Yahoo! Mindset: A New Era in Search

Yahoo has launched a Beta of a new search function. It's called Yahoo! Mindset and it allows you to choose the type of results you want in organic search (i.e., commercial or research-oriented) You type in your search terms and then at the top of the results page, you can move a slider bar indicating your preference for shopping results or research results.

I tried it for Los Angeles Hotels. When I put the slider to shopping, I got the major hotel chains and booking agencies. When I put the slider to research, I got the LA News and vacation and travel guide sites.

This could have pretty big ramifications on the future of SEO when the same search can yield two completely different sets of results in the top 10 depending on where the searcher sets the slider. We'll be watching this closely and keep you posted.

Google Tests "Commercial" Results In Organic Listings

No one is admitting anything yet, but..... check the results yourself by doing a search for "on demand" at Google. This short article gives a possible explaination what is going on.

How Do the Search Engines Stack Up?

Did you ever wonder which search engines are used most for shopping search? What about for entertainment or news? A new report detailing behaviors associated with search engine use has been released by Hitwise. This report identifies clear strengths for each search engine. Such as; AskJeeves is most used for shopping and classified search; Yahoo is used most frequently for entertainment and news. Google is still #1 in visit market share at 39.34% with Yahoo coming in #2 with 18.16%.

I know people who never use anything but Google. I personally use Yahoo for most everything, only going to Google when I don't find what I want at Yahoo. I like the portal approach and organization Yahoo uses and feel I find things faster because of it. What about you? Which search engine do you use, for what, and why? And more importantly, which do your customers use? Do your optimization efforts reflect that?

Competition Forces Googles Contextual Network to Become More Transparent

We all know how wonderfully forthcoming Google is with information about the inner workings of their programs... Not! Well the competition from Yahoo's new Publisher Network is forcing Google to explain themselves better to their consumers.

Google has launched "Inside Adsense", a blog that promises to post up to three blog posts a week from members of the AdSense team. I for one, welcome the pressure from Yahoo if it makes the programs easier to use and understand.

Google AdSense testing larger ad size

DMNews is reporting that Google is testing a new, larger ad size. The new ads allow 200 characters in the description whereas the current limit is 95 characters.

I think in most cases that will mean a better conversion rate as users will have more information before they click, which should decrease that amount of visitors that click only to click "back" because they don't find what they expected to find.

But, this boon for advertisers could be a money loser for Google. Their model is based on users clicking ads, and presumably this could mean fewer clicks as users find what they are looking for quicker. If that's the case, perhaps Google will look at a more direct pay-for-performance model that includes actual sales, not just clicks. Let me know what you think... is this a good idea or not? Do you think Google will test other models?

Until next time!

Yahoo! Takes On AdSense, Launches Publisher Network

The latest round in the competition between Yahoo and Google was announced today. Yahoo has added ContentMatch to it's PPC offerings. The program is much like the Google AdSense program contextually matching PPC ads to small and mid-sized publishers sites.

Here's an article describing the program.

Of interest, Yahoo seems to have learned from watching Google AdSense. They are rolling out their program with the upgraded features that Google recently added. Yahoo will allow publishers to choose the appearance and placement of ads to more closely match the look of a site. Also, Yahoo will allow publishers to block competitors ads from showing up on their site.

We'll keep an eye on this new PPC avenue for Yahoo and keep you posted.