EngineWorks, Inc.

It is well known that a great number of online marketing professionals fuel their day with highly stimulating caffeinated beverages. Thus, it is not surprising that the leading player within our space, Google, selected ‘Caffeine’ to be the code name for their recently introduced search engine algorithm.

According to the announcement made by the G-Men and G-Women in August of this year, Caffeine is even faster and more accurate than their previous spidering and indexing algorithms. This is truly an amazing statement, given the world-class search performance that has been delivered by the company over the past decade.

It is also a development that could directly impact how search engine marketers develop effective strategies for achieving prominently positioned listings within Google’s Natural search index.

(more…)

By now, most individuals in the search marketing space are well aware that, back in late May of this year, Microsoft launched its re-designed online search engine under the new moniker, Bing. (Even those who are not very close to the online search industry should have some knowledge of this newly branded search engine, given the massive $100 million or so that Bill’s Software Shop is currently spending on national television advertisements to promote Bing!)

As well documented, Microsoft has been relegated to a distant third place position in the domestic search market-share race (trailing both rivals Google and Yahoo!). However, this recent launch presents a tremendous opportunity for online marketers to capture additional qualified traffic and improve conversion-to-customer performance on their Web sites.

(more…)

We, as humans, have a tendency to seek-out a cause for every effect.  This, of unfortunately, can lead to the logical fallacy of ‘correlation equals causation’.  That is, just because a correlation exists between two phenomena, it must mean that one is the cause of the other.  It’s important to keep this fallacy in mind when asking yourself if Google’s recent decision to move its AdWords sponsored listings (from the far right side of their search engine results page, to closer to the middle of the page) was in response to the recent successful introduction of Microsoft’s newly branded search engine, Bing.

(more…)

Today’s announcement that Yahoo! will be turning its search engine over to Microsoft made me a little nostalgic for early days when our online search universe was just forming with hundreds of rapidly expanding solar systems, dying stars, and ominous black holes.  One of the largest galaxies in our universe during the late 1990’s (when I entered this fledgling space) was Inktomi, which was purchased by the very-same Yahoo! in 2002.  As most veteran Internet star gazers know, Inktomi commanded a market share of more than 42% of all online searches performed in the United States in 1999.  With today’s celestial collision between Microsoft and Yahoo!, it is safe to say that Inktomi has become a proverbial red dwarf.

(more…)

The Associate Press reported this morning, in an article titled ‘Bing it on: Microsoft overhauls search, again’, that the Redmond-based software giant will be launching its re-designed online search service under the new name of Bing.  According to Microsoft, the newly revamped search site is intended to make online searching less haphazard, and easier for individuals to make purchases, schedule travel plans, and locate credible health information.

(more…)

EngineWorks is pleased to announce that we will be the exclusive sponsor the of  Closing Reception at the upcoming SearchFest 09 taking place here in Portland on March 10, 2009.  We encourage you to attend this exceptional day-long event, and join us after for socializing, networking, and enjoyable libations.

(more…)

A compelling article this month from eMarketer reports that a study conducted by Atlas Solutions using Microsoft’s Engagement Mapping data found a direct correlation in increase of conversion-to-sales performance when an online display campaign is implemented along-side a Paid Search Marketing campaign.  The article titled ‘Display Boost Search Performance’ stated that the study revealed that search engine users who were exposed to display advertising, and who clicked on a search listing, were twenty-two percent (22%) more likely to convert to a sale than individuals not exposed to an online display advertisement.

(more…)

Third Door Media, the company that delivers Search Engine Land, the leading news and analysis blog for search marketing professionals, has announced that it has partnered with FITUR, the largest tourism trade fair on the international circuit, to present Search Marketing Expo – SMX Travel in Madrid, Spain on January 28 through 30, 2009.

(more…)

Each month on our EngineWorks site, we update the current market share percentage of the top ten largest search engines based upon total number of online searches.  It’s not necessary to go this section of our site however to know that Google dominates the online search industry.  The purpose for this blog post is to put this dominance into graph form.

(more…)

In a news release last week, Nielsen Online reported the latest market share percentages for the online search engine industry, which we have updated on our site. Not surprising, Google continues to dominate our vibrant industry both in terms of overall market share (60.2%) and year-over-year growth rate (+16%).

It is important to realize that, in addition to the fact that Google remains the biggest fish in the pond, there continues to be increased consolidation in the number of searches performed on the three largest search engines in the United States.

(more…)