This comes on the heels of yesterday’s news that Microsoft is the number one submitter of copyright-related URL removal requests to Google. It sent more than 500,000 such requests in the past month, asking Google to remove URLs that host pirated copies of Microsoft products and other copyright-infringing material.

TechDirt pointed out that some of the URLs that Microsoft asked Google to remove were still appearing in Bing’s search results.

A Microsoft spokesperson explained that to us today, saying that it’s because the infringing URLs hadn’t been indexed in Bing when the takedown notices were sent:

Microsoft sends takedown notices to search engines, including Bing, only after it verifies that content has been indexed. At the time of the takedown notice in question, the link to the particular piece of infringing content was not included in Bing’s search results.

The TorrentRoom.com URL that TechDirt showed as listed in Bing yesterday is no longer showing in Bing’s index.

In this case, then, it appears that Google’s speed in indexing URLs — which it often does more quickly than Bing — is the main reason why Google had received the takedown request in question before Bing did.

But I have to add … Bing isn’t going to make many friends with related searches like the one above that helps searchers find a site to download Spartacus.

Yesterday Microsoft announced that in 24 countries, including the US and UK, Nokia (Navteq) will be delivering traffic data to Bing Maps. The company also said that it would start using Nokia’s geocoding services in several (unnamed) countries to improve directions.

In May last year I wrote Bing Maps To Be Powered (Replaced) By Nokia? A source argued to me that over time Nokia would gradually replace most of the infrastructure behind Bing Maps. I was very surprised at the time but it appears to be happening.

This mapping integration was allegedly, according to my source, one of the sticking points that caused Nokia to pass on Android as a platform. Google wouldn’t similarly agree to a commingling of Google Maps with Nokia on the back end. However if Windows Phone fails to deliver for Nokia — so far results have been modest — the company may be compelled to embrace Android as a survival move.

Nokia is also behind the new Yahoo Maps. My suspicion is that Nokia hopes to eventually make these third party mapping services part of its local ad network.

Related Entries

• Microsoft And Nokia Unify Maps On PC, Mobile
• Report: Apple Replacing Google Maps With Own Product In iOS 6
• Will Apple’s Move Bring A Real & Perhaps Better Google Maps To iOS
• Microsoft Makes Venue Maps More Visible On Bing
• Bing Maps To Be Powered (Replaced) By Nokia?
• Nokia Now “Powering” Bing Maps
• Powered By Nokia, The New Yahoo Maps Goes Live
• Google Maps Vs. Bing Maps: Summer Vacation Planning Showdown

To be clear, this isn’t traditional image search that we’re talking about; that’s still available at bing.com/images. We’re talking about the “Visual Search” tool/interface that Bing launched in 2009 with a unique interface that used Silverlight technology to let searchers view a large set of images and data.

In our article about the launch, we used this screenshot as a sample of the Visual Search interface:

The independent Microsoft/Windows blog, Liveside.net, reported today that the old URL for Visual Search (www.bing.com/visualsearch) no longer works.

A Microsoft spokesperson tells Liveside.net that the company began removing Visual Search galleries last fall — a long time for something to be shut down with virtually no one noticing.

Among its many provisions, the deal — officially announced in late July of 2009 — called for Microsoft to pay Yahoo $50 million annually, for three years, for implementation costs.

The mutual fund manager, Reema Shah, formerly of Ameriprise Financial Inc., had heard rumors that a deal — what became The Search Alliance — was in the works, and called Kwok to find out. Despite Kwok’s responsibility to keep confidentiality, he told Shah about the soon-to-be-announced agreement.

Afterwards, the mutual funds she managed bought more than 700,000 shares of Yahoo stock that were later sold for profits of around $389,000. Shah also pled guilty to securities fraud in the case.

Kwok may have talked to Shah because she previously did a similar favor for him, tipping him to that Autodesk intended to acquire Moldflow Corporation. He traded on that information, and made $4,754. The two met in January 2008, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says they began a relationship in which Kwok provided Shah with non-public information about Yahoo — including about its quarterly financial performance. In return, she told him information she learned in the course of her work.

“Kwok and Shah played a game of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,” said Scott W. Friestad, associate director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a statement.

Both Kwok and Shah have agreed to settle SEC charges and have also pled guilty in parallel criminal cases. Under the settlement agreement, Shah will be barred permanently from working in the securities industry. Kwok will be barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Penalties and sentences haven’t yet been announced.

The post is about Google’s latest Penguin update and how SEOs and webmasters need to be better prepared for such updates.

The basic advice is simple, SEOs and webmasters need to do one thing – diversify.

