Tag Archives: bing

What the Yahoo/Bing Merger Means for SEO

Yahoo! and Bing announced their intentions to merge in mid-2009 and that transition is starting to come to fruition. As of June, comScore reported that 64% of searches occur on Google, 18% on Yahoo! and 12% on Bing. Assuming no one migrates from Yahoo! to Google after the transition, Bing will be powering 30% of all search results in the U.S. Yahoo! confirmed last week that they are starting to conduct systems integration testing with Bing, though if recent ranking results from Yahoo! are any indication, there has been algorithm testing taking place for the past couple of months. Systems [...]

Undecided about Bing: The Decision Engine

Okay, I admit it. Bing is starting to show some glimmering signs of promise. But I still have concerns. Big concerns.
I had the chance to chat with Stefan Weitz recently about where Microsoft wanted to take Bing and it’s hard not to get swept up in Stefan’s evangelism. Microsoft is trying to do some very impressive things with search: parse the ambiguity out of our language, stitch together disparate fragments of content into a whole that’s useful to the user and present all this in a results format that informs and assists without requiring extensive tweaking on the part of [...]

Changing the Game of Search

Enquiro’s CEO, Gord Hotchkiss, was recently interviewed about the evolution of Search by Byron Gordon of SEO-PR. The video interview had very convenient timing as it was released just days before the official announcement of the Yahoo/Microsoft search deal.
A regular speaker at industry events and contributor to Media Post, Search Engine Land, and AskEnquiro, Gord has not shied away from voicing his opinions on the need for another dominant search engine. He challenges the engines to rely less on static technological advances to gain market share, and points out how neurology, psychology, and usability affects habits related to choosing [...]

Microsoft’s Talk vs. Microsoft’s Walk

Not so many columns ago, I urged Microsoft to do something amazing in search. Last week, they did. But it wasn’t in a good way. I was on the road last week, and I saw three different things land in my in box about Microsoft and their search efforts. With each email, my frustration mounted. Finally, Friday as I was sitting in Seattle airport I couldn’t contain myself any more. I sent an email to the most senior person I knew at Microsoft Search. The gist of the email was “don’t do it”. Yesterday, I got an email back thanking [...]

Wedding Night Advice for Microsoft and Yahoo

Now that there seems to be some sort of union in Yahoo’s future, blessed or otherwise, I felt the urge to pass along some advice to whoever the happy couple might be. For, in all this talk about the impending nuptials , the clear objective is to survive and compete in the business of attracting the attention of prospects online.
I offer this advice on behalf of users, because frankly, I think that’s the only perspective you should be interested in. I’ll explain why.
 
Why Search is Essential
 
First of all, there’s a lot of talk about how a Microsoft – Yahoo [...]

Planning for Personalization

I should have known as soon as I saw the speaker roster. Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Danny Sullivan, Michael Gray and myself on the same panel. Guess who got the lion's share of attention in the Q&A and after session scrum? Michael and I might as well have checked out early and hit the Google Dance before the crowds.The title of the panel at the inaugural SMX in Seattle was Search Personalization: Fear or Fear Not. As Danny often does, he set the panel up to generate a little debate: Michael Gray vs Google, Yahoo vs Google. I was like [...]