Yeah, pretty big topic, but this video is a quick intro, and if you want more, you can link out to YouTube and hear the whole thing. This is really exciting stuff. No place for cynicism here. (Thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick and ReadWriteWeb)
Lots of search engine deals with Twitter this past week, first Bing, then Google. I like Adam Ostrow’s comment at Mashable about how these deals validate Twitter’s model: With a fresh $100 million in the bank and both Google and Microsoft implementing tweets in search, it looks like Twitter is in it for the long haul.
First, there’s Bing. Bing Twitter is Microsoft’s take on the up to the second data stream of tweets. It would simply be another Twitter search, except Bing has analyzed the data stream to eliminate a lot of redundant tweets, and you can select a ‘best match’ option rather than the default ‘latest’ post option to try to boost relevancy. Bing also gives you two sets of results, first the most recent tweets themselves in chrono order, and then the most popular links within tweets.
Bing says they evaluate the authority of tweets by looking at the number of followers of the post plus the retweet pattern. This is a beta release, so it isn’t always right on target, but it’s an interesting addition to the ever-growing world of search.
I think it helps a lot with some of the kinds of searches I might do, like reputation management for a customer. For a really thorough and typically good treatment of this, see Danny Sullivan’s post at Search Engine Land.
Then Google makes a splashy announcement almost within a day that it has reached an agreement with Twitter to use its data in real time search results. Google hasn’t yet rolled out how it will integrate that data into search results — might be a separate index, like Microsoft — but I think it will have some kind of user option built into it, probably in the ‘show options’ like you have for blogs, video and so forth. Then again, that’s probably way too easy for Google. What will they think of next?
On that note, there’s Danny Sullivan again, this time gushing about Google Social Search: I don’t see a lot of things that make me go “wow,” that’s useful. This did.
Google has yet another beta product here (and I do not know where in the world they get the ideas for all the stuff they roll out, but they are busy!). The basic idea of Google Social Search is to extend the personalization of your search results by linking them to your networks of friends.
To make it work, you need a Profile set up on your Google account. On that profile, if you list your social network accounts (especially Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn — aka the big 3), Google will recognize them and — to the extent they are visible — filter your search results through your friends. Somehow. I haven’t seen it done yet, but I’m looking forward to it!
Always on the lookout for ways to simplify (and understand) complex things, I ran across this column from Erik Qualman in Search Engine Watch. He’s got this nice quick way to summarize how a company might use social media to promote its products or services (and a couple of the comments on the column add to it). I don’t think you’ll see anything new here, but it really helps to lay out the framework — the pieces make more sense that way. In bullet points:
Qualman has a nice diagram (see below) that captures the idea as an escalator that carries you in an upward direction by continuously cycling steps up around and down. Continuous monitoring and improvement, one more time.
Socialnomics Escalator of Erik Qualman
Facebook is kicking sand in MySpace face. And walking away with the prizes, too. Twitter has leveled off heading into fall — a lull? or a ceiling?
Hitwise recent research shows some huge changes in the social media world over the past year. Facebook’s surge seems to be continuing as it climbs toward 400 million subscribers worldwide. First, here’s the numbers as reported in Online Media Daily:
The fall of MySpace must make Rupert Murdock’s teeth ache. It still has lots of loyalty (a class-leading time on site nearly 30 minutes), but the numbers are hard to look at from an ad network’s point of view. Nothing here about the demographics on MySpace, but my guess is it stills skews very young which makes it a good target for lots of products aiming at the college kids and younger.
Facebook, though, is catching on with the older crowd. Fastest growing group on FB is 55+ — all those jokes about Grandma spying on her grandkids by getting on Facebook have been overtaken by the reality that Grandma’s circle of friends is getting into the game as well. And Facebook is still about personal networks of friends keeping up with each other efficiently and in a convenient way online.
I know a lot of businesses, including my own, that purchase keyword-driven ads on Google’s pay per click networks. But not too many that also use Yahoo and/or Bing. If this fits you, you might want to consider adding that extra outlet.
In a flurry of recent back and forths over the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal, there’s been a lot of talk about the importance of scale. The MSN and Yahoo folks think it’s ‘good’; Google tries to downplay it because of decreasing returns to scale (Google should know, shouldn’t it?).
But here’s one little piece of info that cuts through the clutter. Advertising Age reports that Ben Edelman, who teaches at Harvard Business School, found that click prices at Yahoo were 30% cheaper than Google, and at Bing (Microsoft) 27% cheaper.
Prescription: mercilessly cut the poorer performers at your Google account and use the money to purchase keywords that convert on Yahoo and Bing.