Duane is not just saying, focus on Bing and make sure your site does well there too. Yes, if you lose all your Google traffic, ranking well in Bing is nice but since Bing only has about 30% marketshare, you are still missing out on a lot of traffic.

Duane is also telling you to diversify outside of search. He explains, “Algorithms change. Rankings change. Competition happens.” It does – so look at social media, look at Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest as traffic sources. Look towards email marketing and other forms of offline marketing.

Of course Duane recommends you build the best site in your niche, make yourself an authority and your site should be “future proof.” But in terms of what is important for Google and Bing in the future, Duane says “search is influenced by social today.” What is next? Also, what is the next SEO spam tactic and are you doing it?

So when Bing talks about Google’s latest update, they are not just saying leave Google for Bing – they are saying – be a smarter marketer and think about the future, making the best resource and most importantly – diversify.

More at the Bing Search blog.

Microsoft said for the time being, the Bing API will still be free – to try out. But those with over 5,000 queries per month will have to start paying after the free trial is over. The pricing structure is posted here and currently reads:

• 2,500,000 queries for $5,000.00
• 2,000,000 queries for $4,000.00
• 1,500,000 queries for $3,000.00
• 1,000,000 queries for $2,000.00
• 500,000 queries for $1,000.00
• 250,000 queries for $500.00
• 100,000 queries for $200.00
• 50,000 queries for $100.00
• 20,000 queries for $40.00
• 10,000 queries for $20.00
• 5,000 queries for $0.00

The old Bing Search API will sunset on August 1, 2012.

For more details see the Bing Search blog.

Bing’s announcement today says that anyone can access the new interface at www.bing.com/new, but you should also see a new message atop the Bing home page that invites you to try “the best search, now with people from your social networks.”

Even without clicking the “Check it out” link or first going to www.bing.com/new, I was shown the new, three-column display on a search for “seattle restaurants.”

When Bing announced the new interface last week, it included “Snapshots” — a new version of search results that shows additional information about each listing in the middle panel. A Bing spokesperson tells us that that feature is still about a week away from going live on Bing.com.

If you missed the original announcement last week, the new Bing interface adds various social elements to search results, including a “social sidebar” that pulls in friend and expert information from Facebook and Twitter related to your search query. For more on how it works, see our stories from last week:

• Bing Relaunches, Features New Social Sidebar
• Head-To-Head: Bing’s Social Search Vs. Google’s Search Plus Your World

Bing says the new interface is also available on Bing mobile (m.bing.com) with a layout that’s optimized for smaller screens and touch-based input.

According to our source, comScore will report that both Google and Bing have made small, incremental gains since last month and seen modest growth since last year. One or both are growing, it appears, at Yahoo’s expense. AOL and Ask are basically flat.

Yahoo is at its lowest point to date and has recorded its eighth straight monthly decline in terms of market share. Our source believes that Yahoo’s share could sink quite a bit lower over time.

Here’s the comScore share breakdown for the past two months compared with a year ago:

Data source: comScore (5/12)

These data do not include mobile search query volumes. We know that many publishers are seeing a range of between 15 percent and 25 percent of their queries now coming from mobile devices. In some categories the percentages are much higher: restaurants for example where 40 percent or even 50 percent of traffic is now from mobile.

Google is far and away the dominant provider of browser-based mobile search query volume in the US.

Postscript: Now the official comScore numbers are out and they’re consistent with what we posted above.

Microsoft’s Qi Lu has just taken the stage and is talking about the launch of the new Bing. He’s discussing the need to “reorganize the web for task completion.” The web is no longer a collection of documents; it’s a web of documents, places and people. “It’s dramatically richer today,” than it was just a few years ago he says.

Lu is now talking about the importance of incorporating the social graph and related content into search if it is to remain central to the online experience and remain “the gateway to the web.”

Social now a critical part of the web

Relationships and conversations among people are now a critical part of the web. Search needs to be “re-invented” to account for the new web of entities/places and social content and sharing. Accordingly, here are the features elements of the new Bing at a high level:

• Complete redesign of the Bing UI and architecture (we’ve seen some of this already)
• Snapshot: designed to enable users to complete tasks “easier and better over time” (this is an index or corpus of things and places with related information)
• Sidebar: designed to make social “front and center” as a part of the new search experience

The new structure of Bing is aligned with the “prevailing information architecture” of the web today. Lu is now taking us on a tour of the Bing SERP. It’s cleaner, faster and search quality has been improved.

Snapshot and Sidebar

Lu is discussing Snapshot and Sidebar. Snapshot is intended to help people access information and features for task completion: watching movie trailers, making restaurant and hotel reservations, for example. It primarily is about entities and places — rather than people or documents.

