Microsoft getting closer to nextgen Search Engine

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | Search Engines | Matt Oliver | No Comments

Yesterday Bing annoucned it was “bringing a bit of twitter to bing” by pulling tweets from “select users” into their search results.  So when you do a search on Bing for “Shaq Twitter” you will now get the tweets from Shap himself on Bing.  Many people today in the social world should be excited about this added feature.  Although when I do a search for matt oliver twitter or @mattoliver10 my tweets are not shown.  Guess I am just not as exciting or important as Shaq!

It appears eventually you will be able to search for everyone’s latest tweets on Bing which is pretty cool.

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Tags: Bing, social media, Twitter

Local Businesses Popular With Mobile Search

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | Mary Toves | No Comments

According to a recent study by comScore, Inc., the number of local searches accessed through use of a mobile device has more than doubled since 2008. Searches conducted through use of mobile applications (like Google’s Mobile App) saw an 83% increase from last year alone! Though SMS remains the leading vehicle for mobile search, comScore’s Senior Vice President, Serge Matta, predicts that mobile applications will pull in to the lead in the near future. With the iPhone’s recent price reduction (want) and alleged expansion to the Verizon network (want more), consumers are more likely to hop on that 3g raceway and in to — local businesses. Local businesses with fully optimized websites, that is …

From local directories and restaurants to maps and movies, tech-savvy consumers are connected, online and on the go. It is a beautiful thing.

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Tags: iPhone, local businesses, Local Search, mobile applications, mobile search, Search Engine Optimization, sms

Welcome Back, Kate!

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | NetSearch Direct News | MaryJane | No Comments

Kate, our Office Manager,  came back today from her vacation in San Diego. While she was off catching some California sun and partying on the west coast, things got a little busy here at NSD.

Were glad your back, now GET TO WORK!

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“Its all about the delivery…”

Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | NetSearch Direct News, Social Networking Sites | MaryJane | No Comments

Mary Toves, our new summer intern started a few weeks ago and will begin her Masters at the prestigious Brand Center at VCU this fall.  Her desk sits in front of a storage closet, so I thought, ‘why not,  Lets scare her. What else is that closet going to be used for?’  Here’s my grand attempt:

Attempt 1: fail

I recruited some help.  Jason… shall we give it another go?

Attempt 2: Success!

Welcome to the Crazy NetSearch Direct Family, Mary.

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Tags: Scare the intern

Google Local Hits The Gym

Friday, June 12th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search | Jason Moreau | No Comments

While not as robust as the data available through Google Analytics, the newly pumped up metrics available through the Local Business Center are a welcome step in the right direction. Previously, Google only reported on the number of impressions (how many times your listing appeared in search results). Now they provide additional search data and user data. Click on the thumbnail below to see an example:

Google Local Business Center Dashboard

So how should you flex all that extra marketing muscle? You experiment of course! In the example above, none of the people who saw the local listing clicked through to the main website. Maybe adding some pictures or getting reviews posted to their listing would help their click-through. Maybe adding a coupon to the listing with a strong call to action would drive more traffic. While you could have performed all of these updates before (cause), only now with the new reporting can you answer the big question, “So what happened?” (effect) And the answer to that question, is where the money is!

So go to www.google.com/lbc to learn more or give us a call with your questions.

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Tags: Analytics, google, Local Business Directory

Bing!…Google is on to you

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Internet News, Search Engine Marketing | MaryJane | No Comments

The new “decision engine” with its 80 million dollar advertising budget sure has got its money’s worth with all the news, online articles and blogs circling around its arrival.

“Its beating Yahoo in search engine share!”

“Its not technically beating Yahoo’s search share.”

“This surge in search share percentage is temporary!”

” The home page graphics are a waste of time. ”

“No its Appealing and everyone loves a good useless fact!”

Whatever your opinion is about it, why not check out how others are using it to get to your site.  Google blog has announced that they will be able to track Bing! as a search engine through Google Analytics fairly soon.  If you cant wait, simply add the code below to your google analytic code: (currently Bing! is a refereeing site under traffic sources)

pageTracker._addOrganic(”bing”, “q”);

Now we play the waiting game….

