The proposed unification of Yahoo and Microsoft Bing has taken a major step forward having sealed the approval of the European Union.
YaBing could soon be a reality having now gained an unconditional thumbs up from European lawmakers. Whilst this is just the first of many hurdles to overcome, it is a major stepping stone towards completing the union of the second and third most popular search engines in the world.
The merger is still on course for completion in the first half of this year, assuming that it can gain backing from the other major markets; not least in North America. Google’s stranglehold on the worldwide search market has been undiminished though, with the latest figures showing that they control 90% of searches. Yahoo and Bing by comparison only mustered 7.4% between them, which means there’s plenty of workto do in reducing the deficit.
More…
The world’s biggest social media site, Facebook, are to dump Microsoft adCenter as they prepare to launch their own advertising platform. But with the original deal not running out until 2011, full worldwide Bing integration appears to have been the real deal sweetener.
Evidently the Facebook site is a lucrative place for any advertiser to show their products and is equally effective in delivering money to the host – Microsoft. However, in something of a surprise move, Facebook have ended their agreement with the technology giant to manage their advertising system in-house.
With a year left in the contract, clearly Microsoft will seek something in return and it appears as though it may come in the form of Bing being integrated into Facebook as the default search engine, worldwide. Obviously the exact nature of the agreement is still largely under wraps, but it appears that Bing could be set for a huge promotional push, starting off with 350 million+ Facebook users.
More…
Changes are afoot over at Bing. The world’s third favourite search engine, which is soon to be adopted by Yahoo (the second most popular), have announced a raft of changes designed to improve user satisfaction and develop their burgeoning social media interaction.
The integration of Twitter has been on the cards for some time, even though it was only finally confirmed last month [see: Google and Microsoft Complete Twitter Deal to Herald Real-time Search Era], so this is certainly a major part of the ‘Decision Engine’s’ revamp. Their Facebook tie-in was something of a surprise, arguably even more so the latest announcement also points towards a Wolfram Alpha collaboration.
More…
It appears that real-time search could finally become a reality. Following our post earlier in the month, Twitter negotiating real-time search deal with Microsoft and Google, it looks like the ink is now drying on an agreement that will see the aforementioned search engines gain complete access to the social media site’s network.
This is a brave new world for search engines and could well change the way we view and use SERPs in the future. Bing and Google are now free to start developing ways to incorporate Twitter feeds into their searches, opening up unique opportunities for the respective engines and their users.
More…
When I posed the question, ‘How will Twitter monetise…?’, at the tail end of last week, I didn’t expect the answer to be quite so immediate. Today it has been announced that Twitter are holding talks with both Google and Microsoft to seal a deal that will see feeds being shown alongside standard search results.
This is a move that has been some time in the making. Bing stole a march on Google at the beginning of July by integrating the tweets of a select band of Twitterati royalty (as covered in our blog post, ‘Bing Unleash Real-Time Search’). Whilst Twitter has struggled to find a way to make money from its hugely popular service, the search engines have been seeking ways to tap into its real-time capabilities. A match made in heaven, surely.
More…
As always, the beginning of the month heralds the latest round of search engine statistics and this time it’s bad news for Bing. Despite making some significant gains since its (re)release back in June, it appears some of the steam may well have gone out of their marketing bandwagon.
Of course the numbers vary from one analytics service to another; however, most agree that Bing lost around 0.2 – 0.25% leaving it with 3.39% of the overall global search market share. The major discrepancy is in the numbers associated with Google; because whilst NetApplications suggest that they dipped ever so slightly, StatCounter had the Mountain View based giants actually gained just under 1% to a staggering 90.54%.
More…
Microsoft’s (relatively) new search engine Bing has continued to eek away the lead of its more established counterparts, most notably Google. The latest figures from the US show that Bing now commands 8.9% of the search market there, up half a percent from 8.4%. Conversely, Google has since slumped by 0.3 of a percent down to 64.7% for the month of July.
This trend has continued in the search figures, with Bing attracting 29million additional searches; representing a 2.4% increase from June’s figure of 1.21billion. Once again, Google was impacted with a 4% loss of 352million; although with over seven times the total search volume of Bing, they won’t be overly worried.