Sidebar is populated with people from your network and “experts” (now mainly from Twitter) who might have useful information. You can interact with people (in your network) right on the search results page within Sidebar. Lu says this “makes people an integral part of the search experience.”

Bing will thus be seeking to combine the power of search and social networks together in a single UI. He says that Sidebar will include numerous social networks: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Foursquare, Google+ and others over time.

Lu ends with a statement about the challenges of ranking and presenting all the new data that Bing is incorporating in a useful and coherent way.

Now Microsoft’s Harry Shum is up to talk about relevance and ranking of people, documents and entities. Shum says that Bing search quality is equal to or greater than Google according to third party review. He says that in blind tests users prefer Bing to Google.

Shum is demonstrating the Snapshot panel. He also talks about how Bing is now leveraging and blending social signals into its broader algorithm to help rank results and entities. There are separate but overlapping ranking indexes feeding into the new Bing SERP.

Shum also discusses the fact that people are being ranked (for Sidebar) to help users accomplish their tasks. He uses the example of finding a hotel in San Francisco. Bing may show, for example, people in your network who reside in San Francisco. It will also show travel experts from Twitter who may know about SF hotels. Shum explains there are a number of factors involved in ranking people in Sidebar. (Sidebar optimization anyone?)

He says that Bing will ultimately build an “index of people” that will parallel the main web index. What Bing is trying to do is very daunting from a computer science perspective, he says.

The SERP design challenge

Shum hands off to Derrick Connell, VP of Search Program Management. He repeats the message: search result pages need to evolve to accommodate the various types of content, graphs and information being indexed and presented in the new Bing. Bing did 3,500 UI experiments in developing the new SERP. Microsoft took a lot of time to “ensure that the architecture of the page was right.” Snapshot and Sidebar are not yet live but coming very soon.

Bing eliminated the left rail in the new simplified SERP but not the content and features previously presented there. We’re now hearing the genesis of the new SERP. “Overall we’ve cleaned up the page” for basic search results.

Here come Snapshot and Sidebar. We’re getting a deeper dive on Snapshot, which is not going show up for every result. “It’s more of a selective experience.” However the social Sidebar will always be present for the user.

Sidebar will present your network in one area and “influentials” (experts) in another area on the right column panel. You’ll see posts or tweets from those experts that are relevant to your query. But you won’t be able to talk to or question them directly. However you can with people in your network.

Now the demo

For basic queries we’ll get basic results: 10 blue links without Snapshot or Sidebar. This is the new “cleaner” Bing SERP.

We’re now being shown a somewhat more complex search (e.g. a local restaurant or hotel query), which triggers Snapshot. An arrow will indicate that if you hover you’ll get the Snapshot panel with more information including reviews and the ability to make a reservation without leaving the page.

Now Sidebar is being shown. As mentioned, it presents relevant people from your network and influentials, allowing users to ask their networks for advice from within the SERP. This is a pretty cool and impressive integration.

To get the benefit of Sidebar you’ll need to be signed in to Facebook or sign in to Bing with Facebook Connect.

Facebook: “People matter”

Facebook is here — I missed the name of the individual speaking — talking about the importance of human connections and advice from friends as part of consumer decision making. He’s saying that Sidebar and its social capabilities mirror how decisions are made in the real world. Bing is “keeping the core integrity of search results and giving you the ability to reach out to people” from within the search results page.

When you ask for help or advice from people on Facebook that question or request will show up on your wall. You can ask everyone or direct the question to specific people (whom Bing thinks are relevant to the query). You can’t yet choose people not presented but that will likely come. The person or people you’ve selected will get a private notification and your question won’t show up on their wall, newsfeed or timeline.

What happens in mobile?

Mobile offers a different UI than the PC experience of the new Bing. In mobile there will be a more “stacked” experience rather than a three panel presentation, as on the PC. It’s visually different but still keeps social contacts separate from the core search results.

Microsoft says the experience will be more swipe-based for smartphones. It’s still being developed and finalized. The emphasis is on HTML5 but I was told the new features will also be incorporated into Bing’s apps.

Roll out and Q&A

Microsoft is still testing and refining the product but you can sign up to opt-in to the new experience at Bing.com/new. It will roll out gradually over the coming weeks.

How will the design affect ads? Conventional search ads will remain in their current positions. Microsoft said, however, it would experiment with new ad opportunities and formats in Snapshot and Sidebar.

Facebook and privacy: I asked who on Facebook would see questions that were asked through Sidebar. The person asking the question via Bing will see the question on his/her wall. The intended recipient of the question will get a notification. However none of the person’s contacts or friends will see the question in the Facebook newsfeed.

