I’m in London today for Live Search’s Executive Symposium, designed to educate key thought leaders, company executives, and others about what Microsoft is doing in search and what’s happing in search generally. I’ve twittered the morning sessions, which were interesting and full of stats. Below, the raw twitters. If time allows, I might clean this up and enhance later. If not, well, I hope you find some of it useful! I’ll also continue to add to this page throughout the day. NOTE: Live blogging and twittering often don’t completely capture the meaning of what was said. Questions? Unsure before you draw a huge conclusion? Just twitter to @dannysullivan, and I’ll see your question and try to answer for everyone.
Welcoming Remarks
microsoft exec symposium starting off with cynthia crossley dir search microsoft uk comparing newness of search to past industries like PC
computers in the future will weigh no more than 1.5 tons; decca recording, "guitar music" is on the way out. so similar ms pitch as in past
search is new. don’t assume it’s all over. true enough. just same message given out for past five years now.
Keynote Address
brad goldberg gen mgr live search explaining history of live search see mine here
http://tinyurl.com/5n2bmh
says last year they crossed line to having credible search tech
says 1/3 of all searchers use live search at some point in month (so even if share is small, they look) and verticals are opps.
40% of all queries not answered; 50% require refinement, more opportunity (and all stats we’ve heard before in the past but new to some)
[microsoft and google] "we’ll be the only two companies able to invest in what’s required to build out search in a way that users demand"
search survey stats: 70% searches are navigational, to find particular site and then something within that site.
opportunity to establish an emotional connection with search and make it more than a utility.
"for all the brand equity google has, there’s not a lot of loyalty we find" me, disagree — google has strong emotional connex 4 some now
key reason people aren’t satisfied with search engines, poor relevancy. 32% core ranking issues, 28% index coverage & quality
25% query intent and refinement, 15% other causes. @chriscathcart you can’t find it. he’s delivering it in an address right now
microsoft addressing these with things said before: better coverage, refinement, smart answers, etc. again, see
http://snurl.com/26ls6
could someone please start crediting jim lanzone for popularizing the term "more than 10 blue links" when talking search. or pay him a fee
demonsrating live’s xrank tool for celebrities, amy winehouse as example
http://snurl.com/26lsg
says xrank has been one of the best ways recently to increase engagement with searchers. agree — it’s unique and type of thing youd go 4
will do moe than just entertainment but a logical place for microsoft to start given its history &strength there. guess didn’t know thywere
talks multimap acquisition & how was unique in not 4 tech but for audience. which is as i’ve said why they wnt yhoo http://snurl.com/26lsy
concludes team in seattle is excited about bringing new innovation to search
my summary: search is still new. we’re better and able to compete now in core search. vertical search is all new ground.
Search Redefined Presentation
ok, jeremy phillips cofounder strategyeye now taking us on a tour of the search landscape and user perspectives. hope the twitter streams
search was directories and keywords but now we’ll have the semantic web and natural language search. sigh. sigh sigh sigh.
75% percent say they would switch for better search functionality but aren’t aware of differences (me: prob cause there aren’t that many)
web 2.0 features, community, collaborative search — least of interest to searchers
users tend to go to specialist sites for video search youtube blinkx pixsy downside is limited content sometimes. me: yes & no
innovation from big four. yahoo, focus on portal, music, movies, grouping up content. finance
ask (we care about ask now? i don’t), strength is parents (huh?) bignews, ask eraser.
live: video, entertainment, maps (me: one of the best things of live search)
google: maps, video are good niches. mobile is strong, partnership with many operator. home page deals lock people in.
data is from microsoft’s own survey i’ll try to pin it down later see some of the past URLs might be there
and thanks all for the replies saying you like the twits. helps to know.
hakia, mahalo, powerset, quintura, nsyght, fast tour of what some start-ups are trying (me: most of which will fail)
talking multimedia players like viewdle, qloud, tioti, pluggedin, everyzing covering video, music search tools
future beyond 10 blue links (more money for lanzone) search engines will further differentiate each other, small players will stay indepndt
local search and map search will diverge. me: of course at google they were separate then merged to do consumer demand
i asked about the 75%, IE, if i give anyone a question on anything like "would you change for something better" who isn’t going to
say yes. and he agreed. there was no specific functionality said. it was more to show that brand potentiall [sic] could be overcome with sthingnew [sic]
ok, that’s it for morning presentations. we go to workshops. not likely to twit much out of those. we’ll see
Location, Location, Location Breakout Session
jim cruickshank microsoft multipmap [sic] online mapping most popular method of navigation according to internal search,. in any market, mapping
sites among top visited. 40% of all searches have local intent according to live search research. 70 percent of local directories have
specific postcode involved with them. why popularity? online mapping free, up to date, accurate, digital imagery brings things to life
talking how the world is being modeled in 3d with lots of skepticism in the room and worries it’s too US focused
microsoft committed to creating virtual copy of real work and letting consumers be in control. see it as a key part of the search
on the 40% local queries, microsoft says that means those with an actual location or that eventually require some local solution (store, …
Ubiquitous Search Breakout Session
microsoft is showing these awesome hokey commercials to come for the uk done in a 50s style that will promote various products
online mums in the uk, top searches, 84% places to visit, 71% med info, 70% travel inof, 68% cooking recipes, 65% local
those are at least done *once* regularly search for tops 37% news, 36% nfo on places to visit, 34% cooking recipies, 30% weather, 28% travel
ubiquitous search, cynthia crossley, her term for people being used to search for anything anywhere (i call it consumer search in 05.
sergey brin around then also famously described wanting to make search as ubiquitous as brushing your teeth
indiana jones-branded search from live search uk, worth a look http://try.indysearch.co.uk/
interesting. many many search-related games from microsoft. http://www.searchgamesbox.com/ worth watching, will explore later
london mayoral elections site pulls in search results http://snurl.com/26m6v must have silverlight. microsoft thinks thats + but me no have
Closing Q&A Panel
goldberg: casual games tied to search have helped create some new regular users for microsoft.
goldberg on startups points to search wikia "from wikipedia" as not going anywhere after much hype. true and will indeed have real challenge
but inconsistent with msft message search is beginning (though they also saw only major cos can compete in gen search which may b true)
says also msft can take more chances since not worried on earnings or fear of ad clickthru rate (not said be seemed to mean google) odd in
goog always said taking long term view and itself didnt panic on the comscore clickthru data (plus delivered)
Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Microsoft: Bing
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