Jan 30, 2013 at 3:09pm ET by Barry Schwartz

If search has any influence or say in who will win the Super Bowl this Sunday, Super Bowl XLVII, then the San Francisco 49ers are clear winners. A Bing representative told us that the San Francisco 49ers have twice as many searches than their competitor the Baltimore Ravens. Plus, the 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, has 50 percent more searches than Raven’s quarterback, Joe Flacco. The Ravens do win when it comes to searchers on the top player. The Raven's linebacker, Ray Lewis, is the most searched on player for Super Bowl XLVII amongst Bing searchers. While Alex Smith is the top [...]

77 Percent Of Online Health Seekers Start At Search Engines [Pew Study]

Jan 15, 2013 at 12:05am ET by Matt McGee

Although there's long been a debate over the accuracy of health information online, many U.S. Internet users aren't hesitant to use the Web when they want answers to health-related questions. And rather than dedicated health sites, the vast majority of them begin their research at a search engine. A new study out tonight from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project says that 72 percent of U.S. Internet users have gone online in the past year specifically for health-related information, and 77 percent of that group says their research started at Google, Bing or another [...]

Reports: Tablet Paid-Search Spend Surpasses Smartphones

Jan 10, 2013 at 10:55am ET by Greg Sterling

Two reports out this morning from Marin Software and IgnitionOne capture a range of Q4 paid search ad spending data. For purposes of this article I'm going to focus only on the mobile component of the reports. Both show paid search spending on tablets surpassing smartphones. The IgnitionOne report, focused on the US market, shows that mobile devices now account for 18 percent of total paid-search budgets. However in Q4 tablet metrics grew dramatically faster than those for smartphones. Right now IgnitionOne says CPCs are lower on tablets, while impressions and clicks are much higher for tab [...]

Survey Shows Americans Confused By How Google, Facebook Make Money

Jan 9, 2013 at 10:14am ET by Greg Sterling

A new survey from Harris Interactive on behalf of The Search Agency finds, among other things, that large numbers of people in the US don't really understand how Facebook and Google make money. The online survey was conducted in August 2012 with a sample of just over 2,000 adults. The Search Agency (via Harris) asked whether people agreed with the question "I understand how Facebook makes money." A slight majority (54 percent) said that they strongly or somewhat agreed. On the flip side, 46 percent essentially did not understand. However even among the 54 percent who said they understoo [...]

Facebook Still Top Search Term In 2012 As One-Word Searches Rise 16 Percent [Experian]

Dec 20, 2012 at 7:47pm ET by Matt McGee

For the fourth straight year, "facebook" was the most common search term in the U.S. this year -- part of an increase in navigational searching that saw one-word searches rise 16 percent in 2012. That's according to Experian Marketing Services, which announced its list of 2012's top search terms today. The data covers search activity on more than 60 search engines and website visits between January and November of this year, but doesn't include mobile searches or traffic. Experian says "facebook" accounted for 4.13 percent of all searches, a 33 percent increase over 2011. Other Faceb [...]

6 Holiday Trend Shifts That Heavily Impact SEM

Nov 15, 2012 at 1:25pm ET by Mark Ballard

Anyone involved with online retail should be well aware of just how critical holiday revenues are, not only to a strong fourth quarter, but to our success for the entire year. An RKG analysis of 2011 paid-search results shows that, on average, retailers generated 18% of their annual revenues over the 30 day period starting with Thanksgiving Day, with daily sales volume coming in at nearly triple the rate of the rest of the year. But, revenue volume isn't the only metric that shifts significantly during the holiday season, and as we'll see below, the assumptions and strategies that serve us [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Enterprise SEM | Stats: Search Behavior

Study: 36 Percent Of Mobile Automotive Searchers Convert “Within The Hour”

Nov 14, 2012 at 12:01am ET by Greg Sterling

Earlier today Nielsen, xAd and Telmetrics released the third part of their "mobile path to purchase" study conducted earlier this year. The research focused on three verticals: restaurants, travel and autos. While almost all the mobile and tablet users doing research on these devices are highly qualified purchasers, there are differences in the consumer behavior from vertical to vertical. The data released today pertain to the automotive category. The study uncovered four types of mobile automotive users: Auto researchers Deal hunters Circumstantial or emergency users Gear head [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior | Top News

