Topic: Hitwise

iProspect: Blended Search Resulting In More Clicks On News, Images, And Video

Since the advent of “blended” or “universal search” last year across the major engines, there’s been ongoing discussion and speculation about its impact on user behavior and search marketing. Gord Hotchkiss last year wrote extensively about how blended search (on Google) has in fact shifted the user focus from the so-called “golden triangle” at the […]

Obit: A West Coast Digerati Deadpools Ask.com

Goodbye, Ask.com. You caught my eye back in 1997 as an unusual meta search engine that asked questions to get answers. By 1998, I counted you alongside Google and Direct Hit as shining examples of what to watch in search. You’d dumped depending on others for search results and started providing answers using your own […]

SEO

IAC Cuts 8% Of Ask.com & Kills Search Engine

IAC’s Ask.com to Cut Staff, Outlines New Search Strategy from the Wall Street Journal reports IAC has cut 8% of Ask.com’s workforce, by letting go 40 people. Not only that, the Wall Street Journal says IAC is changing the strategy of the search engine to “focus to better answering search queries posed as questions.” Ask’s […]

Hitwise: Google Users Older, Bigger Spenders Than Yahoo’s

Hitwise performed an interesting demographic analysis last week, comparing the breakdown of Google and Yahoo search users. What it found was that Google users skew older than Yahoo search users, bucking some of the conventional wisdom in the market about the relative composition of their audiences. Google users are also more likely to be affluent […]

Hitwise Illustrates How A Google Slap Can Hurt Hard

What happens if your site gets ‘blacklisted’ by Google? from Hitwise illustrates how dramatic a Google penalty can be to a company’s success. Hitwise collected search data and upstream traffic for searches for ‘car insurance.’ The search term saw a 31% increase in share of searches by the week ending 29th December. Around January 26th, […]

Microsoft + Yahoo: Recapping Reactions

Now that we’ve posted our own five different stories on the Microsoft bid for Yahoo, I wanted to take a spin across what others are writing up. Below, a recap of things I found interesting below. In particular, I’ve tried to focus on stuff that’s got original observations or interesting tidbits other than the general […]

MSFT + YHOO: What Would Microsoft Yahoo Look Like?

The conference call has happened, and despite saying it has a plan to digest Yahoo, Microsoft didn’t share that with the world. Indeed, at one point it was said any plan depended on what Yahoo’s leadership would suggest. That means it’s time for What If. Some thoughts below from me and contributing editor Greg Sterling. […]

Google Maps Gaining On Market Leader Mapquest

Mapquest arguably “owns” the mapping brand online. It has been the dominant mapping site for years by a wide margin. But that dominance may now be slipping under pressure from Google. Hitwise reports that “traffic to Mapquest has remained flat year on year and is down 20% in the past 6 months. Google Maps traffic […]

SEO

Search Year 2007: Search News, In Review

Each month, I compile Search Month — a recap of all the stories that have happened relating to search, categorized by topic. I thought it would be fun to take all the Search Months over the past year and produce this edition of Search Year 2007. It was far more work than I imagined, but […]

Facebook’s Hot, At Least As A Top Search Term

Facebook might not be more popular than sex, but it’s getting there — at least as a rival to sex as something people search on. Below, a look at Facebook’s new entry into a top search terms list and related stats, along the way — including which country searches for Facebook the most (hint: how […]

Microsoft Introduces New Live Search Index, Adds Features In Effort To Close ‘Relevancy Gap’ And Improve User Experience

Compete and Nielsen show Microsoft gaining search share over the summer, while comScore and Hitwise show the company losing share. Regardless of these numbers, however, Microsoft is confident that the search engine it’s reintroducing tonight in conjunction with its Searchification event will be a substantial improvement of the current version of Live search. Vanessa Fox […]

SEO

AOL Relaunches WAP Portal, Starts Broader Mobile Push

AOL is quickly and quietly moving on a number of fronts in mobile to establish itself as a leader. Not long after the relaunch of rival MSN’s WAP portal, AOL upgraded mobile search and, last week, relaunched its WAP portal with more personalization and generally greater usability. According to this BusinessWeek article, “U.S. traffic to […]