Search Updates
Quite a few search marketing changes have occurred in the past few months. Here is a short list of a few of the developments that I feel will have the most impact:
A couple of items really stand out with these changes/new features:
Re-marketing – This is huge. Knowing now that I can target users who have been to my site and not signed up for a free file sharing trial is a great feature. Many banner networks offer re-targeting, but having the ability to make quick changes via Google is much easier.
Video Ads – The targeting within a certain video via keyword is also a great new feature. I’m not sure what kind of impact this will have, but being able to target videos on YouTube could enable marketers to put ads on competitor’s videos.
We’ve long believed that personalization makes search more relevant and fun. For nearly five years, we’ve been tailoring results with personalized search. Today we’re announcing a new feature in search that makes it easier for you to mark and rediscover your favorite web content — stars.
Oh boy, “makes search more relevant and fun“. I’m not sure if there is any SEO impact or not. If a SERP gets starred by multiple users, will that listing get a bump?
I’m not a huge fan of real-time search results as I don’t want the latest result, just the “best” result. When I am looking for real-time results I either use a search column in TweetDeck or the search functionality at Twitter.com.
Bing announced a number of changes at SES NYC including:
Quick Tabs – These tabs are meant to help the user refine their search. Bing stated 42% of all search queries required additional searches.
News – Real time searches not only give the latest results from the leading news sites, but also provide the most popular shared links from that publication.
Maps – Bing added Foursquare integration into the mapping functionality.
The Google “Caffeine” updated that was supposed to be launched during the post-holiday season has still not been pushed live according to Matt Cutts. I’ve seen some significant adjustments in the SERPs that are close to what was on the Caffeine sandbox, but I’m not sure if that is due to the update actually being pushed live or just a coincidence. I’d love your thoughts in the comments.
