Will Bing Powering Yahoo Make SEO Easier?

There is an interesting discussion going on in our WebProWorld forum about search engine optimization post Microsoft-Yahoo deal. For those unfamiliar with the topic, Microsoft and Yahoo recently gained regulatory approval on a search and advertising deal announced last year, which will see Yahoo using Bing's algorithm in its search results. The discussion is about whether or not this means businesses and webmasters will only have to worry about optimizing for 2 search engines (Google/Bing) rather than 3 (Google, Yahoo, and Bing).

Will you focus your efforts more heavily on Bing? Discuss.

What Bing Coming to Yahoo Means

It's important to note that Microsoft and Yahoo still have plenty of details to work out before anyone knows just how the product of this deal will function. We know that Bing will be used in the back-end of searches on Yahoo, but we don't know what other elements Yahoo will still be incorporating into the search experience. For example, Yahoo said last week that the companies will still be discussing how SearchMonkey and BOSS figure into the mix.

Optimizing for Yahoo is not going to be limited to showing up in Bing's results. That's not to say that showing up in Bing's results won't have its advantages for Yahoo search, but there is a lot more going on at Yahoo than that. The company has been stressing that it is still very much focused on search, and under the deal with Microsoft, Yahoo will still be controlling the user experience at Yahoo.com.

Right now, Yahoo.com has plenty of elements to consider, from news and trending topics, to a whole slew of "applications" that users can customize on their Yahoo homepage. Among these are Facebook and Flickr. If you want to get in front of Yahoo users, it's not limited to Yahoo search results. That said, Yahoo search results also have their own thing going on. Keep an eye on the box that appears under the search box after you enter a query. It contains related queries, and "related concepts". This is one area that could conceivably be independent from Bing (although that remains to be seen at this point). Yahoo is not shy about putting brands in these "related concepts" either. You can find WebProNews in there for a query like "ebusiness news".



The point is, Yahoo has made it clear that it will continue to control the user experience, and that means there should be plenty of areas within Yahoo that are out of Bing's control. This leads me to presume that Yahoo will not be something you'll want to ignore, just because Bing is integrated into it. Remember that at this point, Yahoo controls a much greater percentage of the search market than Bing.

All of that said, you may want to pay closer attention to your Bing rankings if you haven't done so in the past, because while Yahoo will still be Yahoo to its users, the deal also means there will be significantly more eyeballs on what Bing determines to be the most relevant results to searches.

Why Stop at Google, Yahoo, and Bing?

These may be the biggest three search engines in terms of market share in the United States, but there are still plenty of people using others. For one thing, YouTube is number 2. Not Yahoo or Bing. If you are concerned about simply being found where people are searching, you should have a YouTube presence. That of course means having a video strategy, but that doesn't necessarily mean you have to have a huge video budget.

There are still people using Ask as well. In search industry coverage, it often gets overshadowed by the others, but there are still a lot of people using it. In fact, the Ask Network's market share grew by 6% from December to January. Ask.com's market share grew by 1%. A lot of people search with AOL. AOL's search is powered by Google, but it doesn't always return the same results as Google.

Facebook's search market share grew by 13% in that same period of time. You may not think about Facebook for search as much, but people are spending more and more time on Facebook, and it stands to reason that they'll be conducting more and more searches from Facebook. Granted, Facebook's web search feature is powered by Bing, but that's only a piece of the Facebook Search puzzle. If you don't have a Facebook strategy, you may be missing out on a lot more searches. By the way, did you know that Facebook recently passed Yahoo as the 2nd most visited site (just under Google)?

These are just a few examples. People are searching from a lot more places. Rather than just optimizing for Google, Yahoo, and Bing, perhaps you should think about all of the places where your site/business would make sense when a user searches (consider niche sites as well).

Does the Yahoo/Bing deal make optimization easier? Weigh in with your thoughts.

Why Bing May Be on the Road to Incredible Growth

Microsoft has spent a lot of money promoting Bing since its launch, and Bing's usage has grown by millions of people since then, but it still has a long way to go to reach the top of the search market share mountain. Google is still sitting comfortably atop that mountain of course, but Google doesn't really have to lose for Bing to win. Microsoft has been putting things in motion that have the potential to increase Bing usage by an enormous amount.

Let's Start with the Yahoo Deal

The search and advertising deal between Yahoo and Microsoft has now received its approval from the Department of Justice and other regulators, and appears poised to go into effect by the end of the year, at least in the U.S. The announcement says:

"The companies will begin the transition of algorithmic search and have set a goal of completing that effort in at least the United States by the end of 2010. The companies also hope to make significant progress transitioning U.S. advertisers and publishers prior to the 2010 holiday season, but may wait until 2011 if they determine that the transition will be more effective after the holiday season. All global customers and partners are expected to be transitioned by early 2012."

Search ad inventory from both Microsoft and Yahoo (and their respective partners) will be combined into a unified search marketplace, as the companies put it, giving advertisers access to their combined audience of nearly 577 million searchers worldwide.

Then There's That Other Deal

Compete made some data available this week, showing that Facebook surpassed Yahoo in the U.S. as the second largest site in terms of unique monthly visitors, just behind Google. Earlier this month, Microsoft and Facebook "enhanced" their partnership, which will give Facebook users a "more complete search experience" as Microsoft puts it. Bing will continue to be the exclusive search provider for Facebook's web search results.

