchase you can find a great overview on the Business Week site.

Labels: ask, doubleclick, google, market share, microsoft, yahoo

While there have been rumors that social media uber-site Digg.com has been up for sale, it's only recently that they have hired Allan & Company (a small but reportedly influential private investment firm) to broker the deal. The price? They want a paltry $300 million dollars.

This of course leaves the question - who would want to buy it? Sure it's cool enough but what value does it really hold? Well, not as much as some similar properties or they wouldn't be looking for someone to broker a deal - they'd already have an offer and be looking for someone to make sure the i's are dotted and the t's crossed (oh, and to negotiate the highest possible value of course).

When we think about it, who stands to gain the most out of the Digg userbase (it's primary offering asset). It doesn't hold a value or information anywhere near what Facebook has.

If I were a betting man (holdem anyone?) I'd put my money on a max offering of $150 million (if that) and the offer will likely come from an outsider as opposed to one of the usual suspects. Perhaps if anyone ... ASK's around they might find a bidder. :) And no, in reality I'm not saying Ask will be the buyer but that the purchase will likely be made by one of the suspects in that level of the game. Good - but not dominant.

Labels: ask, digg, facebook

Alright, I just realized that I've been missing some press releases from comScore over the past week (caught in filter) and of course - that's when all the news comes in. Here's a summary of what the stats are saying this week:

December 13, 2007:
Between the dates of November 1 to December 11, more than $20 billion was spent online showing a whopping 19% increase over last year. eBay has coined the second Monday of December as Green Monday (it is the heaviest online spending day of the season) and this year showed retailers $881 million in love, up 33% over last year and setting the record as the heaviest online spending day in history.

December 16, 2007:
The week of the 9th to the 15th marks the heaviest spending date of the season (likely) with $4.7 billion in sales showing a 22% increase over last year.

Today (December 19, 2007):
Top 50 Websites released. Comscore's report of the top 50 website rankings is released. And here are the results:

1. Yahoo! sites: 136,180,000 uniques
2. Google sites - 131,538,000 uniques
3. Microsoft Sites - 119,194,000 uniques
4. Time Warner Network - 119,084,000 uniques
5. Fox Interactive Media - 81,325,000 uniques
6. eBay - 80,510,000 uniques
7. Amazon Sites - 59,058,000 uniques
8. Wikipedia sites - 55,157,000 uniques
9. Ask Network - 51,636,000 uniques
10. New York Times Digital - 47,997,000 uniques

And for the rest of the list you'll just have to read their press release ont he topic (there's lots of other interesting figures in there as well) at http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1974.

You can view their other press releases at http://www.comscore.com/press/pr.asp.

Labels: ask, comscore, google, microsoft, time warner, yahoo

ComScore released it's numbers for October and, oh my goodness, Google is up. In a rare turn of events the folks at Google appear to have won over some users, increasing their marketshare by 1.5%. The number now break down as follows:

• Google showed a 1.5% gain from 57% markshare in September to 58.5%
• Yahoo! realized a 0.8% loss going from 23.7% to 22.9%
• Microsoft took losses (surprise surprise) going from 10.3% to 9.7%
• Ask (YEAH !!!) held steady at 4.7%
• The Time Warner Network lost 0.1% marketshare ending at 4.2%
  

Now, that said - it's not as bad as it looks for the non-Google site. Let's look at the number of searches conducted on each engine in the month of October which, overall, were up by 11.8%:

• Google was up 14.8% with 6.151 billion searches in October over 5.356 billion searches in September
• Yahoo! realized an 8% gain in total searches ending with 2.405 billion searches (up from 2.227 billion in September)
• Microsoft showed gains in search number though more modest with a 5.6% increase in October going from 969 million searches to 1.023 billion
• Like Google, Ask's gains were in the double digits (and since I have a soft spot in my heart for Ask I'm happy to see this) jumping from 444 million searches in September to 491 million with a 10.7% gain in October
• And the Time Warner Network gained 9.4% in search numbers going from 405 million to 443 million

You can read more on the ComScore site at http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1908.

Labels: ask, comscore, google, market share, microsoft, msn, time warner, yahoo

Well it's finally happened, the fine folks over at Redmond seem to be making at least some minor gains against Google and Yahoo! After literally years of losing search market share (due in large part to an under appreciation for what search would mean in the early days) MSN is finally making gains against the search giants.

The latest ComScore results are out and they show the following for the major engines:

• Google sites dropped from 50.7% market share in May 2007 to 49.5% in June showing a drop of 1.2%
• Yahoo! sites dropped from 26.4% market share in may to 25.1% in June with an overal drop of 1.3%
• Microsoft sites rose from 10.3% to 13.2% from May to June with an overall gain of 2.9%
• The Ask network held steady at 5.0% market share
• The Time Warner Network dropped from 4.6% to 4.2% between May and June of 2007
  

Some other points from their stats:

• Americans conducted 8.0 billion searches online in June, up 6 percent versus May and up 26 percent versus June 2006.
• Google Sites led the pack with 4.0 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo Sites (2.0 billion), Microsoft Sites (1.1 billion), Ask Network (403 million), and Time Warner Network (341 million). Despite declining in search market share in June, both Google Sites and Yahoo! Sites enjoyed increases in search query volume.
• Microsoft Sites experienced a significant increase in search query volume (up 36 percent) and search market share (up 2.9 share points) in June, due in large part to Live Search Club, a program launched by Microsoft in late May to engage and reward users of Live Search.

We of course would once again like to extend our sincere thanks to ComScore for making this information available.

Please note that the variables used to power our free keyword activity tool have been updated to reflect the new marketshare numbers.

Labels: ask, comscore, free seo tools, google, keyword activity tool, market share, msn, time warner, yahoo

AskJeeves announced today that they are now acquiring Excite Europe, a move that helps Ask expand further into the UK market. AskJeeves currently enjoys a solid toe-hold on the European search market and this move will help them further solidify their position in this region.

Now owning Excite US and Europe.

Additionally, AskJeeves has announced that they will be working with InfoSpace to enhance the search experience on Excite.

While Ask does not expect this acquisition to affect 2005 projected revenue it should provide them with much better positioning as they head into 2006. Assuming Ask has enough in the coffers to compete with the inevitable push of MSN into the European market, this acquisition could well situate them to become the #2 engine after Google in the region.

If you're interested you can read the full press release here (Note: hyperlink brought down as the page was removed).

Labels: ask