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.

A New Brew

Caffeine appears to feature new elements and weighting factors within its ranking algorithm. We, at EngineWorks, have been testing this new algorithm over the past few months in order to understand how it affects overall search performance and the ranking of pages within Google’s organic index.

Through our research, we have discovered that there are significant changes that have occurred behind the scenes at Google, including the enhancements to their following performance metrics:

• Number of search results per query,
• Speed of search queries,
• Accuracy of search results,
• Degree of temporal relevance.
• Number of Results

Google has built their reputation on an ability to very quickly crawl and discover new content and Web sites. Over time, this ability has created a situation whereby any given search query can return an astronomical number of search results. For example, the search query ‘hotels’ currently returns more than 343 million listings. However, our analysis of Caffeine reveals that Google appears to be attempting to eliminate a significant amount of duplicate content and irrelevant listings, in order to present even higher quality search results.

For example, a search conducted for ‘destination resort’ through their old algorithm returned more than 38 million result pages; whereas Caffeine displayed less than 19 million listings for the same query. In addition, a similar percentage in the reduction of the number of search results generated by Caffeine occurred for many other popular queries.

Speed

We have discovered that Caffeine generates results almost twice as fast as the previous iteration of their algorithm. It is important to point-out, however, that this increase in speed can only be discerned by turning your attention to the return time displayed by Google on each search engine result page (SERP). In terms of the actual time it takes for Caffeine to generate a relevant SERP compared to their previous algorithm, we found it to be approximately a quarter-of-a-second (i.e., from 0.25 seconds to 0.12 seconds).

While difficult to perceive in real-time, Google’s new algorithm is able to identify what you are searching for, query their massive index, and return highly relevant results in half the time it took through their previous engine. A very impressive feat.

Accuracy

As most individuals familiar with the Google story know, the champion of search technology built their empire upon accurate search results. In fact, the company’s ability to consistently deliver a better user experience than competitive engines, keeps them far, far ahead of the pack.

Caffeine attempts to enhance this commitment to accuracy by delivering blended search results that fit each search query more precisely than their previous algorithm. At first glance, there does not appear to be much difference. However, this new version of Google’s algorithm presents more relevant images, videos, news stories, and blog posts in its search results. At the time of our analysis, overall accuracy through Caffeine appears to be improved for some results. More time will tell if users recognize this improvement.

Temporal Relevance

A hot topic in the search industry right now is temporal relevance, which pertains to which online sources are able to present breaking stories in the timeliest manner. In other words, where do individuals go online to get the most up-to-the-moment news?

When an important news story breaks, who will have the fastest and most relevant news results? Is it Twitter, with their legions of mobile phone users? Or, Wikipedia, with their army of independent editors? What about CNN, and their global network of professional journalists? Or, will it be Google, with their impressive ability to identify the slightest uptick in attention being given to a specific story, and then aggregate the best sources in their search results?

Google is currently battling with these other “real-time” aggregators, such as Twitter and Facebook. In addition, the search company is also competing head-to-head with the other major engines, including Microsoft’s new “Decision Engine” – Bing. Through our analysis of news-based keyword searches in Caffeine, we found little to no improvement in temporal relevance compared to Google’s previous algorithm. We perceive that this will be a factor that Google will need to address in order to maintain its dominant position within the today’s search landscape.

So, What Can Caffeine Do For Me

Google is committed to continuously enhancing your online search experience. While Caffeine does not necessarily present a quantum leap in this area, it does offer faster results that feature more types of relevant sources pertaining to your query.

As a Web site owner or search marketing professional, this means that it is paramount for you to continually feature fresh, optimized content in varied presentations that appeal to the greatest number of individuals searching for your brands, products, and services. Google’s enhanced algorithms in Caffeine seek-out the most relevant, most diverse, and most time-sensitive Web sites for each search query.

To ensure that your site makes it to the top of the list, stimulate your Web pages with legitimate optimization enhancements and effective usability elements.

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.

The Decision Engine

In an attempt to differentiate Bing from the ‘other’ search engine (‘other’ being the term used in their advertising instead of ‘that well-known search company in Mountain View, California’), Microsoft has dubbed Bing as a decision engine. While it remains to be seen if Bing actually facilitates decisions, this advertising tactic is the latest example of the age-old marketing strategy designed to convince an audience that it needs a solution to a previously unrealized problem.

Much like “embarrassing dishwasher water spots”, and “calcium-deficient antacid tablets”, Microsoft touts that using Bing will cure “search overload syndrome” . . . even though the general population is not even aware that they suffer from this debilitating affliction! The intent is to claim that, unlike that ‘other’ engine (which may provide lots of search results that are random and unrelated to the purpose for your search query); Bing offers a superior search experience by delivering much more relevant listings. These ostensibly more succinct search results enable better decisions, according to this ad campaign.

