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Tag: Bing

  • Microsoft and Shopify to Display Listings in Microsoft’s Products

    Microsoft and Shopify to Display Listings in Microsoft’s Products

    Microsoft and Shopify are partnering to display merchant listings in Bing, as well as Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Start.

    Shopify is one of the leading e-commerce platforms, with over 1.7 million merchants. Microsoft is looking to bring more products to its users across its Bing, Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Start products.

    The company made the announcement in a blog post.

    For the millions of shoppers using Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Bing, and more recently Microsoft Start, this means a deeper selection of products from more than 1.7 million Shopify merchants. Using the Shopping tab on Microsoft Bing, and Microsoft Edge, you will now see more diverse products, better prices, and improved discovery of deals. You will also be able to simply check out via the Shopping tab on Microsoft Bing quickly and securely.

    The new partnership will also significantly improve visibility and reach for Shopify merchants.

    For Shopify merchants, this partnership will help significantly expand the reach of their brands and products with just a few clicks. Getting started is simple; using the improved Microsoft Channel app, merchants can easily connect with shoppers across the Microsoft network. Shopify merchants’ products will also automatically show on the Shopping tab on Microsoft Bing and the Microsoft Start Shopping tab for free as product listings. Shopify merchants will also find value in creating new ad campaigns and viewing marketing performance through real-time reports in their Shopify store.

    Microsoft says the new partnership is just the beginning of enhancements it has planned for shoppers.

  • Microsoft Bing Not Showing Image Results for Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’

    Microsoft Bing Not Showing Image Results for Tiananmen ‘Tank Man’

    Microsoft is facing accusations of censorship as users the world over are unable to bring up pictures of the Tiananmen “tank man.”

    “Tank man” is a search term often used to bring up pictures of a man facing off against a line of tanks during the demonstrations in China’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. With it being the anniversary of that event, people are naturally turning online to look up old images.

    Microsoft, however, doesn’t appear to be showing the picture, leading some to believe it is censoring results to appease Chinese authorities. Microsoft has denied the accusation to Reuters, saying it was “due to an accidental human error and we are actively working to resolve this.”

    Interestingly, DuckDuckGo is also not showing any pictures. The privacy search engine relies on results from Bing, and is therefore impacted too.

    Google, meanwhile, is still showing applicable results.

  • Microsoft Bing’s Content Submission API Now in Public Beta

    Microsoft Bing’s Content Submission API Now in Public Beta

    Microsoft has moved its Bing Content Submission API into beta, after two years of private beta.

    One of the challenges search engines face is keeping up with the constant influx of new websites and content. As a result, search engines use automated software that “crawls” the web, indexing it and adding new sites to the search results.

    Two years ago, Microsoft introduced its Bing Content Submission API as a way for webmasters to manually submit new URLs. After spending the last two years in private beta, Microsoft is opening the doors to a public beta.

    At Bing, webmasters don’t have to wait to get their content crawled and indexed. Bing offers webmaster the abilities to tell Bing about the latest changes in their sites, such as providing latest added, updated or deleted content and URLs.

    Bing already supports the ability for webmasters to notify Bing about URL changes via its Bing URL submission API (setup guide) but now (under Beta launch) also the ability to notify Bing directly about URL along with content changes via Bing Content Submission API. This will not only help webmasters to reach to more relevant users on Bing but also will reduce BingBot crawl load on their sites. This blog post will provide a generic overview along with step-by-step instruction on adopting the same.

    Webmaster interesting in trying the new feature can use this form.

  • Microsoft Bing Eyes Opportunity As Google Threatens Australian Exit

    Microsoft Bing Eyes Opportunity As Google Threatens Australian Exit

    As Google threatens to pull its search engine from the Australian market, Microsoft sees an opportunity, even meeting with the Australian PM.

    Google has threatened to completely pull its search engine from the Australian market in response to a proposed change that would force the search giant to pay for news content. Google has long resisted calls for it to pay for news, claiming that publishers benefit far more than it does from the search giant linking to and quoting news articles.

    Australia isn’t having it, however, and plans to force the search giant to pay for the news content it uses. Google has said it would pull out of the market if that happens, leaving the market ripe for Microsoft Bing.

    “I can tell you, Microsoft’s pretty confident, when I spoke to Satya,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told reporters, according to Reuters.

    “We just want the rules in the digital world to be the same that exist in the real world, in the physical world,” Morrison added.

