In late 2009, Yahoo! & Microsoft’s Bing announced a strategic partnership, better known as the Search Alliance, which would effectively consolidate the search landscape by allowing Bing to power both paid and natural search results across the Yahoo! network.  Last week, Yahoo! officially announced that the transition to Bing-powered natural search results was complete for U.S. and Canadian (English only) Yahoo! properties. Other languages and regions will follow in the coming weeks.

This latest report from 360i covers:

• Changes search marketers can expect within the Yahoo! search results page
• New features within Bing’s Webmaster Center interface
• Key recommendations for brands to consider now that the integration has fully taken effect

Read & Download: Impact of Search Alliance on SEO

Happy July! This week’s roundup runs the digital gamut — from the engines (is Google working on its own social network?) to Facebook (guess which beloved cookie brand is launching a global Facebook page?) and everywhere in between. Find full recaps of these and other stories in the post below. And of course, you can follow 360i on Twitter for insights from our team all week long.

‘Google Me’ Rumors Swirl as Details of Facebook Competitor Take Shape

A tweet from Digg’s Kevin Rose (since deleted), a confirmation from a former Facebook exec and a story on TechCrunch were all it took for rumors to fly that Google is working on its own social platform to go head-to-head with Facebook. This week several outlets began speculating about Google Me, which according to former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo (he’s now heads up Q&A service Quora) is a very real project to build a “first-class social network” modeled off of Facebook.

Though none of this has been confirmed by Google, the company did begin integrating Google Buzz updates within Google Social Search this week (via Search Engine Land). Social Search, launched in January, displays search results based on individuals you’re connected to per Google.  As Danny Sullivan notes, if all this represents a larger overhaul of Google Profiles and/or Google Buzz, we can expect that Google Me (if and when it exists) will also be integrated into Social Search.

Read the full article »

It’s been a year since Microsoft unveiled its new “Decision Engine,” Bing, amid a flurry of hype and speculation. Microsoft said the new engine was developed to help searchers navigate more easily through information online – an objective perhaps most vividly captured in the company’s slew of commercials poking fun at “search overload.”

Bing, which was fully rolled out on June 3, 2009, claimed to take a new approach to search through three simple goals (as articulated in the official release): deliver great results, deliver a more organized experience and facilitate fast, more confident decisions through search. Beyond that, Microsoft’s new engine sported a sleek design, with large, vibrant visuals extending across the homepage. Both inside and out, Bing was striving to be different.

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This week Twitter (finally) unveiled its ad offering, a new report presented promising findings for the search market, Google explored which innovations will lead us into the “new frontier of display” and Twitter released some impressive stats regarding its red-hot platform. Check out our complete roundup of these top stories below.

Twitter Announces Promoted Tweets Ad Platform

On Tuesday Twitter unveiled it’s much anticipated advertising platform, called Promoted Tweets.  The platform will allow marketers – preliminary users include Bravo, Red Bull, Starbucks, Virgin America and Sony – to purchase special tweets atop Twitter search results. Promoted Tweets will be ranked by a “resonance” metric, which accounts for user engagement in the form of re-tweets, favorites, responses and clicks.

Bravo is one of the first brands to use the Promoted Tweets platform.

Sarah Hofstetter, SVP of Emerging Media & Client Strategy, told the Wall Street Journal that Twitter’s resonance metric is compelling and distinguishes it from Google’s search ad-system. The platform’s biggest challenge, she added, will be convincing marketers to continue investing. “Its challenge is longevity,” she said. “It gets exciting for a while and then you might move on the next shiny object.”

For a complete recap of the news, download our POV or head over to Ad Age and read David Berkowitz’s latest Digital Next column.

Read the full article »

Image by atomische via Flickr.

For marketers in the digital space, 2009 was a whirlwind year. Twitter took off amid a social surge, Yahoo! and Microsoft partnered up in search and Google gobbled up a litany of companies. During this time we’ve used our blog to cut through the headlines and share insights into what the year’s top stories mean for marketers. Look to Digital Connections for more of this in 2010.

Below you’ll find our most widely-read posts of the year (we’ve recently counted down the top five on Twitter, for those of you who follow us there).

Read the full article »

Google recently introduced new search ad formats, including Visual Elements (e.g. movie trailers), Sitelinks, Location Extensions, Product Extensions and Comparison Ads. In this post I’ll look at each offering first as a search marketer and then as a consumer focused solely on my specific searches within the Google engine. Of course, when people have a good search experience, it almost invariably means good things for marketers as well.

Visual Elements

What it is: The Visual Elements feature is a hidden extension of the traditional text ad triggered by clicking a plus box.

Marketer Benefit: This is a great fit for a media/entertainment brand or anyone trying to drive awareness, as long as they do not mind if users don’t visit their actual site. If you are looking to drive revenue efficiently, this product may not be the best fit for you. However, it’s worth testing if you have a compelling video or another visual element — especially if you can include a strong call to action. Marketers pay on a CPC basis, either for a click on the link or the plus box, but the advertiser will not be charged twice.

Consumer Benefit: Since the visual element is hidden until the user activates, the placement has the benefit of a rich media ad without being obtrusive. This type of advertisement can add to the search experience – instead of detracting from it.

Read the full article »

SearchIgnite, leading search optimization solutions provider and 360i sister company, recently released a whitepaper outlining key trends in retail ad spend in Q4. The company, which manages more than $400 million in paid search annually, drew data from its large pool of sophisticated retail advertisers.

Research showed that multi-channel retailers are increasing their U.S. paid search initiatives despite economic uncertainty, with spend up 7 percent in Q4 ahead of Black Friday. Each of the Big Three engines showed year-over-year spend increases from retailers, but Bing’s 47 percent boost represented the greatest gain. This was likely due to higher average order values (“AOV”) from shoppers converting on Microsoft’s engine.

Here are some of SearchIgnite’s key findings:

• Strong U.S. Retail Spend in First Half of Q4: U.S. search spend from existing retail marketers is up 7% YoY in the first half of Q4 across all major search engines (Google, Yahoo! and Bing).
• Conversion Rates on the Rise: In the first half of Q4, conversion rates were up 17%, a strong increase over this time last year and a hopeful sign that consumer confidence is on the rise.
• Retailers Increase Spend on Bing: U.S. retail marketers dramatically increased their search spend on Bing, up 47% YoY, seeing higher AOV from shoppers on Microsoft’s engine.

The full report is available for download at http://www.searchignite.com/about_research.aspx.