Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

Well, it's been a long time since my last blog post. I apologize for this and will be working hard to try to be more active in the social world of the web. As you know - in this industry things move pretty fast and while I definitely can't recap the last couple weeks, I can start anew with the recent going's on - some interesting news going forward and an update on Google. First - let's talk about what's going on right now:

Today on Webcology (my radio show) Jim Hedger and I discussed privacy including an Italian's court's assertion that Google executive are responsible for the material uploaded to YouTube (yikes), an interview with the Ontario privacy commissioner, and a lengthy discussion on what should and shouldn't be private (and who's responsibility is it anyways - is Facebook REALLY responsible for your privacy or should YOU take a second to think about what you're adding to a social network (key word - social) and understand that once you add it - it's no longer private information). It was a great show and is the first in a series of interviews and information on privacy issues and concerns.

Yahoo! & Bing are finally sitting in a tree. :) The deal has been approved and Bing will soon (hopefully by the end of 2010) be feeding Yahoo! organic results and Yahoo! paid search will power Bing paid results (they hope by Q4 of 2010 but in my humble opinion it's more likely in Q1 of 2011). Can I hear a - FINALLY !

And for those of you who are as geeky as I am - there's a great webinar series this weekend. 30 webinars in one weekend on a wide array of topics. it's going to be a wild ride with tons of great info and PRIZES. With reps from the major engines and great presenters such as Shawna Fennell, Stoney deGeyter, Jennifer Laycock and many many more (including your truly on Saturday at 12PM) you just know it's going to be great. Hope to see you there and good luck winning one of the many great prized from netbooks to $5000 design packages. So get your Twitter account loaded, step in front of your favorite browser and buckle up. To register go to http://www.newlifeevent.com/.

Labels: bing, google, webcology, webinar, yahoo

Last week on Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm I had the pleasure of chatting with some of the fine folks at Bing to discuss their new engine Bing. I got a followup email from Brendan Blandy from Waggener Edstrom (the marketing folks for Bing) with some useful links for those interested in Bing.

If you care to follow Bing (and you should) then here's where to go first:

• Bing Toolbox
• Bing Webmaster Center
• Bing Webmaster blog
• Bing Twitter

See you there !

Labels: bing

In preparation for today's show on Webmaster Radio I did my obligatory ransacking of the web for SEO news. Of course - I do this on a regular basis but on Thursdays I dedicate a solid couple hours to just this one task as opposed to the "when I get a chance" aspects of most other days.

Today I found a few interesting stories and so rather than report of something we've discovered or putting my spin on some news I'm going to simply list of a number of interesting news stories, perhaps a bit of a summary on why they're important (in my humble opinion) and a link to the radio show where I discussed them in more detail.

First - let's look at Google.

Didn't get to this on the show (week-after-week we run out of time) but they're pushing hard to get broadband into more regions of the world and get fast wireless access to cover more areas.

Of course they're only looking out for us right? Wrong. As Greg Sterling rightfully points out over at Search Engine Land in his post, "Google Wants The Web To Go Faster", Google's motives here are purely driven by self interest. That said, their self interest coincides nicely with the interests on most tech companies and with consumers so it seems that having the budget and interests on Google on our side just might get things rolling in our favor.

And for those of you who might have missed it the first 83 times they said it - here's a video from Matt Cutts (Google Guru) on quality directories vs paid links:


All right - now on to Bing.

Our regular readers will know that I'm getting sick-and-tired of reporting more positive news on Bing. Well today I get a mixed bag which is better than nothing.

On one hand - Bing's share of paid links has increased by 13% since it's launch. Let's remember - this is where search companies make their money so this statistic is HUGE. You can read more about this on WebProNews.

Now the fun part for me - SE Round Table has brought a discussion to light that Microsoft has increased the traffic they're sending in the form of bots looking for suspicious websites. Alright - that sounds good HOWEVER this traffic may well be skewing their referrer stats that all the previous good news is based on. The amount of traffic to some sites is up ten fold since the switch to Bing which is huge for traffic and could well amount to much of the search market share increases being reported.

I haven't looked far into this at this time and so I don't really have a side of the discussion however it's definitely a story to follow. You can read the article and follow a discussion on the subject over at SE Round Table here.

Obviously there's a lot of other news out there. Today I high recommend visiting Search Brains. They're always good but today I was especially impressed with the quality and diversity of news.