Study: Google Search Share Slips Below 90% In The UK In October

Nov 7, 2012 at 12:10pm ET by Pamela Parker

Only 89.33% of internet searches in the UK were conducted on Google sites last month, according to Experian Hitwise. It's the first time in the last five years that Google search market share in the UK has ever dipped below 90%. While Google's share dropped, other players -- especially Microsoft's Bing -- picked up market share. Bing grew to encompass 4.71% of all searches, which was a 2012 peak for the engine. Experian Hitwise suspects that October's launch of Windows 8 -- which uses Bing as the default search engine -- may have been a factor in Bing's share increase. Yahoo sites an [...]

Can Search Queries And Social Data Predict The Presidential Election Outcome?

Nov 6, 2012 at 6:30pm ET by Greg Sterling

By the time this election is over more than $2.6 billion will have been spent by the two US presidential candidates on political advertising. I've also seen some estimates that say total political advertising this election cycle will top $6 billion. Yet, remarkably, The Atlantic points to a Google Trends report showing a huge November spike for the query "Who's running for president?" "Who's Running for President?" If you compare "Obama" to "Romney," Google Trends reflects that Obama comes out just ahead of Romney, the same way many believe this election will turn out later this evening. [...]

94 Percent Of Teachers Say Students Equate “Research” With Using Google

Nov 2, 2012 at 8:57am ET by Matt McGee

It's almost unanimous: 94 percent of U.S. teachers say their students equate "research" with using Google or other search engines -- more so than Wikipedia and other online encyclopedias. But teachers are less sure that their students are effective searchers, and they're more skeptical than most adults about the accuracy and trustworthiness of information that's found via search engines. The data comes from a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project in conjunction with the College Board and the National Writing Project. Nearly 2,500 middle and high scho [...]

Google Anticipates Surge In Smartphone Search For Holidays

Nov 1, 2012 at 3:33pm ET by Greg Sterling

Earlier this morning I wrote a post about how most search marketers were failing to utilize mobile paid search and/or not following mobile best practices. Failing to "get your act together" (from a mobile standpoint) could be costly for marketers of all sizes this holiday season. There have already been a dozen or so surveys that basically show consumers anticipate using their smartphones more often or more aggressively as part of their holiday shopping. Google echoed this today with a blog post that argued smartphone-based search will be even more pronounced this year, especially around he [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Stats: Search Behavior

Data: Only 5 Percent Of Search Advertisers Follow Mobile Best Practices

Nov 1, 2012 at 1:07pm ET by Greg Sterling

Google has been pumping out research and speaking at industry trade shows trying to educate advertisers and agencies about the growing importance of mobile in the consumer path to purchase. One of the "best practices" advocated by Google, as well as those experienced with mobile paid search, is to separate PC and mobile campaigns. However new data from Wordstream indicate this is only happening in about 5 percent of cases. Wordstream founder and CTO Larry Kim looked at the company's huge trove of data and determined that 55 percent of paid-search campaigns target mobile devices. Given th [...]

VP Debate Spurs Searches Like “Shirtless” (Ryan), “Laughing” (Biden) & Other “Malarkey”

Oct 12, 2012 at 2:48pm ET by Matt McGee

There's a kind of Pavlovian response that happens with major national events in the U.S. (and probably elsewhere): internet users taking to the web to comment on and/or learn more about what they're experiencing. As expected, conversation spiked on social networking sites during the Vice Presidential debate last night. Twitter says there were 3.5 million tweets just during the debate itself, and another half-million before and after. (Update: For more on the social aspect of last night's debate, see my Marketing Land article: Red State, Blue State: The Social Network VP Debate Divide Shown [...]

