My Buy Essay

Posts Tagged ‘engine’

The use of search engines in locating information has become so central to our daily lives that it is hard to imagine a world where one cannot simply “google” driving directions just before heading out to the car. This availability of information, unprecedented in human history, is still a new concept, yet it has revolutionized the way we live, even in our humdrum, day-to-day activities. Need a new recipe in time for dinner? Conduct a search (and forward it to meConductSearch.com!). Forgot your anniversary and need a gift by tomorrow morning? Piece of cake. It’s become second nature to not only snatch instantaneous solutions from the Internet, but to trust that they will be there.

Just because we’ve so readily accepted search doesn’t mean anyone thinks it’s fully developed. I offer only your typical financial headlines: Google does this, Yahoo does that, Exxon searches for oil &ndash everybody searches! Tech advances beget tech advances and search is still a work in progress, a particularly interesting work in progress.

The concept of search need not even be limited to alphabetical means. Microsoft is firing imaginations with image search…for more imagery. Somewhere in Washington State (I think) teams of cyber savants have been taking steps toward incorporating this imagery hunt functionality into the search engine. The goal is to allow users to input an image file as the search parameter in order to return associated image results.

While the technical process admittedly remains mysterious to those of us not actually working on it, its aim of a searchable database free from the ambiguity of language is a beautiful notion, even if it’s not the end all of search itself.

Let’s say that you were interested in researching a fancy home furnishing company called “Hammer and Co.”. You’d open up your web browser and enter the name in the search bar on Google, right? Your Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) will show hundreds of results…M.C. Hammer, tools, and the like. There will be some, if not lots of, sifting to do. But, were you able to input an image of Hammer & Son’s distinctive purple tulip logo in the search field, you

may get a glimpse of Hammer’s lovely wormwood designs. Heavenly.

Engines utilizing “image search” will distinguish content, spatial qualities, pixel dimensions and placement, the size of images, and various other factors in its comparison. While the technology is not quite ready to be unveiled for general use, Microsoft’s purchase of Vexcel, a specialist in imagery, remote sensing and “photogrammetry” does bolster support for the theory that we are not far off from being able to take a photo of a stranger with a camera-phone and running an internet-wide search for that person instantly.

It seems the internet cannot be further leveraged to the end of radical technological advancement and social change, it is. Web 2.0 expands infinitely outward into a world of possibilities that need only be imagined to become true.

Damian Verutes

Marketing Analyst

MarketingConductSearch.com

ConductSearch.com

To stay relevant or even solvent, a company must keep itself informed. That’s why research, of both the in-house and outsourced varieties, is essential. At ConductSearch.com keeping tabs on who’s doing what in the marketplace is key to our success, and it doesn’t matter whether our information comes via mailman or email – at the end of the day, it’s still content, right? Recently, I happened to come upon the work of a reliable investment banking firm that specializes in Chinese tech research, New York Global Securities. I learned that New York Global thinks as highly of search advertising’s positioning in China as I do of it was here in America. They initiated coverage of a major Chinese Search Engine, Baidu (which translates to “a hundred times”), with a “Buy” rating.

Funny enough, ConductSearch.com and Baidu, the Chinese search giant, have something in common. But what, you ask? Baidu is based in mainland China (we’re not quite there, yet) and has little American presence. Yet, both companies, one small, one large, and on opposite sides of the earth, share a sentiment associated with search advertising – a sentiment shared by search advertisers all over the earth &ndash namely, that there’s still brilliant opportunities in the field. As players in search advertising, no matter what the size or where we are, we must avail ourselves to these favorable conditions.

We’re no GE, but we’ve got exclusive search technology surpassed by none, while Baidu, an indexer of 700 million pages, is located in a country that didn’t even have Internet access only 7-8 years ago. Incredible, sure, but these are hardly unique success stories in the field.

One great aspect of search is that as it evolves, advertisers grow increasingly aware of its effectiveness. This makes the task of selling the revolutionary concept much less difficult, and industry forecasts indicate this advertiser confidence with predictions of continued search advertising growth through at least 2010. Advertisers simply can’t get enough of measurable, targeted end-users.

According to Andrew Collier, New York Global’s analyst who’s recommending Baidu, the Chinese populace is even more receptive to Baidu’s relevant advertising than would be Westerners since existing Chinese advertising channels (that’s print, TV, and radio) are relatively weak.

So enticing is China’s advertising landscape for the accommodating platform of search, that Yahoo and, as of last January, Google, have launched Chinese versions of their popular search engines themselves. Baidu is sure to meet some stiff competition from Google.cn. Says New York Global’s Andrew Collier: “search is one of the best advertising models for the Chinese market because of its ability to target a specific customer base.” Do no evil and do much business, right Google?

