As the year ends, I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the subscribers and contributors that make this weekly newsletter possible. I thought it would be fitting to close out the year with the top search stories of 2007.
Yahoo! Panama launches
In an attempt to close the gap on Google, Yahoo! launched an enhanced bid system that looked more similar to Google's system. Yahoo! moved away from a strict bid model to a model that gives top positioning to whoever bids the highest and began to take into account ad quality and performance. For Yahoo!, there is hope that Panama will be able to deliver more targeted results, which would lead to greater ad revenue.
Related Article - Search Deathmatch: Google vs. Yahoo!
Google and Microsoft Like Ad Serving Technology
Google made the first move by outbidding Microsoft and acquiring DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Microsoft responded by purchasing aQuantive (parent company of AA|RF) for a cool $6 billion. Google took the brunt of the privacy concerns that delayed FTC approval until last week. The impact that these deals will have on search results, targeting, personalization, and metric tracking will play out over the next few years. One thing is for sure, Microsoft and Google have drawn bigger lines in the sand that should expedite advancements in the search space.
Search Engines Get Local
All of the search engines created or enhanced their local offerings. This was a great benefit for users’ who have moved beyond simple directions and went deeper into local business searches. Based on the various local revenue projections the engines likely see this not just as an opportunity to reach the millions of local businesses, but also larger companies.
If You Buy Links Google Will Hunt You Down and Kill You
Maybe I’m being a little melodramatic here but it’s clear that Google is going to do their best to stop people from buying links. The matter at hand is people buying links that increase their Link Popularity and allow them to gain higher rankings. Google engineer, Matt Cutts came out to Google's position on Paid Links. Then Google updated their algorithm and dinged the PageRank of a bunch of sites that were buying and selling links. This debate won’t be going away anytime soon, but one thing is for sure: If you are buying links, be careful.
CPG’s “Finally” Get Search
Search has seemed to be the domain of direct response advertisers, but it seems like the CPG companies of the world have finally realized that search is important for them as well. Food products saw nearly 44 million category visitors from search, while baby and personal care products attracted 15.7 million and 9.8 million searchers respectively.
Related Article - Search Affects CPG Brand Building, Offline & Online Sales
Let’s Get Social
The rise of the Digg Effect, Facebook, and other social media sites forced marketers to rethink how (or if) to embrace social media. For some industries this was a no-brainer, while regulated industries were left trying to figure out what to do. Either way, having a developed social and tagging strategy has created search success.
Related Articles - 3 Ways Social Media Marketing Helps SEO
How To Identify & Target The Right Niche Social Media Sites
Search Advancements
The biggest story of 2007 was the enhancements that all engines made to their results page. Overall, their goal was to make it easier for users to get to the information they wanted in the format they wanted. Ask3D and Universal Search started with integrating video, image, news, and local results into their main results page – giving users’ the ability to select the result that was right for them. Yahoo! added Search Assist, which allows users the ability to refine their queries and look at related searches. Last, but certainly not least was Live Search, Microsoft’s rebranded search engine that includes a more “universal” results page.
These advancements show that the Search Engines are committed to enhancing their offerings and are clearly telling marketers that you can’t have a “set it and forget it” search strategy.
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