Coast Digital Blog

This week, Microsoft released a new search engine called Bing. Its purpose is to revolutionize the way we use search engines.

Well, that’s what they hope.

Every now and again these new products enter the market, causing a bit of a stir and hoping to give Google a run for its money. Last year we had Cuil, and there’s now a constant stream of talk about the way social networking sites will become our hub for searching.

To be honest, Google is still pretty unscathed.

Bing looks interesting, mainly due to its ‘back to basics’ homepage.



Even when Google updates its front page artwork, people take an interest. Bing is almost certainly going down the same route with these photos.

When you start using Bing, the subtle differences introduced to the search pages are quite good. I like the extra content that gets dragged in when you hover over the orange dot that appears to the right of individual results.

Bing still manages to keep the results pages clean, clear and simple. Based on Google’s success this is clearly the recipe for getting people to use a particular search engine.

That said, I do wonder how long Bing expects to stay on a search engine page? The system is built to deliver lots of information on just one search and keep you on the page as you dig around and use different videos, images and posts. Realistically most of us using a search engine will simply go for the result that looks most relevant and – bing! – off we’ll go.

Research show there’s incredible dip in visitors for results below position 3 in organic or paid advertising, so if Bing is looking for you to spend more time analyzing the results pages then I can see its success to be short lived.

Google are much cannier because they keep you using all the products in their armoury, such as Google Maps, Gmail, Google Shopping and Google News. Unfortunately Bing doesn’t have this, if you click ‘Shopping’ you get farmed off to a partner product, not ‘Bing Shopping’.

Wrapping up, I think Bing’s success – or lack of it – will boil down to two factors.

• The quality of results – this will be more to do with algorithm rather then pretty pages. If visitors start to trust the results and value it for its quality then this will help it compete with Google.
• Brand recognition – I can’t imagine any other search engine taking any of Google’s market share without heavily investing in online and offline adverting to push the product.

It’s best if Google doesn’t monopolise the search engine market, so I am happy for newcomers to compete and make it interesting. Unfortunately, I feel that Bing still looks and feels like MSN live – even if it is much prettier.

After months of speculation Yahoo has sealed a deal with Google which allows them to use Adsense on their search and content network; which could be worth $800 million in revenues to Yahoo over the next 12 months.

Just a few hours after showing Microsoft the door for the second time, the promiscuous search engine Yahoo has finally decided to settle down with Google.

After flaunting itself to Microsoft for a number of months, trying to squeeze more money out of the potential full/part buy-out for its shareholders, Yahoo canned the deal and signed up with Google.

The Google-Yahoo partnership affects the US and Canada, where Yahoo can use Adsense to show Google ads on some of its search engine results pages (SERPs) as well as on its content network.

The deal is set to last 4 years but if successful Yahoo has 2 three-year extensions available. The deal is also set to make the two online giants’ instant messaging software compatible.

According to Google’s official blog post on the matter this IS NOT a merger, and does not remove Yahoo as a competitor. Yahoo are still going to be running their own search engine, and are still going to be running Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM).

At the end of the day though, Yahoo will be generating revenue - and essentially more profit - for Google. The difference in click-through-rate from searches on Yahoo and searches on Google is substantial, so using Google’s ads should allow Yahoo to gain a much larger volume of clicks.

This deal says to me that Yahoo have no intention of improving their own search marketing system, and are quite happy to pay Google for use of a better one that will display more relevant ads and in theory generate more clicks (and more revenue).

Google also say on their blog that Yahoo are welcome to use their technology as little or as much as they like. So if it proves successful, will we see Yahoo join Google’s search network permanently? Could this be the beginning of end for YSM? I’m sure we’ll find out before the end of the 4 year deal.