A Mind of Its Own: Search Engine Technology Ever Pervasive

By James Zipadelli

Americans performed more than 15 billion searches in January, which is up 3 percent from the month before, the audience measurement service comScore says. The latest search engine rankings show that Google is still king when it comes to search engines. “Google Sites accounted for 9.9 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites (2.6 billion), Microsoft Sites (1.7 billion), Ask Network (574 million) and AOL LLC (375 million),” the release says.

Although Google spokesperson Nate Tyler declined to comment on Google’s numbers, he did say that Google Suggest Technology is an effective way to help users search for what they are looking for.

“As you type into the search box on Google Web Search, Google Suggest offers searches similar to the one you’re typing. Start to type [ new york ] — even just [ new y ] — and you’ll be able to pick searches for New York City, New York Times, and New York University (to name just a few). Type some more, and you may see a link straight to the site Google thinks you’re looking for — all from the search box,” Google’s Help Forum says. (Ask.com and Microsoft were not available for comment at press time.)

Kevin McFall, co-founder of the vertical search engine RushmoreDrive.com, says the level of difficulty “is pretty high” for anyone trying to gain a share in the search engine market because established search engines spend large amounts of money on marketing and advertising. However, he says there are ways a new search engine can differentiate themselves from their competition. RushmoreDrive.com was a sister site of Ask.com and was shut down in June 2009 due to the recession.

“One must position the value of one’s search in such a way as to change existing behaviors and habits of those who already use Google, Yahoo, AOL or Bing by offering them a reason to change and then delivering a rich enough experience to warrant their frequent return,” McFall says. “One must also realize that instead of taking on the major search players head on, one must find a way to backdoor them to get a slice of the market share instead of trying to compete directly.”

According to McFall, he was able to do this with Rushmore Drive.com by marketing his website as a discovery engine and a search engine. “We achieved the ability to deliver a richer and more relevant set of results through our unique index and page ranking algorithm, along with a distinguished universal results page, which delivered text, image, video and blog results all in one page,” McFall says.

He also suggested search engines that have a social component would be more successful long-term.

There are also specialized websites that find search engine technology useful. For example, Healthline Networks uses search engine technology to help customers with health and drug information.

Healthline Networks CEO West Shell says, “We’ve found out that consumer search can be complicated when it comes to health. Consumers and doctors speak different languages, and often consumers don’t know what to look for when they start.”

Shell says the technology Healthline Networks uses is based on “semantic taxonomy,” or classification, of health information. He also says the technology is always being updated to ensure customers have the latest information available and that they are partners with health carriers like Aetna.

Rich Kahn, CEO of the search engine eZanga.com, says his search engine is being redesigned and should be finished by late 2010.

The redesign allows eZanga.com to “significantly increase the number of sources we pull information from, improve our relevancy algorithm so that our results will be more accurate to the queries performed by our users [and] designing new technologies, that are not used by any other search engine at present, that will improve how we display our results to users in a way that will be more useful to our users,” Kahn says.

Mobile Open OS Wins With Developers

By Barbara Gengler

Aiming to drive greater, faster innovation in mobile services, Android will go through the fastest growth of any mobile operating system.

Global market intelligence firm, IDC, says starting from a very small base of just 690,000 units in 2008, total Android-powered shipments will reach 68.0 million units by 2013, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 150.4 percent.

In a market once ruled by pioneers BlackBerry, Symbian and Windows Mobile, newcomers touting open standards like Android, Mac OS and WebOS are garnering strong end user and handset vendor interests, according to IDC.

While most innovative new web applications are still built for PCs, Android plans to change all that, so the next hot application will be built for mobile devices, according to Google.

“We are pleased with the positive response from the developer community,” says Google spokeswoman Katie Watson. “We’ve had thousands of developers registered worldwide, and there are more than 20,000 free and priced applications available in the Android Market catalog.”

According to Watson, Android Market is a critical component to Android’s success as a platform, as it provides a central distribution channel for developers, across devices, geographies and operators.

She also says Google recognizes the importance of a marketplace that is attractive to users, developers and operators. “We believe that Android’s openness and innovation allows consumers to use better and cheaper mobile computing devices and services,” Watson says. “Android Market is a distribution system that allows developers — including Google — to distribute their applications to users on a level playing field.”

Android has been built specifically for the Web, which means Android has been built to take advantage of a Web-connected world, which opens up new possibilities for features and applications, according to Google.