More…
Since launching the new search engine Bing has certainly made an impact and provided searchers with more choice when it comes to searching online. There are a number of factors which makes Bing individual and unique but one of the most notable differences are the amazing images which are shown on the search engines’ Home page everyday.
The stunning and breath-taking flora, fauna and geographical photographs, are of images from around the World. The photographs are definitely a bright way to start your day and will be sure to put a smile on your face or kick start a conversation in your office. The high quality photography really gives you a sense of being there and viewing it with your own eyes.
More…
Don’t take my word for it though. The Sun today published a feature by their Head of Search and Page 3 girl Ruth, the result of which was an overwhelming victory for Bing.
Whilst the article clearly omitted mentioning anything regarding the merger between Microsoft and Yahoo, one of their categories was an ‘Ego-Search’ from a Page 3 girl – Ruth – and their term for the Search test was David Beckham; this is as conclusive as it gets.
More…
The tit-for-tat exchange between Microsoft and Google continues to gather pace. In the run up to the long-awaited Windows 7 operating system, Google announce Chrome OS. As Google look to bury news of Bing’s surprise early release, Microsoft partner up with Yahoo to start a more concerted effort to down the search leaders. Now Google are ramping up their efforts to market their online office applications; clearly a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Office suite.
They’ve even returned to a more traditional form of advertising. In order to gain extra business Google will be plastering billboard advertisements on major highways surrounding a number of American cities. Maybe the resurgent Microsoft, a company that has long since been blighted by the likes of Live Search, Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 6, has gotten to Google. Or maybe, and most probably, they developed this package in 2007 and need to give it one last push to see if it has any legs.
More…
There have been few stories that have garnered quite so many virtual column inches as the Microsoft and Yahoo merger agreed earlier this week. The conclusion to a drawn out and often barbed takeover bid of the software giant and the second largest search firm has taken many by surprise.
Yes, Yahoo did the right thing by accepting that their search but somewhere in the process they have managed to lose the “boatloads of cash” Carol Bartz said they would have to be offered and replaced it with “boatloads of value.” Unfortunately investors appear to be more interested in the more tangible financial benefits of a cash heavy takeover, with 16% of their value wiped off almost as soon as the deal was struck.
More…
Despite shelling out millions in developing and marketing Bing, Microsoft’s plans to conquer the search engine world don’t appear to be stopping there. Overnight it emerged that the IT technology giants are in late stage negotiations to finally seal a deal for Yahoo.
Patience clearly isn’t a word bandied around too readily in the halls of Microsoft’s Seattle HQ. Whilst Bing remains stuck in third place with only an 8.4% share of the US search market, it is still growing. Yahoo on the other hand is facing shrinking search volumes and a brand that is arguably more synonymous with news than it is with its status as a search engine.
More…
Despite all the fuss, all the hype and all the marketing, Bing’s emergence in the US has been more slow and steady than it has meteoric. The latest statistics, as reported on WebProNews, indicate that it only had a 0.4% increase in queries during June as compared to the 8% it achieved in May.
Earlier in the week we also discussed how there appears to be a growing conflict within the representational data for the search engines (Conflicting Messages on the Growth of Bing). Whilst some see Bing and Yahoo as close running partners, others suggest that Bing still lags some way behind both Yahoo and Google, a point emphasised in the aforementioned report.
More…
Real-time search has taken a giant leap towards becoming a reality with the advent of BingTweets. Federated Media, the company behind ExecTweets, have teamed up with Microsoft to create a fully integrated search system that utilises both Bing and Twitter.
By searching both instantaneously, you get the very latest real time stories as well as the classic search format offered by Bing. The SERP is made up of four primary components: 1) Twitter trending topics 2) Share this result (creating a bit.ly URL of the page to distribute on Twitter) 3) Tweets of your search phrase, and finally 4) Search Results.
More…
With the launch of Bing, many website owners have discovered that the description of their site is not all it should be.
Whilst, as most site owners understand, the description on Google is taken from the Meta Description tag, Bing has taken the decision to extract the information from their listing in the Open Directory (DMOZ).
More…