    Microsoft’s willingness to work with Australia could be a major step forward in the company’s efforts to gain more market share. Currently in distance second place in the search market, Bing could quickly gain ground if its seen as more open to working with publishers and governments.

  • DuckDuckGo Adds Apple-Powered Driving and Walking Directions

    DuckDuckGo Adds Apple-Powered Driving and Walking Directions

    DuckDuckGo has announced new mapping features with driving and walking directions, powered by Apple Maps.

    DuckDuckGo is the premier privacy-oriented search engine, setting itself apart form Google and Bing. The company promises it doesn’t track users, store personal information about them or follow them around with ads as they browse the internet.

    While the company has offered map features for years, it is significantly expanding its service to include driving and walking directions. The new map service is powered by Apple’s MapKit JS framework.

    DuckDuckGo promises the mapping service will afford the same privacy its users are accustomed to with its search. The fact that it chose Apple’s map software over Google’s is likely a reflection of that focus, as Apple has worked hard to differentiate itself as a company committed to protecting user privacy.

  • DuckDuckGo Experiences Major Growth

    DuckDuckGo Experiences Major Growth

    DuckDuckGo, the privacy-first search engine, is experiencing record growth as customers become more concerned about protecting their privacy.

    According to a company tweet, the search engine touted “a record breaking August,” with some two billion searches, 4 million app/extension installs and an estimated 65 million active users. The company admits it doesn’t have an exact count as a result of the very same privacy that makes the search engine unique.

    Despite DuckDuckGo’s growth, it still has a long way to go before it’s a threat to Google. The search giant currently controls 87.3%, with Bing a distant runner-up at 7.2%. Even Yahoo only has 3.41%. DuckDuckGo brings up fourth place with 1.75%.

    Even so, as customers become more privacy-conscious, DuckDuckGo may soon start moving into third and second place.

  • Is Apple Working On Its Own Search Engine?

    Is Apple Working On Its Own Search Engine?

    Reports indicate Apple may be working on its own search engine, a move that would have far-reaching repercussions.

    Apple and Google have a long-running deal, whereby Google pays Apple billions to be the default search engine on iOS devices. Apple has alternately used Bing and Google to power Siri’s search features over the years. With iOS and iPadOS 14, however, Siri will bypass Google search results page, instead taking the user directly to the site. This would seem to indicate Apple is beginning to distance itself from third-part search engines

    In addition, there has been a noticeable uptick in Apple job postings calling for search engineers. Coywolf founder Jon Henshaw has noticed Apple’s web crawler, Applebot, has been crawling his website daily. Apple has also updated its information on Applebot.

    There’s a number of things Apple could gain by unveiling its own search engine. First and foremost, it would give Apple the ability to deliver on its promise to protect user privacy. No matter how much Apple may work to do that on users’ devices or its own services, when they use Google or Bing, they give up much of their privacy to those companies and their partners. Apple could build a search engine that features the same industry-leading privacy as their other products.

    In addition, as Henshaw points out, Apple could customize the experience in a typical Apple way, providing something unique that offers an entirely new take on search. Whatever Apple is working on, it may well upend the search industry as we know it.

  • Bing Webmaster Tools Provides Backlink Data On Similar Sites

    Bing Webmaster Tools Provides Backlink Data On Similar Sites

    Bing has unveiled a new feature that gives users competitive backlink data for similar and recommended sites.

    The announcement was made via the Bing Webmaster Team Twitter account:

    Backlinks is back in the new Bing Webmaster Tools https://bing.com/webmasters/backlinks… ! Backlinks not only for your site but also for other sites (tab Similar sites), including for sites we suggest. Have a look and give us feedback on this beta tool.

    Bing Webmaster Team (@BingWMC) June 1, 2020

    The feature will be a big hit with webmasters, as it will give them valuable competitive insight into other websites, while also giving Bing a significant competitive advantage over Google.

  • Windows 10 Includes Improved Cortana

    Windows 10 Includes Improved Cortana

    Cortana has received some nice upgrades in Windows 10, with a focus on helping users be more productive.

    Cortana is Microsoft’s “personal productivity assistant,” and the company is doubling down in its efforts to make the assistant as helpful as possible. With an unprecedented number of people working from home, Microsoft sees an opportunity for Cortana to help users juggle the plethora of demands on their time.