In the meantime Baidu, with a 50% share of the Chinese search market, is reaching targeted customer bases within China. Search, by its flexible nature, adapts well to that frenzied economy. Massive ramp ups in Internet connectivity has been all the impetus needed. New York Global rates Baidu (BIDU) with a “buy” recommendation largely due to its positioning as a provider of this highly effective search advertising platform.

The deep reach that search advertising provides Baidu in connecting with Chinese Internet users contrasts greatly with the Chinese Internet Portals whose total end user numbers are still too small to deliver mass goods to large audiences through banner ads and the like. So, too, is this a problem with traditional media, where government ownership is essentially a monopoly, thus preventing a healthy advertising environment. In China, Internet search marketing shines brightest in a sky of less than stellar advertising opportunities.

Maybe I’m biased, but I believe it’s the best means here in America, too. Domestically, my company or yours might not have 50% of the search market, but, like any firm involved with search, we do have the same wind of opportunity blowing at our backs as Baidu.

Jeff Conduct

Director of Marketing

ConductSearch.com

.conductsearch.com

marketingconductsearch.com

Click-to-call is an emerging contextual advertising format that will help spark the growth of localized search. It links online users to offline advertisers by combining Internet telephone capabilities. Although it has yet to hit its stride as a platform or even pierce consumer consciousness, the biggest interactive names, like Google, Yahoo, and eBay, are positioning themselves for a future in click-to-call. Let’s take a closer look.

Click-to-call ads (CTC) are delivered, like pay-per-click, through standard online search results. They mostly resemble standard paid search ads, too. The user sees the familiar text in a box, except there is an icon that can be clicked to connect the interested party with the designated advertiser via telephone. This process is fully online until the user activates the CTC functionality by clicking that icon delivered with the ad.

Next, the user is prompted to enter their telephone number, which may or may not be already stored with the search engine. Once the phone number is entered, the search engine calls the user and connects the advertiser at no cost to the user. It should be noted that search engines will be adamant about protecting the anonymity of user phone numbers in order to placate any understandable fears of being added to telephone marketing lists. It will be imperative for search engines to build user confidence because trust is precious, especially when introducing new products.

Since CTC incorporates phone use through the Internet, VoIP specific companies like Vonage and Fusion will be parlaying their niche of Internet telephony into partnerships with bigger Internet properties, as evidenced by Skype’s sale to eBay. Even an online advertising agency like ICMediaDirect.com has to consider the impact of a “hybrid” service, like click-to-call, will have on search marketing. Isn’t it funny how convergence, the calling card of technological progress, can make the telephone cutting edge?

Experts aren’t expecting great revenue generation straight out of the gate, but click-to-call could be at the forefront of yet another giant tech-based advertising expansion. One area that click-to-call may impact is local search. I believe CTC has enough functionality to ignite the long anticipated surge of localized search as a leading format of small business advertising. For example, if a person finally has had enough of a bad back &ndash where do they go to find a chiropractor, the Internet? Could be. That’s where we can research and get a phone number. Just think what a chiropractor would pay per click of that icon that rings his office and the sufferer simultaneously. And you thought pay-per-click was targeted and relevant?

Finding out which businesses will advertise on local search via click-to-call is an easy task &ndash they’re the ones filling the yellow pages of your phone book. These small businesses (think: pizza parlors, law offices, florists) are already heavily vested in local advertising, yet almost none use search advertising because the format has yet to incorporate small business. It’s believed that there are nearly 15 million small businesses in the United States today and almost none are benefiting from local search the way that it’s envisioned. When geo-targeted search is smoothed out and more popular, and CTC gets rolling, local advertising will realize more convenience and more targeting &ndash and the world will witness another online advertising revolution.

Click-to-call is even more targeted than the pay-per-click search format as we know it today. Advertisers are going to pay more for CTC because anyone who takes the time to call is certainly a higher-percentage paying customer than your basic web surfer who indicates interest. While some web surfers may click ads to satisfy curiosity, few visitors will be clicking icons to make idle talk with businesses &ndash as far as I can tell, this isn’t an issue for businesses listed in the Yellow Pages. Click-to-call is a potent ad format and advertisers are going to shell out top dollars for it. Keep an eye out for developments in this format and be ready to adjust your strategies accordingly.

Joseph Pratt

Media Analyst

ICMediaDirect.com

.icmediadirect.com

e: josephicmediadirect.com