Binghoo!

Before turning our attention to specific strategies that you can employ to achieve enhanced performance through Bing, it’s important to point-out that the top executives at Yahoo! were so impressed with the capabilities of Bing, they decided to hand-over their entire search function to Microsoft. In fact, last month, the Big Purple Portal contracted with Microsoft to have Bing perform as its search provider for the next ten (10) years!

This unprecedented multi-year arrangement gives Microsoft access to the Internet’s second-largest search engine audience, and should enable the Redmond-based software company to better confront Google. It also, obviously, has significant repercussions within the search engine marketing industry. Today, a combined Yahoo! and Microsoft now commands more than twenty-seven percent (27%) percent of all Internet searches in the United States.

Optimizing for Bing

Microsoft has segmented Bing’s core searches into the following four primary categories: local, shopping, travel, and health. In addition, for large-volume search queries (e.g., ‘insurance’ or ‘mortgage’), Bing presents results in ‘Explore Panes’ that feature internal links referred to as ‘Quick Tabs’. It is important to note, however, that its algorithm continuously refines the selection of a given category for specific search queries. This means that you should not attempt to implement optimization strategies designed to rank for a specific Quick Tab, but rather integrate enhancements that will improve your current search listings.

As most search marketers are aware, effective optimization begins with proper page titles and descriptions. For each Web page in Bing, the title and page descriptions are pulled from the title description tag and the Meta description tag, respectively. Because of this, the best strategy for ensuring proper title and description elements in Microsoft’s new engine is to maintain the optimized tags that you have created for Google. This prevents the possibility of negatively affecting your rank within Google, while at the same time presenting compelling call-to-action information and accurate page descriptions in Bing.

In addition to maintaining optimized title and Meta tags, it is very important that you optimize the images and videos contained on your site for Bing. Just as you would optimize these elements for Google; use Alt tags for your images, and descriptive keyword tags with your videos.

Quick Preview

Another important feature within Bing’s search engine result pages (SERP’s) is the ability for users to preview the landing page associated with each search listing. By scrolling over a specific listing on Bing’s SERP’s, a window will appear that provides a textual description of the Web site, along with additional page elements such as contact information, content topics, and internal links. To attract more visitors through your listings in Bing, it is paramount that you include all of these Quick Preview elements into every page of your Web site.

Be Local

A significant component of Microsoft’s new search design, Local Search, is very similar in appearance and function to Google’s extremely popular Local Business Listings (LBL) section. This section on the SERP’s presents information, such as phone numbers and directions, pertaining to local businesses that are relevant to each specific search query. In order to have your site listed on Bing Maps within Local Search, all you have to do is add your business profile in the Bing Listing Center. It’s important to always keep this information updated within your profile, as well. Given the fact that the Local Search listings appear at the top of Bing’s SERP’s (as they do on Google), we recommend that you include as much detailed information as possible within your business profile.

Best Practices = Best Results

As with most search engines today, your best performance within Bing will be achieved through proper site structure, legitimate optimization enhancements, and rich, relevant page content. Even though this newly re-designed engine from Microsoft has only existed for a couple of months, it is already apparent that by adhering to the best practices and Web site guidelines published by the ‘other’ major engine, you can achieve prominently positioned Natural search listings in Bing. This may not be revolutionary . . . however; it is the premise behind the Big Bing Theory!

Take a look at the following search engine results page (SERP) from Bing:

Now, compare this page above to the shift in the location of Google AdWords listings shown in the second SERP below, which is from a search performed today.  The first SERP below was captured in May 2009.

Once again, I’m not purporting that ‘correlation equals causation’ in this instance.  However, it is always important to be cognizant of factors, such as timing of events and actions, which could point to a specific cause for a given effect.

Stay skeptical.

Microsoft’s newly re-named search engine, Bing, is contracted to be Yahoo!’s search provider for the next ten (10) years.  While, admittedly, only a nanosecond in the more than 13.5 billion years that our actual universe has existed, this amount of time equals Google’s entire lifetime to date!  The 10-year arrangement will give Microsoft access to the Internet’s second-largest search engine audience, which should enable the Redmond-based software company to better confront Google, which is by far the leader in online search and advertising.

Microsoft was able to put this colossal search arrangement together without having to pay billions and billions of dollars, which it had offered Yahoo! over the past several years.  In exchange for allowing Bing to provide its Natural search results, Yahoo! will retain eighty-eight percent (88%) of all revenue earned through Sponsored Listings advertising on its site during the next five (5) years.  In addition, Yahoo! also has the right to sell its Sponsored Listings on some Microsoft sites.