    Cortana in Action
    Cortana in Action

    “To help you save time finding what you need and stay focused, we’re releasing a new chat-based Cortana experience in Windows 10 focused on enhancing your productivity,” writes Andrew Shuman, Corporate Vice President, Cortana. “With this, you can ask Cortana using natural language to quickly check your schedule, connect with people, set reminders, or add tasks in Microsoft To Do. You can also find local information, get definitions, and keep track of the latest news, weather, and finance updates with Bing as a Cortana optional connected service.”

    Microsoft is also upgrading the Play My Emails feature in Outlook for iOS, giving Cortana new abilities, such as scheduling a meeting based on the contents of an email, or adding an email to your task list.

    The company is also bringing a new Briefing email to your inbox, courtesy of Cortana.

    “This personalized brief will appear automatically in your Outlook inbox near the start of your workday, providing intelligent, actionable recommendations of documents for you to review ahead of the day’s meetings and drawing your attention to pending requests or commitments from prior emails that you may want to follow up on,” continues Shuman. “This email will also make it easy for you to reserve “focus time” during your workday for uninterrupted focused work with Microsoft Teams notifications silenced.”

    The new features are nice additions, and will likely be a big hit with customers.

  • Microsoft Won’t Force Bing Search In Office 365 ProPlus

    Microsoft Won’t Force Bing Search In Office 365 ProPlus

    Microsoft is backtracking on plans to force Bing on Office 365 ProPlus users following pushback.

    On January 22, Microsoft announced it would include the Microsoft Search Bing extension with Office 365 ProPlus, effectively making Bing the default search engine, forcing it on users whether they wanted it or not. Needless to say, the backlash was immediate and severe, prompting Microsoft to revisit their decision.

    In a community post Tuesday, the company acknowledged the negative feedback it had received, and outlined the adjustments they are making.

    “But we’ve also heard concerns about the way we were planning to roll this value out. Most importantly, we heard that customers don’t want Office 365 ProPlus to change search defaults without an opt-in, and they need a way to govern these changes on unmanaged devices.

    “Based on your feedback, we are making a few changes to our plan:

    • The Microsoft Search in Bing browser extension will not be automatically deployed with Office 365 ProPlus.
    • Through a new toggle in Microsoft 365 admin center, administrators will be able to opt in to deploy the browser extension to their organization through Office 365 ProPlus.
    • In the near term, Office 365 ProPlus will only deploy the browser extension to AD-joined devices, even within organizations that have opted in. In the future we will add specific settings to govern the deployment of the extension to unmanaged devices.
    • We will continue to provide end users who receive the extension with control over their search engine preference.”

    This is welcome news to Office 365 ProPlus users.

  • Microsoft Search Unveils Acronym Search Feature

    Microsoft Search Unveils Acronym Search Feature

    TLA, TOS, GAAP, SEO, GDPR, CCPA, NTP, RTM—the acronyms in business are endless. Now Microsoft Search is making it easier for employees to find out what their companies’ acronyms means, according to a company blog post.

    Microsoft Search is an enterprise feature the company rolled out across Office 365 in 2018. Today Microsoft announced the Acronyms feature, which “helps users navigate their company’s often-confusing alphabet soup.”

    The feature will pull data from public sources using Bing, as well as include any custom definitions the company uses internally. The feature is “smart enough to pick out definitions for your search terms appearing on the company’s internal sites, in documents, Teams and SharePoint sites, Yammer channels, and so on. Microsoft Search ensures that the privacy and security of the mined data is maintained. You only see Acronyms mined from data that you have access to.”

    The blog post details how system admins can start using the Acronym feature. In the meantime, this is one of those small, quality-of-life improvements that, while not revolutionary, should still improve efficiency and reduce frustration.

  • Verizon Launches OneSearch, A Privacy-Focused Search Engine

    Verizon Launches OneSearch, A Privacy-Focused Search Engine

    Verizon has announced the launch of OneSearch, a brand-new search engine focused on privacy, according to a press release.

    Privacy is increasingly becoming a major factor for tech companies, governments and users alike. The European Union’s Genera Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy law went into effect in 2018. As of January 1, 2020, California implemented the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPR), the most comprehensive privacy law in the U.S. The increased regulation, not to mention increasing consumer demand, has created both challenges and opportunities for tech companies.

