The Search Engine Blog
News and Tips From The Search Marketing World
Live Search Redesign
Someone is a genius…..besides me of course <grin>. The folks at Microsoft have redesigned Live Search and given it a new background. They plan on changing these regularly. But wait, there’s more! Hover your mouse now and receive a popup absolutely free. The popup will let you see more information related to the photo. The more information helps you use more of Live’s features that you might not know existed. Brilliant move on their part. Great marketing!
Now how many of you are thinking, “How can I capitalize on the searches that Live is sending people to?”. If you didn’t think of that, you need to hire someone like myself. It’s opportunity time for MS and for you.
Live Search : New home page helps you explore more on the Web
BrowseRank, Not PageRank
Microsoft takes others ideas and does them better. At least that’s what some claim, and now they are out to show Google how to do PageRank better. That shouldn’t be too hard as PageRank numbers are flawed anyway. Microsoft’s ranking system is based on user behaviour. The more clicks and user actions they record, the better your site ranks. Live.com, Microsoft’s search engine, has millions of users so they think they can deliver some useful ranking numbers based on this model. While the idea isn’t new to this planet, it does seem to be what people want.
Microsoft tries to one-up Google PageRank | News – Digital Media – CNET News.com
Cash For Search? Only From Microsoft
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Microsoft will give you cash back for searching your next purchase on their Live Search! product search. Not that they need to as it’s already better than Google’s product search. It includes shipping costs making the results more reliable when searching for the least expensive purchase of useless cat toys. Add to that the 2-5% discount for using their service and I think we’ve got us a winner.
Microsoft To Take Over Yahoo!? (Yawn)
If the news lately sounds all the same (Britney Spears in court, sunny in Hawaii today, etc.), well, it’s because it is. Yup, Microsoft is again trying to buy Yahoo!. Not totally unexpected as Yahoo! has been getting cozy with Google. Yawn. Just taking a wait and see attitude here. It will be a long time before this is ironed out.
MSN Live Search News
Microsoft’s second attempt to aggregate news is much improved. It’s a very simple interface with a useful sidebar containing local news. The local news uses your IP address to determine your location. While this saves having to enter a city and zipcode, it’s not terribly helpful if you live on the state line as I do. I’m getting the wrong state news with no clear way to change it permanently. There are only a few news sources at the moment and no RSS feed yet, but it does have promise to be an excellent service. The interface is clean and tidy and ….mmmmm…. looks like Google.
Microsoft AdCenter Still Doesn’t Do Dynamic Keyword Insertion Correctly
MSN has confirmed that the bug is still not fixed despite the instructions being posted on their site on how to use the feature. There are work arounds, but quite honestly it’s best just to not let friends drive dynamic yet. Once it’s fixed and others have tested it for you, be my guest. It’s a wonderful feature that is really missed in MSN.
Yahoo! To Reject Microsoft Offer
It should come as no surprise as history repeats itself. Yahoo! will be rejecting Microsoft’s offer to purchase Yahoo!
Smart Ads From Microsoft
If ads were really smart, they’d know I didn’t want to see them. Microsoft has announced a smart ad product that knows when to show ads in a video. For example, your logo would appear when your product name is mentioned. It also is suppose to know the appropriate time to display to avoid interfering with the video. Link to forum discussion below…
Yahoo To Be Purchased By Microsoft???
Microsoft has offered to purchase Yahoo! for $44.6 billion. Yahoo! is in trouble with internal bickering, layoffs and less than stellar performance this past year. Are they ripe for purchase? Microsoft seems to think so. What do many search marketers think of the move? Isn’t is just taking two troubled companies (as far as search is concerned) and combining them for even more woes or will this provide a needed competitor for the Google Goliath? (As if Microsoft wasn’t already a giant.)
Microsoft offers $44.6 billion for Yahoo – U.S. business- msnbc.com
Microsoft Provides Ads to WSJ Sites
Microsoft will be providing advertising for the Wall Street Journal sites. This includes paid searches and contextual advertising. If you want to advertise on WSJ sites, it looks like Microsoft might be the most affordable option.
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