In an attempt to travel back to the days of single lens telescopes, here is a celestial map of the major bodies in our search universe, circa August 1999:

Northern Light: 16%
AltaVista: 15.5%
Inktomi (Snap): 15.5%
Inktomi (HotBot): 11.3%
Inktomi (MSN Search): 8.5%
Infoseek: 8.0%
Google: 7.8%
Inktomi (Yahoo): 7.4%
Excite: 5.6%
Lycos: 2.5%
Euroseek: 2.2%

Today, of course, Google commands well over sixty-three percent (63%) of all domestic online searches.  However, this announcement today enables Yahoo! and Microsoft to handle more than twenty-seven percent (27%) percent of the Internet searches in the United States.  Could this be the beginning of the Big Bing Theory?!!

The reason for this make-over, as conveyed by Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer, is that “We want to do better.”  Given that Microsoft currently captures less than a ten percent (10%) share of total online search queries in the United States according to the Nielsen Online  MegaView Search in May 2009, as apposed to Google’s share of more than sixty-four percent (64%), I would say that Mr. Ballmer very astutely identified the desire for this development!

As noted in this AP article, Microsoft has been relegated to third place behind Google and Yahoo! in terms of search market share for years.  This fact is important, since Google’s reported revenue of more than $4.7 billion in Q1 2009 is inextricably tied to its search market dominance.  Microsoft, by contrast, reported a net loss from its online advertising business in the first quarter of this year.

When asked why Microsoft chose Bing, Mr. Ballmer responded, “The name is short, it’s easy to say, it works globally.”

I guess he perceives it to be shorter, easier, and more global than Live.

Let me know if you think this latest incarnation of  Microsoft’s search product will have an impact upon Mr. Softy’s position within the search space.

Portland’s premier search engine marketing conference, SearchFest09, will provide insight into the newest in strategies and technological advancements within our vibrant industry.  Search marketing experts from around the country will be participating on informative panel presentations throughout the this exciting event in the Cascade Crest Banquet Center at the Oregon Zoo.

SearchFest is hosted by Search Engine Marketing Professionals of Portland (SEMpdx), a Portland-based, non-profit organization dedicated to nurturing the development of the search engine marketing industry in the greater Pacific Northwest, and will feature thirty-five well-known presenters, including headliner Danny Sullivan, Editor-In-Chief of Search Engine Land.

In addition to sponsoring this lively Closing Reception, key EngineWorks personnel will be actively participating on several panel presentations throughout the day.  Our President and CEO, Sean McMahon, will be moderating the Technology panel session featuring Susan Moskwa from Google, Vanessa Fox with Nine by Blue, and Aaron Kahlow from Online Marketing Summit.  As Vice President of Client Acquisition, I will be leading the Social Media Marketing discussion featuring Dawn Foster (Fast Wonder), Neil Patel (ACS), and Matt Inman (Next Dating, LLC).  Immediately preceding the Closing Reception, our Vice President of Strategy, Kent Schnepp, will moderate the exciting Hot Seat presentation.

Please drop me a post to this blog, or stop by our booth at the event, if you would like to discuss how our high performance search marketing services can benefit your online presence. I looking forward to seeing you there!

David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, contributed his view on this insightful discovery by stating, “There is a connection between display and search ads,” he said. “Marketers know this intuitively. Often it’s not the search ad alone that gets consumers to act, but the context of all the marketing that preceded it.”

eMarketer also presented the following graph that depicts the tremendous impact that online display campaigns have upon search activity, especially within the lucrative travel and tourism industry:

As shown, brand- and segment-related searches within the travel and tourism vertical increased an impressive 274% after online consumers were exposed to display ads.  To learn more about how we can implement an integrated campaign feature display ads working in concert with your Paid Search listings, please drop us a line.  We’ll be happy to show you the direct benefits you can gain in your overall online performance!

This mega international exposition will focus on educating marketers in the highly competitive travel and tourism industry about search engine marketing.  Search Marketing Expo – SMX Travel promises to bring together thought leaders from the largest players in the online search industry, including Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

As a full-service search marketing firm specializing in professional online customer acquisition services for travel and tourism companies of all sizes, EngineWorks perceives that it is important for you to remain informed of the advanced conferences in our space.

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.

The following graph from a September 10, 2008 article in Fortune titled ‘Yahoo traffic in a skid’ depicts the overall market share percentages of Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Live during the past trailing 12 months:

It’s obvious from this graph, and the article it came from, that the G-Men from Mountain View truly do rule the online search landscape.  It’s also difficult to see the trends in our space changing any time soon.