"This change will also enable Microsoft to continue its focus on driving strong performing campaigns across our own social media and communications tools, including Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail, and via rich content environments across MSN and Xbox Live," noted Bing General Manager Jon Tinter.

According to data released by Nielsen this week, the average Facebook user spends about seven hours a month on the site. Now only a fraction of that is probably using the site's web search feature (or Bing feature, if you will). However, Facebook continues to find ways to get people staying on Faceboook for more of their online time. With Bing right within, this is likely going to be an increasingly important segment of Bing usage. Accentuating this point, comScore's latest numbers have Facebook's own search market share increasing by 13% from December to January.

Mobile May Also Play a Vital Role

This week, Microsoft unveiled its upcoming Windows Phone 7 series. This is a series of mobile devices, which Microsoft already has a slew of partners lined up for that will not only come with Windows software, but with a Bing search hardware key. If these phones become popular Microsoft is pretty much guaranteed a significant boost in Bing usage. They should be out for the holidays.

Lately rumors have been swirling about Apple and Microsoft being in talks to offer Bing as the default search engine on the iPhone as well, and if that were to happen, that would also obviously be huge. Google said recently that it has no reason to believe its relationship with Apple is going to change, and that it doesn't comment on rumors, but they think the "relationship is stable." Meanwhile, competition seems to be heating up between those two with each passing day, and Apple going to Bing isn't exactly seeming less likely.

It's Already Growing

Bing's share of the search market is already growing. From Decemeber to January, the number of U.S. searches on Bing grew by 5%, according to Experian Hitwise. Google's share shrank by 1% and Yahoo's by 2%. Of course Microsoft continues to roll out new features for Bing, and will continue to do so along the way. It's hard to speculate what all that might entail, but Microsoft is clearly hellbent on getting more people to search with Bing. Even if Bing is never able to surpass the far more dominant Google in search market share, Bing is on pace to get a lot more people using it.

Microsoft and Facebook Adjust Their Partnership

Microsoft and Facebook have "enhanced" their partnership with each other. The two companies will soon be providing Facebook users with what Microsoft refers to as a "more complete search experience". They will be providing full access to Bing features in Facebook. In addition, the Bing and Facebook connection will be extended globally.

Facebook will be taking over full responsibility for selling its own display ads, although Microsoft will continue to provide search ads. "Given the kinds of advertisements that make sense within a product as unique as Facebook, it just made more sense for them to take the lead on this part of their advertising strategy," says Bing General Manager Jon Tinter.

"Bing will continue to exclusively power the web search results on Facebook," he adds. "This change will also enable Microsoft to continue its focus on driving strong performing campaigns across our own social media and communications tools, including Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail, and via rich content environments across MSN and Xbox Live."

"Going deeper in web search experiences with Facebook, in addition to the collaboration we announced last October about bringing public data from Facebook's API into the search experience, will enable us to do great things together for our customers," he says.

The product of this enhanced relationship between the two companies will start being felt among users in the coming weeks and months. It will be interesting to see if Yahoo advertising gets involved if the Microsoft-Yahoo deal ever sees the light of day.


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Monster Talks Up its New Search Technology

Popular jobs site Monster.com has introduced a new semantic search technology called 6Sense, which it says delivers "precision matches" for job seekers and employers. The technology powers Monster's Power Resume Search, Candidate Spotlight and Seeker Job Search.

The technology was developed through Monster's acquisition of Trovix back in 2008. Monster says it utilizes intuitive, concept-based searching, with a "human-like understanding" of the recruiting process and hiring needs. It understands job titles, skills, experience level, industries, education, and the hierarchy of concepts. According to Monster, this helps it evaluate a candidate's work experience like a recruiter would in just a fraction of the time.

"While traditional keyword search engines are limited in their ability to distinguish concepts and meanings of words and cannot address things like recent vs. dated experience, the intelligence of the 6Sense technology contextually interprets the meaning behind words and concepts rather than relying on the narrow, literal meaning of keywords," Monster says.

"The 6Sense semantic search technology is an extension of our investment in many technology innovations we've delivered over the past two years," said Darko Dejanovic, executive vice president, Global CIO and head of product for Monster. "We've continued to invest significantly in technology, product and infrastructure to completely revamp the talent and job search experience. This investment has consistently delivered significant improvements and value to our customers, saving them time and money by simplifying the process of identifying and evaluating qualified candidates, thus allowing more informed hiring decisions."

Monster's new search technology comes at a time when a massive amount of people in the U.S. are desperate to find jobs. Monster.com gets over 40 million unique monthly visitors in the U.S. according to data from Compete.

"Hiring is fundamental to the economic recovery. Technology can play a significant role in helping businesses mitigate the burdensome costs and resources associated with bringing on the people they need," said Monster Chairman, President and CEO Sal Iannuzzi. "I hear from our customers that their businesses have jobs that they desperately need to fill and yet don’t have the resources to make that a reality. 6Sense technology changes all of this, facilitating the hiring process so that better matches are made more efficiently thereby getting people back to work more quickly."

The technology is there for employers and job seekers alike. Monster claims it provides more relevant results because seekers don't have to type exact terms in the job title to match.

Monster says that in addition to its advances in search, it is also continuing to invest in advanced technologies such as semantic clustering algorithms and machine learning in "domain appropriate" ways.
 

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