As VP Debate Nears, Search Interest In Ryan Outpaces Biden

Oct 11, 2012 at 7:50pm ET by Matt McGee

Vice President Joe Biden and vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan are a little more than an hour away from their first and only debate of this election year, and search activity around the debate is heating up -- largely surrounding Ryan, the Republican nominee. We'll begin with this tweet from Yahoo Search, which reports that there's about seven percent more search interest in tonight's debate over the past week than there was in the week prior to last week's Presidential debate. JUST IN: Searches for the VP debate are 7% higher than the 7-day period leading up to the presidential debat [...]

Study: 64 Percent Of Mobile Restaurant Searchers Convert “Immediately Or Within An Hour”

Oct 3, 2012 at 9:28am ET by Greg Sterling

Yesterday at SMX East, during the "How to Play in the Exploding Mobile Ads Universe" session, Telmetrics' Bill Dinan previewed some of the mobile restaurant search data being released this morning. This is the third tranche from a study conducted earlier this year by Nielsen and commissioned by Telmetrics and xAd. The research was based on "an online survey of 1,500 US smartphone and tablet users and actual observed consumer behaviors from Nielsen’s Smartphone Analytics Panel of 6,000 Apple and Android users." Accordingly it reflects both attitudes and actual user behavior. My write-ups o [...]

Report: Clothing, Restaurants 50 Percent Of Mobile Coupon Search

Sep 18, 2012 at 5:15pm ET by Greg Sterling

Ad network Chitika has released some data on mobile coupon search this afternoon. Based on an analysis of millions of mobile search impressions from its ad network, the company found that "Clothing and Restaurants make up the lion’s share of mobile coupon searches." The study was conducted the first week of September. The two categories represented 50.2 percent of all mobile coupon searches seen by Chitika. Clothing lead restaurants slightly, followed by more general "retail" and "arts & crafts." These top four categories together constituted 80 percent of all mobile coupon-related se [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Stats | Stats: Search Behavior

Emma Watson: Most Dangerous Celebrity Search Object, McAfee Says

Sep 13, 2012 at 1:24pm ET by Matt McGee

Hey Emma Watson fans: Be really careful about clicking on those search results. McAfee, the security technology company, says Watson is 2012's most dangerous celebrity to search for -- replacing Heidi Klum, who held that title last year. According to McAfee's Most Dangerous Celebrities study, searches related to Watson have a 12.6 percent chance of leading to a malicious website that offers spyware, adware, viruses and the like. When it comes to dangerous search terms, the landscape is decidedly female. The only guy to make McAfee's top 20? That would be Jimmy Kimmel, who ranks number [...]

Google, Yahoo Agree: Democrats Searched More Than Republicans During Political Conventions

Sep 10, 2012 at 3:42pm ET by Matt McGee

The dust has settled on both the Republican and Democratic national conventions and, while we don't know who'll ultimately get the most votes, it's clear that Democrats won the day where search activity is concerned. Both Google and Yahoo have analyzed their users' searches during the two conventions, and both show that search activity spiked significantly more during last week's Democratic National Convention (DNC). Google Search Activity & Political Conventions On its Google Plus page late Friday, Google's elections team shared a chart showing that three of the top four most-searche [...]

Search Activity Makes Michelle Obama The FLOS (First Lady Of Search)

Sep 5, 2012 at 4:12pm ET by Matt McGee

A Pew Research study that was released this week showed that Democrats are more likely to mix social media and political activity. They might be more likely to mix politics and search, too, at least judging from data comparing search activity from Michelle Obama and Ann Romney that Google has shared today. Michelle Versus Ann According to the Google Politics and Elections team, search interest Tuesday night in Michelle Obama during the first night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) surpassed search interest in Ann Romney one week earlier during the first night of the Republican Nati [...]

Pew: 50 Percent Have Cleared Smartphone Search History

Sep 5, 2012 at 1:57pm ET by Greg Sterling

There's a cat and mouse game going on between developers, publishers and mobile users. The former group is often trying to "connect the dots" and gather as much data and information on user behavior and, in some cases, individual activity as possible. By contrast, mobile phone owners (especially smartphone owners) are often trying to thwart or very selectively allow that data collection. The Pew Internet Project just released survey data revealing that mobile users may be a great deal more sensitive to privacy issues than most developers and publishers think. The survey was conducted in Mar [...]

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