December Newsletter 2006
Welcome to our new Newsletter!
As you can see we have changed the look in our monthly newsletter and also changed the language. This is a measure we have taken to emphasise our great position on the European market. We are now working at full speed and 2007 is looking very exciting as we are 100% focusing on our Pan European stake. As well as serving some great news I’d like to take the opportunity to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.
Håkan Mauritzon, CEO, Relevant Traffic Europe
News
Searches are becoming more sophisticated and specific
In 1998 internet users used an average 1.2 words when conducting a search. In 2004 this had increased to 2.5 words per search and now, in 2006, the amount of words used on each specific search is up to 3.3. This underlines the importance of keyword research. In 1998 one could get away with a poor and simple keyword list but as the searches are becoming increasingly refined and more specific, companies keyword research can be the matter of ‘sale or no sale’. Online companies need to have a deeper knowledge of their own business and understand the new sophisticated way we search the internet.
Yahoo Opens Panama To All Search Marketers
Yahoo Tuesday opened registration for its highly anticipated "Panama" search engine marketing platform to all advertisers. With the new platform, Yahoo's paid search offerings are expected to become far more competitive with those of market leader Google. Among the main features are new geo-targeting capabilities and analytics, as well as instantaneous review of ad copy. In the past, it took Yahoo between 24 and 48 hours to approve ads. Marketers expect that the new features will boost click-through rates on paid search campaigns.
Microsoft is releasing Live Search Books, its competitor to Google Book Search
The book search engine performs keyword searches for books that have been scanned as part of Microsoft's book scanning project, in the same way that Windows Live Search searches the Internet. Initially, the Live Search Books database will be searchable from the book search engine's beta home page, or as a category on the main Windows Live Search page--a method referred to as vertical search. Once the tool is out of beta, Microsoft plans to incorporate all of the scanned publications into its general Internet search engine. The company hopes to do this in the next six months. Live Search Books' "Search inside a book" feature also allows users to search the full texts of scanned books.
Visual search technology is still in its infancy, but a number of new start-ups are pushing the possibilities forward — the latest being Xcavator
Riya’s Like launched recently, giving users a way of highlighting a shoe, or part of a shoe, and then look for similar shoes within its database of retail items — and so is helping with comparison shopping. You’ll notice, though, that Like operates in a controlled environment, allowing search within limited categories (bags, watches, shoes). Similarly, Swedish company, Polar Rose, just raised $5.1 million to help it launch its facial recognition, apparently due to be unveiled within the next couple of weeks. Enter San Francisco’s Xcavator, which attacks visual search differently. It’s not open for general use yet, but VentureBeat got an early look. It will launch next year. Compared to other players, Xcavator lets you drill down further into a picture to find similar features. It claims it is getting closer to what the human eye/brain does.
More News
Ho, Ho, Ho - Holiday Shopping Search Skyrockets
How Search Distribution Networks Affect Conversion Rates
PageBull — new visual metasearch engine