Let me know if you perceive that the No. 2 and/or No. 3 search engine will ever gain ground on the 600lb. googlerilla.  Or, if you think that some upstart will become the next Google during the next decade.

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.

Here are several fascinating facts extracted from this report:

• The top three (3) search engines, Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Live currently command almost ninety percent of the total number of online searches conducted in the U.S. (89.5% to be exact).

• The top five (5) search engines, Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Live, AOL, and Ask, captured more than ninety-six percent (actually 96.1%) of the total number of U.S. searches performed during July 2008.

• While the overall search industry grew by three percent (3%) year-over-year last month, Google’s year-over-year growth was more than five (5) times this industry growth rate.

Needless to say, the big fish don’t leave a lot of room in the pond. Therefore, we at EngineWorks obviously concentrate most of our efforts on attracting qualified visitors and eager customers through these top performing engines.

As the saying goes, it makes sense to fish where the fish are!

Let us know if you envision any substantial changes to the market share percentages of these leading search engines during the coming 12 months.

Gaia at W+K arranged the event, and had attendees pick-up packets a couple weeks ago, or mailed to individuals who were not able to swing-by the agency (like me). These packets paired each of us with a W+K employee, and also provide a brief overview and instructions.

Actually having someone specific to ‘meet’, and an assignment ahead of time, made certain that folks like me attended the lunch event. (As I mentioned, this was the first one I actually made it to). I’m not sure, however, if the pairing-up had the desired effect. My W+K ‘date’, Kristy, was great. But, I could see how some interactions may have been forced, with both parties feeling obligated to hit-it-off with each other.

Overall, we enjoyed the food and our time with fellow marketing experts. I, however, forgot to put my business card in the hat for the cool prizes. The always popular Rock Band/Guitar Hero (not sure which one) was a big hit. I look forward to attending the next Lunch2.0 to see if my observation pertaining to the pairing-up of partners was correct. Hope to see you there…

This important industry-wide event is taking place at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in downtown Seattle. In addition to bleeding-edge SEM educational sessions, SMX Advanced will feature the following two renowned search experts as its keynote speakers: Kevin Johnson, President, Platform & Services Division, at Microsoft, and Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team.

Along with my two panel presentations stated above, EngineWorks will have key executives available at this conference, including Mike Rosenberg (Vice President of Client Acquisition), Scott Fish (Director of SEO), and Lisa Peyton (Director of Paid Search), to discuss our high performance search marketing services.

If you would like to carve-out some time to meet with me, or any of our EngineWorks team members, please drop me a quick response to this post.

Look forward to seeing you in Seattle!

The withdrawal to its $47.5 billion take-over bid effectively wiped-out more than $7.5 billion worth of market capitalization over at Yahoo!.

In the aftermath of this break-up, search behemoth Google is perceived to be positioned better that ever to retain its dominance of the online search space.  The now-defunct union of Microsoft and Yahoo! presented a formidable online advertising competitor to the G-Men from Mountain View.

Let me know if you think that this non-event will have an impact upon how the big three engines will cooperate in the future.

Key executives from EngineWorks, including our Vice President of Strategy, Kent Schnepp, will be meeting with top personnel from the online search industry’s largest and most important companies, including Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft at this advanced conference.
If you would like to meet with Kent and his team at this unique event, please drop us a post to this blog.  They’ll be eager to discuss the value of our high performance search marketing services, including our new social media marketing solutions, with you.

. . . you can make it anywhere!

All this week, EngineWorks will be in New York attending the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference at the Hilton New York (1335 Avenue of the Americas).

At this major industry conference, key EngineWorks personnel, including our Vice President of Client Acquisition, Mike Rosenberg, and Angela Yost, Director of Client Acquisition, will be meeting with top professionals in the online search marketing industry, including executives from Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft.

If you would like to meet-up with us at this conference to explore the possibility of having EngineWorks improve your sales performance through the major search engines, please leave us a post, or simply contact us.

We’ll see you there!

The event, being held in the Cascade Crest Banquet Center at the Oregon Zoo, will provide multiple sessions covering a comprehensive range of search marketing topics. Also included in the conference is a professional “SEM Hot Seat” featuring expert panelists critiquing actual Web sites, and providing search marketing advice to regional site owners.

