Mark Schwartz, Managing Director, Steak

Yesterday’s announcement that Bing is incorporating Facebook data into its results queries represents the latest salvo in the ongoing search wars.  This time, the firepower has powerful repercussions.

So, last night Bing announced the next stage of tapping into Facebook data – this time bringing Facebook friends’ recommendations into the Bing SERPs.  You can read a great summary at Mashable, but here’s the gist: Bing will now include Facebook friends’ recommendations into the search results.  Microsoft is calling this the “Friend Effect” – an effort to add the value of your trusted network into the social search experience.

A user will see this in the following ways:

• “Liked” Result Presentation – search results will incorporate your “Liked” stories and items of yours and your friends on Facebook.
• Personalized Result Pages – buried SERP results may now move up based on your or your friends’ Facebook preferences.
• Social Messages Integration – relevant posts from brands you “liked” on Facebook will show in search results.
• Expanded Facebook Profile Search –Facebook profiles will show directly in Bing’s search results.
• Shared Shopping Lists – now share your favorite items, travel and deals with friends directly from the Bing result pages into Facebook.

A video from Bing about its new Facebook integration (1:36):

The implication of this is significant.  Facebook represents a database that Google can never get a hold of – and it’s a very powerful signal set.  Accessing the thought and opinions of a user’s most trusted network will likely have a high degree of influence in how that user interacts with Bing’s results, leading to even more data collection and further enhancements.  Furthermore, Bing can also now use that aggregated information to inform advertisers and agencies on consumer behaviors – and perhaps even use it to inform bid pricing on the AdCenter side.

As much as Google continues to innovate in the social graph, including the recent +1 launch, they can never hope to compile the same sort of feature-rich, trusted network that is represented by Facebook’s 600 million worldwide users.  On Facebook, users happily share brand preferences, travel plans, personal data and so much more.  Now all that data will inform and define your Bing search results.

One rich question remains:  Even if Microsoft creates a richer and more personalized experience, will people move away from Google’s search and start using Bing?  If even a small percentage of users make the switch, it represents millions of dollars in ad inventory.  And that’s what Microsoft is betting heavily on.

Your move, Google.

By Duncan Parry, Search Engine Watch,  Feb 2, 2011

Following its successful rollout in North America, Microsoft and Yahoo are focusing on rolling out the Search Alliance in Europe, starting with natural search results on Yahoo UK.

This move is largely welcome. With a UK market share of less than 10 percent for Yahoo and MSN, it makes more sense to manage campaigns on one interface. Right now, Yahoo staff are being trained on adCenter in preparation for moving their clients’ campaigns over.

Filling in my agency’s response to the European investigation into Google, I had to list a number of features of the AdWords platform. We all know the depth and breadth of development of AdWords outpaced Yahoo (and Overture) and comparative newcomer Microsoft a long time ago.

But where are the beta trials from Redmond? Where are the new initiatives, the new ideas from engineers that will differentiate the adCenter platform from AdWords, raise the revenue per search Microsoft receives, and grow loyalty with advertisers?

Try as I might, I can’t remember the last “big” change or enhancement on adCenter since Microsoft launched a desktop tool similar to AdWords Editor.

Parallel Races

It’s easy to sit outside a company and poke holes at their strategy. Microsoft has lots of intelligent, hard-working people who are pushing their search efforts forward — sometimes despite other people internally, I suspect.

They’ve built a search engine, created a PPC platform, and started to take the fight to Google (but let’s be honest, Yahoo’s been the main loser and Ask was already fading away).

As Bing introduced new features and received attention, Google seemed to wake out of a slumber and started rolling out new features in search results, continued its relentless development of AdWords and, with increasing speed, the development of its display business through DoubleClick.

So the foundations are firmly in place from Microsoft. They’re gaining traffic from their Yahoo deal and their own activities. Bing keeps adding new features.

But where’s the innovation in adCenter? I’m not talking blog posts, research reports, or tools around-the-edge (which they are often good at); I’m talking hardcore, at-the-center innovation that every advertiser, big or small, will be able to use. Things like Google’s sitelinks — self-service, enhancing search results and, crucially from a revenue per search basis, raising CTRs (and often ROI for advertisers — leading to increased budgets).

Several races are happening in parallel here. Market share is one, but there are others (e.g., innovation in PPC, further exploiting the connection between display and search).

Microsoft and Yahoo have strong experience in display and have done some work in this area — but Google is catching up, fast. They may not have the premium level display inventory Yahoo and Microsoft have access to, but with remarketing in AdWords Google has made the sort of retargeting once considered the preserve of the most well-funded advertisers available to all.

Search marketers are adopting this tactic in droves — but only on Google’s platform or through third parties — not adCenter.

What Could Microsoft Do?

So, if I think Microsoft should be innovating more in PPC, what would I suggest? The obvious example, sitelinks, bears some thinking about.

Sitelinks undoubtedly offer convenient ways for site owners to channel consumers into the right section of a site following a one-word brand search or ambiguous generic. The format and mechanics could be different — sitelinks can be improved in terms of reporting data and control over which links are shown.

Is this copying an idea and developing it further? Yes. After all, Google wasn’t the first PPC engine — they took the idea and added engineering rocket fuel.

Several other areas spring to mind — things Google is already doing, but not always that well: local information in PPC ads, incorporating feeds to enhance PPC ads (more control of which products display for which searches would be a start), and the ability to buy non-premium display inventory via adCenter for retargeting.

There are probably much better ideas out there, not to mention the ones bubbling away in the heads of engineers at Microsoft.

Do I feel Microsoft is distracted by the challenge of onboarding an increased volume of traffic, new advertisers, and training Yahoo!’s staff? Yes.

Do I hope we’ll see a burst of innovation on adCenter afterward? Yes.

But underlying concern is it’ll be too late — Google will have moved ahead in all these races, and there will be new ones opening up that adCenter won’t be equipped to enter. That will be bad for all of us in search — especially those of us in a market where Google already dominates 90 percent of searches.

We’ve been very impressed by Bing’s response to our previous post.

Within a couple of hours, we’d received a personal response from Bing thanking us for our feedback and acknowledging that ‘the result returned could definitely be improved and we have flagged this with our London Search Technology Center and they are on it’.

Two days later, the TV ad launched in the UK and as referenced by Michael Gillet in his blog, Bing’s results for searches for directions have improved dramatically.

A great example of a large company actively monitoring customer feedback, understanding the need for change and making it happen quickly. Keep it up Bing!

According to several articles posted today, Bing’s TV campaign in the UK will feature ‘a woman seeking directions to Euston station.’

http://www.nma.co.uk/news/microsoft-to-run-first-tv-ad-campaign-for-bing/3010829.article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/mar/08/microsoft-bing-tv-ads-google

Unfortunately, the top result on Bing for ‘directions to Euston Station’ currently provides directions to St. Pancras Station, followed by hotel sites. In fact, there are no ‘directions to Euston Station’ anywhere on the front page.

Oh dear. We’d advise Bing to attend Steak’s presentation on integrating search with other marketing channels at the IAB on Wednesday 17^th March.