Real time search results. Recently we’ve seen both Google and Bing attempt to include Tweets in their SERPs however it was apparent from the out-set that they weren’t quite ready. From a ranking perspective it simply didn’t seem fair that people could get a number one result just because they were the last person to tweet a certain search term. So this year hopefully Google (and the other search engines) can develop a fair and effective way of integrating real time search.

Conversion rate optimisation. One of the most important reasons for a business to improve its online presence through SEO is because it wants more people to find its website and to make more money. However often the conversion rate isn’t as high as it should be.  We’re now into the realms of conversion rate optimisation and this year I think it’s going to be important for more agencies to introduce CRO as part of their standard SEO process. It’s very measurable, normally with a good ROI when done well and therefore should be an added string to any SEO bow.

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Yahoo have ventured into the most significant change in their evolution so far. Yahoo has launched a new revamped personalised homepage for their search engine. They plan to use the US as a testing platform and then launch fully in the autumn across the web. (more…)

Microsoft Corp. registered a 0.4% increase in their search market share in June at the slight expense of Yahoo! not Google, said comScore.

The bigger picture of the worldwide search market now looks like this (figures updated on July 9th):

• Google 90.85%
• Yahoo: 4.26%
• Bing: 3.04%

32% of Bing visitors come from the US, taking BING’s search market share in the US to 8.45% (StatCounter, June 2009), an additional 0.4%, whilst Google remains stable at 65%. However in the UK Bing only represents 2.56% of the search market.

What’s in it for users?

Microsoft presented Bing not as a search engine, but as a decision search engine, offering more contextual, relevant results to help decision making. (more…)

I want to search a certain query in search engines. So which one do I use?  Habit drives me towards Google knowing they are the biggest player in the market, but is that REALLY the best search engine to use for my specific query? Will Google give me the most relevant results? Apparently so, according to a new study by Citigroup. Their recent analysis of search relevancy found that Google was better than any of its main competitors in returning relevant results. (more…)

More than a few months down the line a merger between Microsoft and Yahoo now seems to be on the cards, for definite this time. Industry blogger, Kara Swisher has reported one of her sources informed her that “the deal had now become a case of the how and not just the if.” (more…)

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz has come out all guns blazing in her thoughts about the future of Yahoo after the first quarter financial results for 2009 were released. Included in these were some restructuring plans and areas where Yahoo aims to improve upon for the future.

The first quarter results have seen Yahoo’s revenue drop 14% from $1.35 billion to $1.15 billion from the same time last year. Will shareholders be patient enough to wait for a restructuring of the company to take effect? (more…)

After announcing it at the Mobile Congress event in Barcelona back in February Yahoo made its mobile website and iPhone app available for this past week.

Yahoo has managed to integrate its oneSearch, Go, oneConnect and onePlace together to provide an easy to use mobile service. (more…)

In another step to shake up their services and place them in a better position to achieve a higher percentage of internet search market share Yahoo has decided to scrap its MyWeb service.

In service since 2005 the MyWeb application has proved popular with users helping them to make things a lot easier in saving valuable information.  (more…)

Whilst probably not a surprise to anyone that uses internet search the figures just released by Neilson online show that Google has once again pulled further away from its competitors.

Of the 9 million plus searches that took place in January 2009 in the United States nearly 6 million of them happened on Google, this is more than double those with Yahoo and MSN Live Search combined who were second and third respectively. Following a long way behind those two was AOL Search, Ask.com and My Web Search. (more…)

As Yahoo still looks for ways to claw back its market share from Google the Yahoo search pad is nearing completion.

The Search Pad will automatically save your websites that you visit and take notes as you search when it realises that you are in a research mode. You can then edit and save your notes for future use. (more…)