For example, Google says developers can lean on the creations of other developers instead of relying only on what’s in the operating system. And Android brings “mashups” to the mobile world, where developers can put together building blocks of technology from many sources, resulting in more powerful applications for everyone.

With Android, everyone has access to all the code necessary to run a great mobile phone, or any other device, without restrictions. The source code to the Android platform is available at source.android.com and most of the code is licensed under Apache 2.0.

Verizon Wireless spokesperson Debra Lewis says the company launched the Verizon Developer Community (developer.verizon.com) last year to give developers for all platforms, including Android, a simple way to understand how these applications might reach Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon has more than 3,000 registered developers to date and more than 90 million customers.

“We’ve announced several phones with the Android operating system, the Droid by Motorola and the Droid Eris from HTC, and coming soon the Devour from Motorola,” Lewis says. “We’re excited about continuing to bring great devices with great service and applications to the marketplace.”

In early February, Verizon Wireless and Motorola took the wraps off a new Android-based phone, the Devour, which will be available in March. The Devour will be the first Verizon Wireless phone to feature Motoblur, Motorola’s Android-powered content delivery service.

The Devour, which includes Gmail, with posts, messages, photos from sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, syncs contracts from work and personal email services. It also sports a 3.1-inch capacitive screen with a HVGA resolution, pre-loaded applications such as Google Talk, YouTube and Google Search and will ship with an 8GB microSD card pre-installed.

Google and Verizon Wireless have delivered Android-based mobile applications and devices as part of a new agreement between the two companies. The two plan to co-develop several Android-based devices that will be pre-loaded with applications from both companies as well as third-party developers.

The two also plan to create, market and distribute products and services, with Verizon Wireless supplying nationwide distribution channels.

Enderle Group analyst Rob Enderle points out Android really isn’t Linux, rather it is more of a hybrid between Linux and a proprietary Google product, much like the MacOS isn’t really UNIX but a hybrid between UNIX and Apple.

“The end result has been a vastly more consumer-friendly product than Linux alone has proven to be,” he says.

Enderle says Windows Mobile 7 is expected in market by year end and it is expected to be a major change from prior offerings blending Zune UI elements and embracing a much more robust application store environment.

“Still Microsoft has lost a lot of developers to Apple and Google and since these developers have limited resources it will be tough to get them back,” Enderle says. “Right now the big battle for developers is between Apple and Google and the latest surveys I have suggest Apple is winning.”

2010: The Year of Standards

By Dave Fidlin

Technology is evolving at a faster pace than ever before, and some of the fundamental standards in the world of digital media are in the process of being tweaked with that rising tide of change.

Throughout 2009, there was much discussion from industry leaders on the future of such standards as digital ad measurement, mobile broadcasting and online video. Those forward-looking discussions are continuing into the new year.

Right before the holidays, the Interactive Advertising Bureau updated its guidelines for digital video ad impression measurement, an initiative designed to accurately count the number of impressions for a given ad.

Christopher Parkin, senior director of Omniture’s Genesis Solutions platform, has been involved in the dialogue surrounding digital ad measurements. While Parkin says there has been progress, one of the challenges has been getting all IAB participants on the same page. “We’re talking about a number of different vendors and a number of different companies,” Parkin says. “In some cases, technology needs to catch up so that all of the ad servers and display servers are at the same point.”

Parkin likens the multi-faceted digital ad measurement discussion to the lengthy process involved in having the Euro adopted as standard currency throughout the European Union in the mid-1990s. After a sluggish start, participants eventually saw the value of having the unified currency. “I definitely see it evolving over the next several years,” Parkin says of the digital ad measurement standard. “What we need to be focused on is how far we are going to move the needle.”

IAB’s most updated guidelines for digital ad measurement require participating companies to disclose the presence of auto-play ads, the frequency of the settings and the types of ads that are being used.

Consumers will soon have an opportunity to enjoy some of their local broadcasting signals while they are on the go – a fact being showcased at the CES Mobile DTV TechZone conference through Jan. 10 in Las Vegas.

More than 800 TV stations throughout the United States have banded together to form the Open Mobile Video Coalition with the goal of offering broadcasters an opportunity to harness new technology and grab audience interest wherever and whenever possible. OMVC spokesman Dave Arland says great strides have been made the past two years to collaborate with different electronic companies so mobile broadcasting will be available on such devices as mobile phones, personal media players, portable computers and in-car screens.

“This is a chicken and the egg environment, only it’s both the chicken and the egg at the same time,” Arland says.

