Yahoo is focusing on content indeed but it also remains committed to search, Senior VP of Search Shashi Seth told us during a conversation at the company’s premises in Sunnyvale.
Shift?
Many elements have been pointing recently to a shift in Yahoo’s strategy from search to content: the company acquired Associated Content, entered a deal with Nokia, went through a management reshuffle, including recently the departures of top search heads. And of course, there is the Search Alliance under which Microsoft’s Bing will power Yahoo’s search activities.
Yahoo is currently testing its “Infinite Browse” feature with a limited number of users. Infinite Browse literally comes in a box below Yahoo News and suggests images, videos, news articles, slideshows, as well as related searches.
The user thus stays on the same page (hello dwell time) and no longer has to go to a separate page to further his/her search. No wonder Yahoo claims that so far user engagement with the new module “is nearly twice the amount we see with similar features.” The company did not provide a timeframe for the full roll out of the feature but said it is part of its strategy to enhance and roll out “new search-powered features across the Yahoo! Network.” This includes the recently optimized “Trending Now” related-topics suggestions feature that Yahoo says has “more than doubled” click through rates.
The rumor is growing fast. Now the New York Post has it that Google could launch its search-related music store as early as this holiday season, i.e. November-December.
“Accelerated” Talks
The newspaper reports that Android VP at Google, Andy Rubin, is having “accelerated” talks with music publishing firm Harry Fox Agency to secure rights to as many titles as possible among the publishers’ 27 000 songs. Apparently, talks have now reached the stage where both companies are not only discussing prices and rights availability but also business models. Rubin being involved, it’s a given that the service will be available on Android.
AOL is currently gauging the offers of several companies to power its search as its $700 million-a-year deal with Google is set to expire in December. Whether it renews its agreement with Google or switches to another search company, AOL is likely to sign in its partner for the few years to come by September, according to various reports.
Foursquare, the location-based social media site, is aware of the value of its data for searches and has started talking to “a lot of different potential partners,” including industry majors such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft in order to clinch data deals.
Data Power
Speaking to The Telegraph in an interview, Foursquare’s co-founder, Dennis Crowley, said: “Our data generates hugely interesting trends which would enrich search.” “We can anonymise data and use it to show venues which are trending at that moment,” he explained.
In Talks
Did that just feel weird to read? It is indeed the latest patent obtained by Google, a giant innovative step for search: now the Mountain View-based company will be able to serve more relevant search results based on your mouse pointer movements on the page.
The Patent
“System and method for modulating search relevancy using pointer activity monitoring” is what the patent covers. The request was filed in 2005 and the inventor is Taher H. Haveliwala. What it potentially means is that your cursor movements may indicate to Google how to rank your query results and consequently, this will affect marketers’ campaigns in their ad placements.
After returning from SES New York 2010, my wife asked to clean out the bags of stuff that I’ve piled in the garage from other shows. Over the weekend, I discovered my conference handbook for Search Engine Strategies NYC 2004.
Image via Wikipedia
As I glanced through the agenda, I felt like Rip Van Winkle. Has the search industry really changed that much in just six years?
So this week, I plan to take a closer look at the hot topics at Search Engine Strategies NYC 2004 that were irrelevant at SES New York 2010. At the same time, I’ll continue to highlight the new topics that have emerged in the search industry today.
Line up the unusual suspects.
When Terrence Kelleman made a video about his Magic Magnetic bracelet, he had no idea that YouTube would feature the video for 10 days. He had no idea that it would garner over 2.7 million views.
It’s not Scorcese-esque. It simply features one of Kelleman’s products. But his products are amazing, so he didn’t need a fancy ad firm to come up with something deceptively clever.
Do you think a video seen by almost 3 million people had some SEO value? Abso-freakin-lutely. Is Terrence Kelleman an SEO? Nope.
The Search world is all atwitter with talk of social media. Google has thrown its hat in the ring with Buzz. Multiple search engines are incorporating tweets and Facebook status updates into search results. Things are moving pretty fast, becoming real-time.
So where and when do search and social media collide? These days, it seems to be everywhere… and right now. One’s first inclination might be to get the heck out of the way and see how it all shakes out. But can you really afford to? You’ll miss all the fun, not to mention some of the opportunity.
If your NCAA March Madness brackets are as messed up as mine, you’ll need a distraction this weekend.
So, catch up with these search stories from the week that just didn’t make it into their own post.
Google Analytics is now integrated into the Microsoft Silverlight framework. They also announced they are developing a global, browser-based opt-out plugin.
Google Commerce Search added advanced synonym options.
Google Android has added Gesture Search to versions 1.6 or higher.
Yahoo! is acquiring CitizenSports.com.
AOL is expanding their local efforts.
MapQuest adds “Search Along Your Route” functionality to its mobile version.