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Tags: alternative search engine, Bing, Search Engines

Bing!: Oh, so we’re setting the bar low now?

Friday, June 5th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Internet News, Search Engine Marketing | Jessica | No Comments

You know those small rock chips you get on your car as you’re hurtling down the highway? Those tiny imperfections in your car’s auto body called “dings”. They’re the ones that are annoying but too small to invest money or time in repairing, so you simply ignore them. That’s how this blogger feels about Microsoft’s newly launched “Bing!” search engine. Bing! is nothing more than a rock chip along my travels on the information superhighway – thanks for scratching my paint.

Excited by all the internet buzz of this week, I visited Bing.com only to discover that I had been Punk’d. Featuring a boring graphic of nature at Her finest, Bing! offered me a search bar, and implored me to “Explore” five choices along the left navigation: Images, Videos, Shopping, News, Maps and Travel. At the bottom of the screen they offered me a “Popular Now” section with a few topics that are certainly not popular in my search behavior.

I admit that at this point I was thoroughly unimpressed. I’m a search marketer and we always hammer home the message that our client’s landing pages have to be compelling. We implore them: “You’ve got to grab your audience’s attention and inspire them to click through your site!” “Add graphics”, we suggest, “use video technology to demonstrate your products, give your reader dynamic web copy, and above all demonstrate the value of your brand and your product above the competition.”

I cannot be excited about a page that fails to embrace these simple marketing truths. No, Google’s homepage is not the stuff search engine marketers dream of - but they were first in line and get points for originality.

I feel let down. All the hype and I get a white-letter logo with an orange dot for the “i” and an old Windows Live page with a facelift. Oh, and the social media connectivity or integration? I suppose they ran out of time or money to add these as features since they were concentrating on adding their clairvoyant flight fare finder which will tell me to hold off buying that ticket because the price is likely to drop. If the rest of the world is interested in social media, why are you showing me pictures of the mountains and calling it brand new? Besides, I had to hunt down the video tutorial to teach me how to find and use their flight and hotel planner. You know, it’s funny, I know of five other sites that offer that same “New!” feature.

I recognize that my opinion is in direct contrast with many of you Bing! luv-ahs, but I’m afraid that embracing Bing! sets a standard that we just can’t accept. I expected more from you Microsoft - and I hope the purported $80 million you’re spending on advertising this remodel can be put towards adding on some real, usable features. On behalf of search engine marketers, informed consumers, savvy Internet explorers, persons with heartbeat, and individuals across the nation who can’t stand to be hyped up and then disappointed - Bing!, since you failed to lead, or even follow, please get out of the way. Besides, I hate chipped paint.

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Tags: Bing, landing page, microsoft, microsoft bing, new search engine, search engine, Search Engine Marketing

Bing…pretty good is good enough

Friday, June 5th, 2009 | Internet News | Jason Moreau | No Comments

So unless you were living under a rock this week, by this point you’ve probably heard about Bing - Microsoft’s newly revamped, rebranded, and relaunched ‘decision engine’. As expected, there’s been a lot of chatter about whether or not Bing has the chops to take on Google (especially around our office). What I’m liking so far:

1) The name - Seth Godin scores points for his funny observation that Bing stands for ‘But It’s Not Google’, but I think it’s a solid choice. Betsy, one of the members of the Bing development team, said they wanted something short and easy to pronounce. For me it evokes the sound of that eureka moment when you find what you’ve been looking for.

2) The team - How do I know Betsy is on the Bing development team? Because she’s on Twitter. When Bing launched they streamed a live webcast to demo the features, and another member of the team, Stefen, ran the demo with a friendly, breezy panache.

3) The commercial - It’s way better than the new Vista commercials . Don’t believe me…check it out:

You may have noticed at this point that I haven’t mentioned or discussed any of Bing’s features. There’s plenty of other blogs and reviews that cover all of these and for the most part they seem to think Microsoft has done a pretty good job implementing both core search features and some newer functionality. But honestly, I don’t think that’s what is going to make Bing a success. WHY? Because, it’s really all about expectations and perception.