Metrics to measure success: Microsoft said that it would look at user engagement with Sidebar to evaluate success, in addition to the conventional search metrics.

Is Bing getting special access to social content? Microsoft said that Bing was just using the Twitter and Facebook APIs that other developers and publishers also had access to.

How will Bing determine what friends to show on Sidebar? Harry Shum said that Bing was just in the beginning of “ranking people.” But it considers public profile information, geography, interests and comments and other information on Facebook.

Some quick, final thoughts

The integration of social Q&A via Sidebar is pretty compelling. I haven’t tried it yet and so can’t speak to the user experience. While Google has some of this functionality (mostly buried) Bing has created something in principle that is more “coherent” and potentially useful than what Google is doing with social integration into search. (We’ll see how Google responds.)

Sidebar is pretty differentiated from Google Search Plus Your World (which is playing peekaboo today). And it may finally give Bing a more distinct identity in the market.

If people actually start engaging with Sidebar and get useful answers from their networks, it could generate new momentum for Bing and create a “next-generation” social-search experience. We’ll see.

As these new features roll out we’ll have more in-depth coverage.

Hey Google, How’s New Girl?

I thought I’d start with a search for New Girl. It’s a great show. I should know. I was a Fan of the Week. What’s Google show me?

The arrows point at things that have come because of social connections, and I’m only going to focus on these things, in this head-to-head. Do these additions seem to help or hurt my results?

Google tells me at the top that someone I know has +1′d the official site. Maybe that calls my attention to it more, but I could take it or leave it.

Further down, my own post on Google+ about being made Fan of the Week appears. I say point to Google. Ego searches are one of the key ways people historically judge search engine relevancy. Can they find your own stuff? Google could.

Further down, the official New Girl Facebook page is listed. It only shows up this high because I’m “friends” with New Girl on Google+. Content that your friends like moves higher. If I turn off the personalization that Search Plus Your World does, that link drops from the top results.

Finally, to the right side is information from the New Girl page on Google+. This is nice to see, helpful.

New Girl On Bing

Over on Bing, there’s less going on. The IMDB listing has a thumbs-up, to alert me that one or more of my friends likes it. I like this a little better than Google flagging pictures. It feels cleaner, less intrusive.

Further down on the page, I’ve shown one of two different links that appear with a trending arrow, to alert me they are currently being frequently shared on Twitter. Again, kind of nice, though also kind of confusing when there’s also a news box.

Bing really falls down in the Sidebar are, where it should really shine. I follow the Facebook New Girl page, but that’s not shown. I do get the Twitter account of Zooey Deschanel, the main character of the series. But why not show me at least the Twitter account for the New Girl show itself?

In the end, I think Google comes out ahead on social integration, in this case.

Google & Penguin

If you’re in the search marketing space, Penguin recently changed from being one of those cute flightless birds to the name of a new Google update aimed at web spam. This seemed a perfect test for the new social features. What would a search for Penguin yield?

Mixed among the regular results, Google gave me three based on my social connections. The top was something I myself had just shared on Google+, a new article I published about Penguin. OK, relevant, but not that helpful. I know I published the article. And really, what I’d rather have is a link to the actual article instead of a link to my post about the article.

After that, more Google+ — this time a post from my news editor Barry Schwartz, sharing a video related to Penguin. Lastly, an article I wrote on Marketing Land.

Overall, these things make sense to appear, but some more variety, some posts on Penguin from others in my social network, those might have been more helfpul.

Bing & Penguin

Next up, Bing:

The Sidebar on this particular query is pretty useless. It’s mostly people who have pictures of penguins. Apparently, none of my Facebook friends have shared or posted anything to do with the Penguin Update.

Over in the main search results, impressive success. Because I and another person have liked my original article on the Penguin Update, it ranks tops in my personalized results.

I call this test about even. I felt Google didn’t give me much variety, but neither did Bing.

X-Games

One of my son’s is big on BMX, so I tried a search for X-Games as a final test. Here’s are the social results I got back, Google on the left, Bing on the right:

Nothing dramatic, really. Wow, I get my own pictures on Google. Might be useful, but since I know X Games itself on Google+, why not at least suggest that? Meanwhile on Bing, I can see that several of my friends like X Games on Facebook, but why not list the page itself?

Social Is Still Developing

In theory, social mixed with search sounds great. In reality, it’s still has a long way to go. For some background on some of the challenges, I really urge you to see my post from earlier this year, When Everyone Gets The Vote: Social Shares As The New Link Building.

Related Articles

• The New Bing: Microsoft Tries Again With Search Meets Social
• FAQ: What’s The Debate About Google’s Search Plus Your World?

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