As president of EngineWorks, I am privileged to be the moderator for SearchFest’s opening panel session titled “Search in the Marketing Mix”. This anticipated lively panel discussion will feature professional insight from the following outstanding online search executives:

1. Jeff Pruitt, President of SEMPO,
2. Hillary Jensen, Google, Inc.,
3. Nathan Buggia, Microsoft, Inc.

In addition, EngineWorks is pleased to have our co-founder and Vice President of Operations, Kent Schnepp, be the moderator of the SearchFest session titled “Site Architecture, Usability, SEO & Analytics”. The expert panelists for this informative session are:

1. Stoney DeGeyter, Pole Position Marketing,
2. Ian Lurie, Portent Interactive,
3. Aaron Kahlow, BusinessOL.

If you are a regional business in the Pacific Northwest eager to learn new ways to have prospective customers find your products and services online, this is a must event. You can register for this invaluable conference through the following link:

SearchFest ’08 Registration.

To review the impressive agenda for this event, visit the SEMpdx Web site.

We look forward to seeing you there!

This article identifies that Yahoo!’s answer to improved search relevancy at Google, known as “Project Panama”, has been largely a failed effort. They back-up this claim by stating that last year, Google commanded more than 71% of the total U.S. search marketing revenue, compared to Yahoo!’s less than 9%, as reported by eMarketer, Inc.

Mr. Letzing piles on the criticism of Panama by including the following quote from Jim Friedland, analyst at Cowen & Co., “Panama and their [Yahoo!'s] investment in search came way too late. Google had already won the war.”

I’m interested in knowing if you have experienced better results, and/or included more client campaigns in Yahoo!, since Panama’s introduction a couple years ago. Let us also know if you perceive Panama will make Yahoo! a viable contender to the G-Men from Mountain View (whether under the auspices of Microsoft, or standing alone).

The article went on to state the several analyst perceive this as an attempt by Yahoo! to get Microsoft to offer a solicitation in upwards of $40.00 a share for the company. This would be almost a 30 percent premium to the current bid from Bill’s software shop.

The intriguing part of this courtship dance to me is that, while the board of directors at both companies focus on a union designed to maximize shareholder value, Google continues to strengthen its strangle-hold on its top position in the online search industry. As shown in the chart on our Search Engine Market Share page in our Resource section on this site, Google commanded more than 56% of total U.S. searches in December 2007, compared to Yahoo!’s 17.7% and Microsoft’s 13.8%.

I realize that a combined Microhoo! would capture a little more than half the number of searches that Google is currently generating in the United States. However, the operative component of that statement is “a little more than half”. Even combined, that’s a long road to travel. Let me know if you think getting half way there will enable Microsoft to catch-up to Google in the long run.

This report, which is cited in an article titled “{Eat Baidu’s Dust, Microsoft“ on The Motley Fool Web site, states that Microsoft is a distant fourth in rank of the world’s most popular search engines, behind Google at the top, Yahoo! in second position, and Baidu in third.

Here’s the breakdown of each search engine’s world-wide market share in December 2007 from this revealing report:

Google     62.5%
Yahoo!    12.8%
Baidu        5.2%
Microsoft    2.9%
All Others    16.7%

In addition to bringing to light the lagging position of Microsoft in the online search industry, The Motley Fool article goes on to state that, “Mr. Softy can’t even claim to be playing small ball profitably. The company’s online arm continues to lose money”. Given this fact, you can see why this $45 billion offer was made last week.

Interestingly enough, even if Microsoft does acquire Yahoo!, the current annual revenue at the Sunnyvale search engine represents only about ten percent of total revenue at Bill’s Place. Of course, some deals aren’t just about the money!

This announcement comes at the same that IAC is preparing to separate into five publicly traded companies. As you may be aware, IAC plans to spin-off Ask.com., Ticketmanster, LendingTree, HSN, and Interval International into stand-alone public entities.

I can see the value of several of these entities operating as independent publicly-traded companies, however, I perceive that Ask.com will have a difficult time on its own, given that the search company is current bringing-up the rear in the race of the top-5 search engines.

As shown below, Ask.com had only 2.7 percent of the United States search market in November 2007, according to the December 2007 Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Search report.

Search Provider        Percent of Searches       Y-O-Y Growth Rate

Google                                57.7%                                40.8%
Yahoo!                                17.9%                                26.7%
MSN/Windows Live        1 2.0%                              27.8%
AOL                                      4.5%                                14.7%
Ask.com                                2.7%                                10.5%

The daunting challenge that Ask.com faces is the fact that, unlike its top rival Google, the company needs to spend significant advertising dollars on traditional media, such as television commercials, to attract new users. It’s always an up-hill climb when your top competitor is perceived as the ‘default’ provider. But, that may be why they are going after “The Street” money.

Let me know if you think Ask.com will be a relevant player in the next few years.