Online video has evolved significantly in the past several years. With the technology being used widely, efforts to measure online branding are under way.

A year and a half ago, Publicis Groupe formed the VivaKi Nerve Center, a hub of media companies that offer an assortment of tools and services to marketers. Among them: ad-serving and analytics, search, direct marketing and mobile integration. Tracey Scheppach of Starcom MediaVest Group serves as VivaKi’s senior vice president and innovation officer. Scheppach says her role within both entities is to not only understand the ongoing changes within online video, but to also have a grasp of how the changes affect consumers’ behaviors and responses to advertising.

Since VivaKi’s inception, professionals such as Scheppach have been working to address some of the bugs in online video branding strategies, including video not playing correctly and advertising not running on certain websites. Scheppach says attention is especially being focused on ensuring online video branding strategies are appearing on websites specified by agencies, marketers, publishers and ad networks. One company in particular – DoubleVerify is helping achieve that mission with its real-time audit and verification of online advertising transactions, Scheppach says. “I’ve been very impressed with their technology,” Scheppach says. “Without them, it has been a relatively wild, wild west environment.”

Looking ahead to 2010, Scheppach says she sees endless possibilities as online video continues to evolve. “We’re definitely going to start seeing some new ad models,” she says.

Digital ad measurement, mobile broadcasting and online video are just a few of the standards that are being refined as technology continues its rapid evolution. Others, including the up-and-coming HTML5 Web coding standard and the TV Everywhere initiative, are also on the cusp of changing the way consumers use technology.

One thing is certain: 2010 will be another busy, and likely interesting, year.

In Search of Branding: Is It Google, Yahoo or Bing?

By Sheila Shayon

Three competing search engines.

Three distinctly different campaigns.

But one thing is for sure - the competition in the search landscape is heating up. According to Adam J. Broitman, partner and ringleader of circ.us, “This is a very interesting space to be advertising in; seeing as how it is still relatively new. The fact is, search is becoming an increasingly important utility in our lives; like electric or gas. Sure, you see ads for ConEd and GE, but they are largely public perception ads; this approach will not work in the search game.”

A briefest of overviews:

Google
Most consistent format; short videos around 31 seconds. No VO Tag Line - just the graphic, ‘Search on.’ Generally search-based videos that are clean, clever and succinct.

Broitman continues, “I have not been very impressed with many of the ads for search engines out there, because many of them skip one of the most important elements - searching. Google has done the best job so far … two ads by Google that are less pragmatic, but capture the essence of simplicity; something that Google has cornered the market on. While these ads are not for Google Search, Google will ultimately be in a better position to win the search game if their browser is more widely used.”

Gabriel Stricker, head of Search Communications for Google, (the only one of the three brands queried who responded), says there are two key distinguishing points in Google’s search “plank.”

First: “The goal of the ’search on’ videos is to connect users with the specific benefits of our products and features. We focus on concrete, practical results a user will get. In our videos, we show that if a user types in a query like a flight number, they’ll also get the flight status.”

Second: “We only show products and services available to the consumer right now - not available soon, but now. We try to avoid giving ‘pre-announcements’ on products.”

Drew Neisser, CEO, Renegade, strongly favors Google.  “Google’s campaign is vastly superior. It uses their search tool to tell a story that is compelling and even believable. We all have been on Google searches that evolve from stage to stage. The Google campaign is a simple demonstration of why people Google and why Google is the category leader.”

Bing
Their TAG LINE (Voiced) sums it up: ‘Find the cure @ bing.com. It’s not just a search engine, it’s Bing, the decision engine from Microsoft.’

“Both the Bing and Yahoo campaigns try way too hard. The Bing campaign is entertaining but ultimately dismissible providing neither a rational or emotional reason to try Bing. That said, Microsoft spent so much money that they were able to get people to try Bing and it has gained share. I would love to see their cost per acquisition totals - my guess is that these new customers came at a steep price,” Neisser comments.

The official first launch ad and second ad from Bing:

Launch:

#2 Commercial (Cure for Search Overload Syndrome)
“In stark opposition, Bing has decided to confuse people by calling their engine a decision engine,” Broitman comments. “As you can see, the tone is much different than Google; it is much less friendly.”

