How Much Is Mobile Going to Change the Search Market?

More people have the web in the palm of their hands than ever before. Smartphone usage isn't exactly slowing down, and for that reason, the search market might get shaken up considerably in the coming months. Google has long dominated the search market, and to this day continues to do so. There is nothing indicating that will change in the near future, but the rise of smartphones and deals among different players could conceivably shake things up, and make things a bit more competitive.

AT&T has just confirmed that a new Android device it is about to begin offering (The Motorola Backflip, launching March 7), will come with Yahoo as its default search engine, as opposed to Google. This is interesting of course, because Android is Google's mobile operating system. How many more deals like this will we see?

Microsoft will eventually launch its new Windows phones, which will come with a Bing hardware key. Owners of these phones will automatically use Bing as their search engine when they hit the search button, which will be the most convenient way of searching from the devices.

When you look at things like this, it almost seems as though popularity of specific mobile devices may dictate to some extent, search engine usage. Right now, Google powers the uber-popular iPhone's search, but that could change in time. It appears that mobile carriers and manufacturers are playing an increasingly significant role in search usage (probably a good reason that Microsoft is said to be investing a billion in mobile).

PC hardware traditionally hasn't made search a focal point, and therefore hasn't had a huge influence on what search engine a person uses. How much will PC use shift to smartphone use though? It's not likely to completely replace it anytime soon (as MIcrosoft CEO Steve Ballmer implied in his keynote at SMX West yesterday), but I know personally, I've spent less time on my PC since I got my current phone, and much of the activity I use that phone for requires search (the most convenient method being the hardware search button).

Then you have apps. New apps come out everyday, and you never know what's going to be popular tomorrow. There are already apps out there changing how people find local businesses, for example. More apps mean more choices for the consumer, and that could mean an even greater scattering of search market share.

It seems to me that mobile is the best thing search competition has going for it. For Google to defend its title, staying relevant in the mobile space is going to be key moving forward. Fortunately for them, they're doing a pretty good job so far. Last I saw, Android usage was on the rise (though deals like AT&T and Yahoo's seem to blur the lines a bit).

How big of an impact do you think the mobile industry will have on the search market? Share your thoughts here.

Gmail Search Becomes More Like Google Search

Last year, Google released a Gmail Labs feature that added a search box for regular Google Search within Gmail. The lab is simply called Google search. However, it didn't provide all of the features that the real Google search does. They have now taken steps to improve the feature's capabilities in the following areas:

- Dictionary definitions
- Spelling corrections
- Calculations
- Local results
- Weather
- News

You can now enter "define" and a word in the search box to retrieve a definition. If you spell something wrong, it will ask you if you meant something else. If you type in a math expression, you'll get the calculation. You can search for a specific place or for things near a specific place and get map results (although Google said this feature will become available in a few weeks). It will also show you the More Info link, which will take you to a place page.

You can type "weather" followed by your city and state (or country) or zip code and get local weather results not unlike what you would get in a regular Google search. If your query matches something in the news, you may get some news results.

The new features are available in all languages that Gmail supports. They have also added a search button to the toolbar when you compose a message. With this, you can select text, click the button, and it will search for that. If you don't select text, it will just bring up a search box.

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Maximum Website Promotion through PPC Bid Management

Tools for Internet Marketing have been rising to popularity these days because of cost-effectiveness and the possibility of measuring increase in profits and sales.

Pay per click (PPC) is a means to advertise business through the use of keywords/phrases in the search engines. The advertiser is required to only pay for each click that sends a visitor to his website. Search engines such as Overture, Google Adwords, Search Yahoo and Miva are just some examples of search engines. They offer top positions among the sponsored listings for particular keywords/phrases you choose. The idea for bidding is you have to buy/bid on keywords/phrases relevant to your business. The highest bidder gets to be on the top of the search result listing and the second highest bidder, of course, gets the next top listing and so on. Every time a visitor clicks on your website, you will have to pay the same amount that you bid on that particular keyword.

PPC can be very costly, time consuming and sometimes not worthy. But if you know how to go about the step by step procedures, PPC is a welcome change to traditional advertising.

If you do your searches for products, articles and auctions in the net, you usually type in a keyword or a set of phrase to guide you in your search. Either you use Google or Yahoo Search depending on where you are most comfortable at and where you usually get the best results. As soon as you key in the search button, immediately a long list of keywords or phrase will be displayed containing the keywords you key in. The first or the top link that you saw is most likely the one who bids the highest for that keyword you type. In this way, businessmen will produce the desired results; they get to be advertised, at the same time, saving and spending only for the clicks they need that might translate to potential sales.

The way to start PPC bid management is to identify first the maximum cost per click (CPC) you are willing to pay for a given keyword or phrase. CPC varies from time and even search engine to search engine too. Maximum CPC can be measured by averaging the current costs of bids (bids range from $0.25 to $5). Average of these bids is to be used as the maximum CPC to begin with. As your ad campaign progresses, the actual conversion rate (visitors turning to potential buyers/sales) will be determined and you may have to adjust your CPC (bidding rate) accordingly.

When you start to bid, see to it that you adopt different bidding strategies for various search engines. Search engines have their own PPC systems that require different approaches. It is also worthy to identify different bids for the same keyword phrases in various search engines.

Another thing, it is wiser not to bid for the top spot for two reasons: 1) It is very expensive and impractical, and 2) Surfers usually try different search queries in various search engines before they settle on the right one that fits to what they are looking for. This hardly results to conversion. Try to bid for the fifth spot instead and work your way up.

If you are now going steady on your PPC biddings, it is time for you to develop your own bidding strategy accordingly. It is important for you to track down which sites bring the bulk of your traffic and identify the ranking of your paid ads. This will help your bidding strategy to be effective and you should also decide where you want your ad to be positioned. Usually your maximum CPC will limit your choices.

Bid gaps (e.g. $ 0.40, 0.39, bid gap, 0.20, 0.19, 0.18) occur when there is a significant price increase to move up one spot in the PPC rankings. It is best if you take advantage of the bid gaps by filling them in so you can save up your cents to other bidding opportunities. Often there are keywords worthy of lesser bids to get the appropriate ranking on the list and produce a good number of clicks and higher conversion rate rather than bidding higher but having a poor conversion rate. You have to put in mind that overbidding too is not good but rather the best position for the most effective bid.

Using pay-per-click bid management in promoting your website will only be successful if you take time building many lists across many engines and studying the performance of every listing. In this way, you can make the most value from what you spend in the bidding process. The key is to use the necessary precautions to stay ahead of the competition.

Bid Management Tools

In ensuring best results, you may use bid management tools. There are accepted and approved management tools that will help you in your bidding. They are categorized in two different types:

• Web based (services by monthly subscription) or,
• PC based (a purchased software)

Monitoring tools too may help in the tracking down of your keywords/phrases and search engines as to which among them often generate sales, overall and in relation to your cost per click. This is what you call return of investment (ROI) monitoring.

These bid management tools may include additional functions that may not get from online marketing tools that are readily available. Other tools can monitor competitor’s bids, produce reports for different parties and offer the ability to interface with multiple PPC engines. This is particularly helpful to those who manage more than a hundred keywords across several PPC engines to boost productivity and save time.

Pay-per-click bid management is ideal for the effective promotion of your business online without the hassles of draining your financial keeping too much. It is now fast catching up as a means used in marketing your goods and services to reach to as many consumers as possible.