Live Twittering The UK’s Microsoft Live Search Executive Symposium

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

https://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

https://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

https://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

https://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


about 1 hour
ago from in
reply to joiningdots

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

13 minutes ago
from twhirl
in reply to jquipp

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

https://try.indysearch.co.uk/

interesting. many many search-related
games from microsoft.

https://www.searchgamesbox.com/ worth watching, will explore later

london mayoral elections site pulls
in search results

https://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)