    Verizon’s solution seems to be a search engine, powered by Bing, that caters toward privacy-conscious users. According to Verizon’s press release, “available for free today on desktop and mobile web at www.onesearch.com, OneSearch doesn’t track, store, or share personal or search data with advertisers, giving users greater control of their personal information in a search context. Businesses with an interest in security can partner with Verizon Media to integrate OneSearch into their privacy and security products, giving their customers another measure of control.”

    The search engine has additional advanced features, such as temporary link sharing. When Advanced Privacy Mode is enabled, any links to search results will expire in one hour.

    Users will still see ads when searching, but they will not be customized or based on the person’s search or browsing habits.

    “To allow for a free search engine experience, OneSearch is an ad-supported platform. Ads will be contextual, based on factors like search keywords, not cookies or browsing history. For example, if someone searches for ‘flights to Paris,’ they may see ads for travel booking sites or airlines that travel to Paris.”

    OneSearch does use some personal information. For example, a person’s IP address does provide general location information that can be used to provide location-specific results. Personal data is obfuscated and is never shared with search partners.

    While it is always nice to see tech giants embrace privacy, it’s hard to see the benefits of OneSearch over DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo has a long-standing track record of providing private search. As CNET points out, the move is also interesting coming from Verizon Media, the branch of the telecommunications company “that runs an extensive ad network with more than 70,000 web publishers and apps as customers. While the search engine aims to attract users by turning on privacy features by default, OneSearch will also let Verizon Media hone its ad-matching powers on a search engine it owns. (Verizon also owns the Yahoo search engine.)”

    It will be interesting to see what becomes of OneSearch and if it lives up to its promise of respecting people’s privacy. In the meantime, most users will probably be better off using DuckDuckGo.

  • Google Finds A Way To Profit From EU Antitrust Ruling—At Bing’s Expense

    Google Finds A Way To Profit From EU Antitrust Ruling—At Bing’s Expense

    Last March Google was fined a record $5 billion by the EU over antitrust charges related to the company tying its browser and search engine to the Android OS. It appears the company has found a way to abide by the law while charging its competitors at the same time, according to The Verge.

    Starting March 1, EU citizens will be given a choice of four search engines—including Google—to use as the default search for Chrome, as well as the Android search box. To select the search engines that will appear, Google opted for an auction system.

    “The search engines shown to new users will vary for each EU country, with the selection decided based on a ‘fourth-price’ auction system. Each provider tells Google how much it’s willing to pay the company every time a user selects their product as the default. The three highest bidders are then shown to users, with the chosen provider paying Google the amount offered by the fourth-highest bid. This process is repeated every four months.”

    Under this system, Microsoft’s Bing is now only shown as an option in the UK and not in any other EU country. In all likelihood, this is because the UK has higher search ad revenue than other countries, and Microsoft was likely unwilling to pay a higher price for less profitable markets.

    As The Verge goes on to highlight, many of Google’s competitors are not happy with what is being perceived as a “pay-to-play auction” they feel goes against the spirit of the EU’s ruling. Given the close eye the EU has kept on Google, it will be interesting to see if they step in as a result of Google’s “solution.”

  • Microsoft Introduces Bing Pages To Help Individuals & Companies Manage Their Brands

    Microsoft Introduces Bing Pages To Help Individuals & Companies Manage Their Brands

    First reported by MSPoweruser, Microsoft has unveiled Bing Pages, a new way “for brands to manage their public personas on Microsoft products like Bing and Outlook.”

    When searching for a well-known or popular person, company or brand, Bing will often display enhanced search results that provide far more—and usually more visually appealing—information than a standard search. With Bing Pages, Microsoft aims to bring those results to everyone. The program is currently in beta.

    According to the official site, “Bing Pages is a beta program that lets users manage their presence on Microsoft products such as Bing and Outlook.com….Participants who sign up for this program get their own page on Bing to highlight their contact information and social media channels. They can also promote social media posts in relevant search results–at no cost.Businesses can use Bing Pages to customize their Outlook profile with updated contact info, images, and content. These changes also appear in Bing search results.”

    The signup page is available to everyone and only requires an email address and Twitter account to get started.

  • Windows Search Bar Upgraded With Visual Search

    Windows Search Bar Upgraded With Visual Search

    Microsoft announced a major upgrade to the Windows search bar, giving users the ability to search using an image.

    The feature is designed to work with screenshots. “Simply click the Bing Visual Search button in the bottom right corner and snip any part of your screen to search the web using the image,” according to the post.