Yahoo
No format consistency. Biggest campaign to date: It’s Y!ou bring back the yodel campaign:

Neisser’s comment on Yahoo: “As for the Yahoo ads, for a moment I thought we were back in the big production days of the 80’s. This kind of global fiesta ad does nothing for me. Sure it is pretty to watch but it is simply eye candy. Yahoo is an interactive brand - where’s the interactivity in the ad? Where’s the compelling reason to get involved. The irony is that they say ‘you’ is what makes Yahoo special but there is no way for ‘you’ to participate in the campaign. The Yahoo campaign is a monologue not a dialogue.”

According to media guru, Shelly Palmer, host of Digital Life with Shelly Palmer, and MediaBytes:

“Google does not advertise. Yahoo! and Bing do. Bing is getting some traction, but they are really paying for it. Yahoo! sends so many mixed messages, I can’t imagine that their advertising works at all. Ask 100 people the following question: What is _______?

Google: Search Engine

Bing: Decision (search) Engine

Yahoo!: … portal? (has anyone used that word in 10 years?)”

Dissecting whose brand campaign is better is a messy affair, mostly because Google, Yahoo and Bing are exeprts in search — not brand advertising.

According to the Nielsen Co., data gathered from June to October puts Google first in top 10 online Web brands, with Yahoo! and Bing trailing behind, respectively.

At the end of the day — Google has the edge. “Google is the only brand of the three that has a clear understanding of who it is and how people use it,” Nessier says. “Google is a substantive brand while Bing and Yahoo come across as fluff.”

“Anecdotally,” Google’s Stricker says, “our ‘Search On’ campaign has resulted in users sending in their own personal stories. One person actually wrote of having a heart attack and typing in a query about heart attack symptoms. All these individual stories have informed our campaign.”

Imitation being the highest form of flattery, Stricker referrs to the recent ersatz mash-up, ‘Is Tiger Feeling Lucky Today,’ from SlateV.com:

So help us out here. Please send your comments and examples of your favorite viral campaigns among the three to comments@digitalmediabuzz.com, and we’ll post the best ones in a compilation video on our site.

PdaNet

PdaNet is a nifty app for your smartphone that lets you use your phone’s data plan to connect to the Internet when you don’t have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot, landline or Ethernet connection. Previously available for the iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and Palm OS Treo and Centro, it’s now available for the Android as well. It provides full Internet access so all your email and IM programs will work without changing any settings. Even better, PdaNet does not require root access or hacking your phone’s firmware in order to work and functions like a regular Android application without any need for customization.  Tethering is fast and secure and in the USB mode will also charge your phone at the same time. Your phone can either connect to 3G data, Wi-Fi, or even through VPN and PdaNet will share the connection with your computer.

Features:

• Available for iPhone, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Palm OS and Android
• Free trial version. After trial, access limited to http connections only. Full version is $29
• Version 2.11 adds supports for Bluetooh DUN (requires Android 2.0), which also works for Mac and Linux users
• Easy installation

Real-Time Ranking Poses Problems

By Sarah Jaferi

With more and more search engines hopping onto real-time Web results, the question arises as to how they get ranked for relevance and popularity. A few hundreds of millions of times a day people will ask questions on a given search engine, and within a fraction of a second it needs to decide which among the billions of pages on the Web to show them — and in what order.

Bing has a feature called ’social reputation’ that enables it to determine which Twitter users are most likely to be providing relevant content and links in response to a particular query.  It is a way that they ‘rank’ Twitter accounts to help ensure they are surfacing the most authoritative tweets and links from the most influential users.  There are many variables that go into understanding how ‘credible’ a particular Twitter poster is.  More than just the number of followers, how often his/her tweets are being re-tweeted, and how many of his/her shared links are shared by others and post velocity.  “We will constantly evolve this algorithm to enable us to bring users the most authoritative sources for their query,” says Microsoft spokerperson Stephanie McCulley.

According to Google’s Jake Hubert, “there is no way to buy higher ranking in Google search results, nor do we ever sign business agreements guaranteeing a higher ranking.” Google is known to be secretive about ranking details, not allowing their “crown jewels” to be exposed to competition.

Google Team Search Quality is responsible for the ranking of search results. The heart of the group is the team that works on core ranking. According to Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google, ranking is difficult - much more than most people realize. One reason for this is that languages are inherently ambiguous and documents do not follow any set of rules. “There are really no standards for how to convey information, so we need to be able to understand all Web pages, written by anyone, for any reason,” he says. They also need to understand the queries people pose, which are on average fewer than three words, and map them to their understanding of all documents. “Different people have different needs. And we have to do all of that in a few milliseconds.”

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