I’m not a Microsoft fan - truthfully speaking, using most of their products is a tortuous experience just short of water boarding. But because the Bing team is putting themselves out there and having conversations with people (even Matt Cutts), my perception has been altered. My impression now is of a team that genuinely wants to create a useful and easy to use product. When people slam Bing, in my mind they’re slamming these nice people and just being Haters.

Will I use Bing exclusively or as my go to search engine from now on? NO…but it’s now a viable alternative. Sometimes I go into the grocery store intending to buy Coke, but occasionally I’ll walk out with Pepsi becuase it’s just as good (cold, tasty, thirst quenching, you get the idea). Remember, Google didn’t become Google overnight either. It takes time to change people’s habits, but the first step is changing their mind. Much like the first season of Seinfeld, Bing today is pretty good and has the potential to get better over time.

I promise not to tell you, “I told you so” when their search share doubles.

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Tags: alternative search engines, Bing

Resession Time Means Marketers Move More Dollars Online…

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | Mike Meyer | No Comments

Not surprisingly, the budgets of more than 54% of marketers worldwide have been negatively affected by the recession, according to data gathered from an eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.  Most would guess that advertisers are spending less - way less in the case of newspapers, local radio and television.  Got that, but then where are they spending their precious ad dollars?  If you guessed “online”  you guessed correctly.

It’s a fact during tough times, more marketers are adopting search engine marketing techniques.   Over 90% of marketers polled by eMetrics said they would increase or maintain their spend on e-mail advertising, and more than 83% said the same about paid search. Advertisers also want to know what they are getting for their search engine marketing investment.  In fact, over 87% of those surveyed plan either increasing or at least maintaining their spending on web analytics. This all adds up to one thing…accountability.  In the advertising world it is all about return-on-investment, measurability and the ability to target - hallmarks of search engine marketing.

Lastly, it looks like this trend will continue.  A recent report by eMarketer.com states that search engine marketing (specifically paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion and search engine optimization) “will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising.”

Isn’t it time that your moved more of your marketing dollars online?

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Do You Know What Your Mom Is Doing Online?

Monday, May 18th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Internet News, Search Engine Marketing | Mike Meyer | No Comments

So what are American Moms doing online - checking their email, checking their checking account balance, the weather or what’s on sale?  How about all of the above?  Not surprisingly all of these are among the top ten online activities  for moms according to a study  by Marketing Moms Coalition. What is surprising is that the same study reports that American Moms with children under the age of eighteen spend an average of three hours a day on line, one hour more than the two hours their school age children are spending online.

This is great news for merchants who are selling their products online or utilizing the internet to influence the purchase of their product or service off line.  Families/Mothers with children under the age of eighteen consistently ranks among the most sought after demographics by advertisers.  In many cases these ladies carry the keys to their household’s treasure chest of disposable  income.  In short, American Moms are making or influencing most of their family’s purchases.  Knowing where one can find these moms (online) and understanding what they are doing there, allows marketers to more effectively target them.

Makes sense, but specifically where online can you find them and what tactics can a marketer utilize to reach them?  The most obvious is an email marketing campaign.  85% of American Moms are checking/sending email.  Gathering emails from and then re-marketing to moms with a professional, well designed and topical email marketing campaign should  be at the top of a marketer’s list.  One of our customers now ties in most of the discounts that they offer to “email club members”.   Within a several months they have built their email to well over a 1,000.

The next best place to find these American Moms are the search engines.  I submit that most of the remaining top ten activities involve a search on Google, Yahoo or MSN.  So a page one presence (91% of consumers never search past the first page)  on these search engines, in either the organic or sponsored links section, is paramount.  Display ads on sites which are targeting this demographic is another opportunity that should be considered.

So now that you know where you can find the typical American Mom,  isn’t it  time to reach out and tell her all the reasons why she should be spending money with you?

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