    Bing has had camera-based searches since 2017, but this new upgrade is designed to make it faster and easier for someone to find images similar to what they’re already looking at onscreen.

    “We found people also wanted to search with screenshots, so we brought searching with screen snips to the Windows search bar,” says Nektarios Ioannides, Bing Image Search lead.

    The feature recognizes clothes, furniture, animals, flowers, landmarks, celebrities and even text within images. There is also an API available so developers can incorporate the feature in their own apps.

    The feature is rolling out to U.S. customers first, with International markets to follow and requires Windows 10 May 2019 Update or newer.

  • The Latest Tool For Cybercriminals: Google Analytics

    The Latest Tool For Cybercriminals: Google Analytics

    According to cloud security firm Akamai, cybercriminals are using Google Analytics to gauge the success of their phishing campaigns.

    The report highlights that just over 56.1% of all websites are using some form of analytics, with Google the leading analytics platform with 20% market share. Analytics packages provide important information, including geolocation, browser type, operating system and more.

    Akamai researcher Tomer Shlomo, who penned the report, said:

    “As phishing has evolved over the years, criminals have learned that technical markers, like browser identification, geo-location, and operating system, can help adjust the phishing website’s visibility, and enable more granular targeting. In order to evaluate these metrics, kit developers use third-party analytic products, such as those developed by Google, Bing, or Yandex, to gather the necessary details.

    “Akamai scanned 62,627 active phishing URLs of which 54,261 are non-blank pages that belong to 28,906 unique domains. We discovered 874 domains with UIDs and 396 of the UIDs were unique Google Analytic accounts. Moreover, 75 of the UIDs were used in more than one website.”

    Before companies go ripping out Google Analytics from their sites, it’s important to know that Akamai believes additional analytics are the solution to the problem, helping companies trace attackers and mitigate the damage.

    “Using analytics can help you understand the full scale of a phishing campaign, and defenders can use this data to compare with internal signatures, for a more rounded detection and remediation process. Analytical data also helps understand domain targeting approaches.”

  • What if Bing Became the Free Speech Search Engine?

    What if Bing Became the Free Speech Search Engine?

    Bing has a real opportunity to gain market share on Google for the first time in years. Half the country believes that Google is slanting its algorithm and search results to favor its own politics and ideology. There certainly is a lot of evidence for that. What if Microsoft’s Bing started marketing itself as the free speech search engine? Their TV ads could literally show competing search results between Google and Bing to prove that Google has a point of view. It would be the Pepsi vs. Coke of the digital age. 

    The public would eat this up. They are tired of mega tech companies trying to control information and manipulate us. Bing could take advantage of this by proving that they are the neutral search engine. They are the search engine that is merely showing the results based on a pure algorithm, not their political point of view. No one really wants their information filtered or sanitized by big brother. If Bing made this their marketing message they could gain significant market share. 

    After all, search shouldn’t be about ideology or political correctness or only the mainstream media. Search results should be based on non-political factors only. Tech behemoths shouldn’t determine what fake news is and then proceed to delete that news from top search results. That is subjective and leans toward groupthink, which is often wrong. Let the people decide what is real news. Many would say that Google has gone too far in “protecting” us by promoting certain viewpoints and not showing politically incorrect speech. Why would they do that? It certainly doesn’t make business sense.

    This is why Bing has an opportunity to rapidly grow market share by becoming the search engine for all people of all stripes. Bing should announce that it is the free speech search engine that will display search results without inserting its political bias. It should say that it isn’t going to attempt to combat fake news because that is far too often a subjective exercise and is anti-free speech. Bing should say that it welcomes news sources from both the right and left, not just the mainstream media. If Bing became the Free Speach Search Engine, it could force Google to change.

    Let the free speech search engine wars begin!

  • Yellzz in Lead Gen Pilot with Microsoft Bing Search Engine

    Yellzz in Lead Gen Pilot with Microsoft Bing Search Engine

    Wouldn’t it be great if your business could be in real-time contact with your potential customer while they are looking at your ad or business listing in a directory or search engine? With Yellzz Super Ads, businesses can do just that. Yellzz has partnered with various marketplaces, directories, and is currently in a small pilot with Microsoft Bing to enable their lead generation service for businesses.