Labels: bing, direcory, google, market share, matt cutts

I love Friday's (and who doesn't). Today there's a bit of news from the SEO realm for you and I'll add a bit of humor at the end just to make the end of your day (or weekend) a bit more entertaining. :)

First let's discuss Bing (oh God not again). Annoyingly - I have more good news for Webmasters from Bing. For why this is annoying you can reference yesterday's post. But here we go anyways.

A few days ago Bing released a PDF for webmasters and publishers on Bing the basically outlines some of the core differences between Bing and those "other engines" (read: Google). If you really searched on Bing you'd figure this stuff out fairly readily however it's a worthwhile read. You can download the PDF from their download center here.

I came across the document when I read Vanessa Fox's analysis of the document on Search Engine Land at http://searchengineland.com/microsofts-search-engine-optimization-advice-for-bing-21152. Both are recommended reading but if you only have time for one - stick with Vanessa'a take.

And now I get to smile a bit as I have some "bad news" on Microsoft. They're bribing Australian users to switch from Firefox back to IE with a contest for $10k. Basically, they have "hidden" some money on the web and are giving tips away on Twitter. The first to find it gets to keep the cash but it won't work if you're using Firefox.

My tip to Microsoft would be to just build a better browser and I'll just switch. You don't need to bribe me. :)

You can read more about the bribery on the Australian site at http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/default.aspx.

And last but not least - the humor I promised you. So turn down your speakers or slap on your headphone (unless your at home in which case feel free to enjoy over your full surround system if you feel so inclined) and enjoy. The following is a clip from comedian Louis CK from his appearance on Conan O'Brien. You've got a very good grasp of this generation Louis. :)

Labels: bing, comedy, firefox, microsoft

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 it appears that it's Christmas in June Bing. For the second consecutive week it has "stolen" marketshare from the other two major engines. comScore reports that Bing is now at 12.1% market share which is up from the 11.3% they were at last week which was up again from the 9.1% Microsoft had prior to the launch of Bing.

In search penetration (% of users who have used the engine - this number can surpass 100% as users (like yours truly) can use multiple engines) they've seen further gains at 16.7% last week which was up from 13.7% prior to Bing.

So it appears that Microsoft might have finally done something right in the world of search. They've built an engine that is far superior to their previous attempts in both function and results. While they still have algorithmic advancements to be made to bring their system up to the level of results of Google - they are well situated to finally take a shot at the search pie.

Personally - I wish them luck but I've got to say - it feels odd to cheer for Microsoft as the "little guy" (especially given that that have enough to just buy Google). :)

Labels: bing, marketshare, microsoft

Some stats are out on how Bing is doing and so far so good.

As an SEO I'm always interested in how the major three engines are playing against each other. In this case (and finally) a Microsoft attempt at a search engine seems to be working in both the direction of marketshare as well as in the actual results and how they're displayed.

I'm going start by noting that the advances Microsoft has made in the way of their attitude towards search as is reflected in Bing as well as the giant leap forward they've made in their algorithm are both impressive. The results are cleaner, the interface is cleaner, and Microsoft comes across looking ... well ... cleaner. Like maybe they're trying to build a solid engine and not just scrambling in futility to catch up to Google.

Whether just a spike due to curiosity or a reflection of things to come, Bing is taking market share from both Google and Yahoo! which show that at least people are interested in taking a peek. The real loser here is likely to be Yahoo! Google's results are still better but those who are Yahoo! users may well find the results better over at Bing and the homepage and results pages cleaner (common word I seem to be using).

According to StatCounter the market share is:

• Google decreased from 78.68% to 77.94% (-0.74%).
• Yahoo decreased from 11.46% to 10.76% (-0.7%)
• Microsoft (Bing, MSN Search and Live Search) increased from 7.4% to 9% (+1.6%)

This is the first time Microsoft has seen gains in ages.

Also to their credit, the description and sitelinks that appear when you hover over a result are great.

The future of Bing is still an open question and with tens of millions more in marketing dollars to come it's going to be interesting to watch what they do next and how the public reacts.

As another note: they've just launched and have yet to have time to tweak their algorithm much based on the issues they find from user behaviorso I expect that over the next couple months we're going to find significant improvements in their rankings.

I wouldn't say this is any kind of Google-killer BUT I would say that they're positioned to be a very solid player that could well take market share from both engines --- let's just hope they keep up the good work.

I'll be interviewing a couple of the fine folks from Bing next week for my radio show (Webcology on WebmasterRadio.fm on Thursday from 11am to 12 PST). Listen in if you'd like more details or download the podcast afterward.

For more stats on Bing visit Web Pro News.

Labels: bing, market share