More than 113 billion searches were conducted in July 2009, representing a 41% increase versus a year ago, reported comscore.
Google Sites attracted significantly more searches than any other engine with 76.7 billion searches conducted, or 67.5%.
Among the five global regions, Europe accounted for the highest share of searches at 32.1%, followed by Asia Pacific (30.8%) and North America (22.1%).
Google—whose brand is estimated to be worth $100 billion—is the king of search. There’s no arguing that. But can someone take them down?
Time provides an interesting perspective on the search industry, discussing the yet-to-be-approved Microsoft/Yahoo marriage.
Reporter Frahad Manjoo also brings to light an irony: Google and Microsoft share a similar problem. Google derives about 97% of its revenue from advertising, while Microsoft makes the bulk of its money from just two products—Windows and Office. Hence, the reason they’re attempting to diversify with products like Chrome and Google Docs.
Read: Can Microsoft’s Bing, or anyone, seriously challenge Google?
Websites that let users customize the UI have the same measured usability as regular sites, reveals a recent study by Jakob Nielsen. Websites for customizing products, however, score substantially worse due to complex workflow.
Designs are often adapted to individual users so different people see different screens, both in applications and on websites. Nielsen notes there are two main ways to “individualize” the user experience, depending on who initiates the adaptation:
Customization happens when the user tells the computer what he or she prefers to see.
Personalization happens when the computer modifies its behavior to suit its predictions about the current user’s interests.
The study concludes customization is complicated, both technologically and design-wise.
“To get a user from blank slate to fully customized interface or product takes exceptional design skill,” said Nielsen. “It also requires cooperation among multiple groups to assemble, organize, and architect a usable customization path.”
He added: “Customization isn’t something you can throw together in a couple weeks, and businesses who approach it in that manner are risking their reputation and revenues.”
Read Nielsen’s full report: Customization of UIs and products.
It seems people who search on Bing could be more commercial than Google searchers.
According to a study by search-advertising network Chitika, visitors who arrive at sites from organic search results on Bing are 55% more likely to click on an ad than if they arrived from Google.
Chitika looked at the click-through rates from 32 million ad impressions across its network of more than 50,000 websites in a week this past July. Visitors from Bing clicked on an ad 1.5% of the time on average, versus a 0.97% click-through rate for Google visitors, and a 1.24% click-through rate for Yahoo.
Microsoft and Yahoo reached a deal Wednesday to challenge Google’s online search dominance.
Under the 10-year deal, Yahoo.com and Bing.com will maintain their own branding but search results on Yahoo.com will say “powered by Bing.” Yahoo, in turn, will be responsible for attracting premium advertisers, reported CNN.
Microsoft will reportedly pay Yahoo 88% of the revenue it gains from searches on Yahoo’s sites. Microsoft will also have permission to integrate Yahoo’s search technology into its own existing Internet search platforms.
The positive aspect for Yahoo is that it will no longer need to spend millions of dollars developing search technology in an effort to catch up to Google.
Let the Bing vs. Google wars begin!
Read Business Week’s: Yahoo Gives In to Microsoft, Gives Up on Search
Would you like to transform a humble website into a multi-billion-dollar business empire? Here’s an article that covers some of the key ingredients that go into building a hugely successful web business, and separates the online giants from the wannabe websites.
Don’t think it’s possible? Yes, Google’s massive. But, remember, 10 years ago nobody thought anyone could conquer the likes of AltaVista, WebCrawler and Yahoo. And Facebook hasn’t been around that long, arriving on the cyber scene in 2004.
Google recently announced the Google Chrome OS for PCs, making people more puzzled about what the search engine king is up to.
Pandia puts forth an interesting argument that this is not another random innovation from Google, but part of a calculated long-term strategy for permanent Web domination.
SEO copywriters are facing an extremely competitive landscape as an increasing number of businesses are realizing the vast value of search engine optimization.
There are now more than 14 billion Internet searches made each month, according to comScore. Moreover, Google has noted its index comprises more than 1 trillion pages.
To view for yourself just how competitive the Web is, Google a term like website design New York, NY which brings up 13.8 million search results. That’s for a website design search specifically geared toward New York, NY! Even a search surrounding a much less populated Canadian city like website design Winnipeg generates 704,000 search results.
In just over three months, Internet Explorer has seen its overall market share erode by 11.4%.
Where did that go? TechCrunch reports it went to Firefox, Safari, and Chrome.
Nearly 5% of that, or about half, went to Firefox 3.0, which currently has 27.6% market share.
Read the entire report on TechCrunch.
Few would argue the Internet has changed how we live and work. More than one billion people rely on it globally, and more are jumping onboard daily.
What’s especially interesting is that the demographics are expanding. For instance, a recent Pew Internet study revealed broadband usage among adults ages 65 or older grew from 19% in May, 2008 to 30% in April, 2009. Moreover, two groups of low-income Americans saw strong broadband growth from 2008 to 2009.
Web designers, developers and copywriters should take note as these trends could impact how websites should look and function, and what messages should be conveyed. For example, retirement homes often gear their web content toward sons and daughters of mature parents. However, if more mature people are surfing and spending time on the Web, it might be more effective to speak directly to the retirees or potential guests.
The study also revealed Americans value the Internet more than TVs or cell phones. Believe it. Even during the economic recession, more than twice as many respondents said they had cut back or cancelled a cell phone plan or cable TV service versus Internet service.
More and more people are realizing the Internet connects and empowers. And the smart businesses are making the most of this long-term and lucrative trend.
