Search Buzz Briefs: Engine, Engine Number 9…
Last week’s announcement that Amazon’s A9 engine jilted long long-time search partner Google for Microsoft’s Windows Live Search appears to have reignited the Hundred Years War of Search. Just a few years ago the industry wouldn’t have been caught dead cheering on Microsoft (how easily we forget), yet Google’s fast rise to the top has made any and all competition welcome. As if re-asserting this position, MSN adCenter has recently changed its name to Microsoft adCenter and has hired former Ask.com CEO Steve Berkowitz to run MSN.
So while speculation continues surrounding a potential Microsoft – Yahoo! alliance, the latter is rumored to be testing the vastly improved “ Panama ” search technology in Scandinavia. Yahoo! announced on Monday that the redesigned search advertising platform and API will be launched in the third quarter of this year. Bells and whistles include a forecasting feature, enhanced geo-targeting and the inclusion of a relevancy component for paid search rank.
Google’s big announcement this week is expected to be the launch of Google Health , health being one of the more widely searched topics on the Web. In the blogosphere, Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal also reports that Europeans are seeing Google Earth AdWords , and many bloggers have posted Google’s apologetic e-mail regarding last month’s exchange-rate inversion blooper for some foreign Adsense advertisers.
Moving on Up
360i is the first agency with a search foundation to be invited to join the exclusive American Association of Advertising Agencies . Of particular note is the firm’s Search-Informed Marketing approach, as evidenced by its client case study for DIY Network . 360i leaned on user search behavior to develop a two-month online marketing campaign that explicitly home improvement market via a variety of online vehicles and placements including paid search, contextual marketing, blog advertising and banners. As a result, DIY Network experienced a 183 percent increase in click-through rates on paid search and a high brand interaction rate with rich media and banners. Thirty-three percent of the audience who interacted with a rich media banner completed watching the video displayed within the banner.