    Sharon Mayblum, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Yellzz, recently discussed on ILTV Israil Daily how Yellzz is taking the lead in lead generation by creating real life, real-time interactions with customers:

    Yellzz Helps Businesses Engage Potential Customers

    Imagine, for instance, you’re selling a car or you have a mobile repair shop and you’re advertised on a classified website. Do you just place the ad and wait for someone to call? It really doesn’t work that way because there’s a lot of competition. You need more engagement. What we do is give the advertisers superpowers. Now they actually can know when there’s a potential customer online looking for their product or service. Not only do they know that they can engage with that customer and ask him to chat with them or send a coupon in real time.

    How Does Yellzz Work?

    It really depends on the marketplace we’re working with. When we partner with a marketplace they decide on the business rules that really work on that website. What happens is if a customer is looking for a specific car for, instance, then we know to alert the right seller and let the seller start engaging with the potential customer.

    It’s the real advertiser, the real service provider or seller who is interacting with you. Now you as a customer, when you go into a website, you don’t have to download anything to start engaging. You get a chat invite and you can start engaging with that potential seller without giving any details and without logging in. You don’t have to give your Facebook account or email or anything. You just start engaging with different sellers, getting different proposals and closing the deal with whoever you want to close it.

    Yellzz in a Pilot with Microsoft Bing Search Engine

    We are working with classified websites such as Web.com which is a huge American company. They have 3.5 million websites of SMBs in the United States and we’re in the websites and the directories in the UK. We’re also in Asia in Singapore and in Southeast Asia. We’re starting to work here in Israel with a major player that I can’t really reveal the name yet.

    We’re also actually in a very tiny pilot now with Microsoft on the Bing search engine. Hopefully, you’ll see our capabilities on the Bing search engine pretty soon.

    About Yellzz

    Once driving a steady flow of customers was good for your business, but today it’s no longer good enough. Faced with cutthroat competition online and consumers who are constantly on the move, small business owners can no longer afford to just wait for the phone to ring. Make way for Yellzz and the age of the Super Ad. Super proactive, super interactive, with powers of conversions that are out of this world.

    Yellzz Super Ads has the power to see the invisible traffic and transform it into sales by giving small business owners the proactive sales enhancing tools they need. This includes letting them know when someone is taking an interest in their product or service, enabling them to initiate real-time peer-to-peer engagement, and allowing coupons to be made and sent in an instant to entice the prospect to choose their service.


  • The Challenges of Brand Search and PPC

    The Challenges of Brand Search and PPC

    Controlling the search position of your brand is very important to your business. However, this has become increasingly difficult due to changes in Google brand policies that have opened the door to competitors stealing (or buying) your brands traffic and business. Puneet Vaghela, Head of Paid Search at PHD UK, a global communications planning and media buying network recently spoke about these important challenges:

    Why is brand search difficult to control in PPC?

    With brand search, you are expected to get most of the traffic. However, what we are seeing increasingly is more and more competitors entering the market in our brand space. Back in the day, it was there but you could just get them kicked off by Google or Bing. Nowadays, it’s a lot more difficult with all of the policy changes. What this actually means is that they are not only cannibalizing our traffic but they’re also pushing up our CPCs and our CPAs.

    As a brand, you are always looking for ways to get people to your website and get them to convert more. It used to be just interest-based keywords on generics related to your own brand. Now you can cannibalize other peoples brands and get those incremental gains. The problem then is competitors coming into our brand space and pushing our ads down or increasing the CPCs on our ads. It’s not just direct competitors either, you have resellers, aggregators, etc. In the automotive space you have dealers and many automotive brands are having issues with trying to control how their dealers are bidding because dealers don’t have as much experience.

    What we are seeing now is traffic is being lost from our brands’ brand-related search terms onto our main website and it’s going away.

    This is even more important on mobile

    As you know with mobile there’s a lot less space on the SERP, and usually with the size of the ads above the fold takes up most of the space and not many people are going to scroll down all the way to the bottom. Also, with mobile, it’s when people are actually looking for stuff at the moment and they’ve got less attention span, so it’s even more important that we actually pick up this traffic. Chances are that whatever they click on they are going to then stick with that. This is especially the case for retailers and automotive businesses who have local offerings and people looking for local specific information.

    On mobile, the lower your ad position is the higher (negative) impact it has on your clickthrough rate.

    On tablet and on desktop the actual CTR decrease as your ad position goes down isn’t as significant as it is on mobile. This goes to show that on mobile we need to make sure that our ad positions are up there at the top.

    How valuable is your brand space?

    Once you have the data and you know about your brand space it’s about analyzing the data and finding out how valuable is your brand space to you? Years ago you could just log into Google Analytics and look at the value per click of your organic brand and the value per click of your paid search brand. As long as the value was more than your cost per click it made it viable to bid on your brand. It was a pretty simple analysis.

    Then seven years ago Google took away the ability to see organic keyword data and analytics have become harder. What we are seeing now is that’s it’s a lot more difficult to access this data and so people are having to think of different tests that they can come up with.

    I like to use standard deviation to get the validity of the data in the beginning in order to measure the success of the ad test. The reason for this is that gives a much better data set to work with so once you actually have the data in you can use a range to look at the changes we see if we then turn the brand off. If it fits within this range then fine, we don’t need to work on brand PPC. If it’s outside of the range then we know that PPC needs to be turned on because it’s having a significant impact on our business.

  • Bing Gets New ‘Visual Search’ Feature, Competes With Google Lens

    Bing Gets New ‘Visual Search’ Feature, Competes With Google Lens

    Microsoft is not going to let Google have all the fun. The company has recently unveiled Visual Search for Bing, a feature that’s expected to complete with Google Lens.

    Visual Search is a new AI-powered search function that builds on the Intelligent Search feature that Bing rolled out in December of last year. The feature allows users to search the web or look for products via photos saved on their camera rolls or pictures they have taken. For instance, you can find more information about an unfamiliar flower or an interesting building you came across by taking a photo through the Bing app or by uploading it from your device. The Visual Search feature will then identify the subject and provide you with links containing key information about it.

    Consumers will also be able to shop for clothes, accessories, or furniture in the same way. Let’s say a woman sees a necklace she likes. She can take a shot or upload a picture of the item and Visual Search will send her information on where she can buy the necklace, the price, and other details. The feature can also send her similar-looking products.

    According to Vince Leung, Microsoft’s product lead, there are instances where “it is almost impossible to describe what you want to search for using words.” Visual search will certainly ease that dilemma, especially as the algorithm the program uses is continuously learning. Since the algorithm works by using data that contains millions of images, the more data is searched for in Bing, the better the algorithm becomes.

    Bing’s core team stated that consumers can expect the Visual Search feature to expand and improve continuously. You can now avail of the function’s latest version in the Bing app for Android and iOS. It’s also available on Microsoft Launcher and the Edge browser for Android. Visual Search will also be available soon on the Bing.com and on Microsoft Edge for iOS.

  • Microsoft’s Bing for Business Aims to Make Companies More Productive

    Microsoft’s Bing for Business Aims to Make Companies More Productive

    Bing is often seen as the underdog of search engines, but it recently held center stage at Microsoft’s recently concluded Ignite conference. Held in September in Orlando, Florida, the conference allowed the company to disclose how it plans to proceed with the enterprise software.

    With that goal in mind, Microsoft introduced Bing for Business, a novel intelligent search service that focuses on enterprise users. The software is not available to the general public yet but users with existing subscriptions to Office 365 will be able to take advantage of a private preview.

    This special version of the search engine will reportedly offer an “intelligent search” feature that combines several data sources to help companies become more efficient. It will also allow company employees to find information that is relevant only to the organization. If properly utilized, Bing for Business can become the technology that many companies would be using in the future to disseminate company knowledge.

    Bing for Business will provide businesses with more than the usual web results. The software can scan for information across a company’s shared files, emails, recent documents, and team sites, turning it into the central hub of all information gathered from Office 365.

    Instead of providing each app with a distinct search bar, users won’t have to go to another page or site to get particular information about the business. Instead, they can just do a normal web search and have the relevant content delivered. Said content will be presented as cards after the result is finished, with the business data set at the forefront.

    System administrators will also reportedly benefit from Bing for Business. The software can integrate with current admin controls so it can be managed by IT enterprise managers. Search traffic will also be protected so that business listing won’t reach the Internet and custom branding options will be provided as well. This will allow companies to keep their identity unique and protected.

     

    Image credit: Microsoft

    The upcoming service will be powered by AI and Microsoft’s centralized API, Microsoft Graph. This combination permits for search to collate data from all corners of Office 365, from SharePoint team sites to specific words in office documents. The software will also be linked to the company’s available data analytics tool, like Delve and Power BI.

    Users of Office 365 Enterprises, Business and Education can avail of Bing for Business’ private preview by requesting an invitation.

    [Featured image via Microsoft]