webmarketing4you » Search Engines

Bing Increases Market Share by 7%

DanW — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:42:25 +0000

According to the latest search engine market share results, Bing is gathering momentum with a 7% increase in search traffic.

The data from Experian Hitwise is collected from all US searches conducted during the month of October 2009. It is the fourth month in a row Bing has increased its market share, and it shows the people at Microsoft are chipping away at gaining a bigger share of the lucrative search and sponsored advertising market.

Google and Yahoo both experienced a 1% drop, while Ask boosted their search engine market share by 2%.

In Australia Bing has been running ad campaigns for the past several months to increase awareness, build the Bing brand and position itself as an alternative to Google — not a Google killer which some originally thought.

Overall my experience of using Bing is positive. I haven’t come across any significant problems, however when conducting a number of searches I found Google’s results to be better. Saying that, the huge gap that previously existed between Google and Live Search has pretty much disappeared.

Let’s see if Bing can reach their 20% market share goal!

Google Hot Trends Appearing in Search Engine Results

DanW — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:23:35 +0000

Earlier today I was using Google Trends and noticed something different when I conducted a search on a trending topic.

Let me explain.

Today’s most trending topic is for the term Regina Lasko. The name mean’t absolutely nothing to this Aussie lad. So I typed the phrase in to Google only to find Regina Lasko is David Letterman’s wife and he has been embroiled in an extortion attempt — after having sex with employees in the past! The blackmailer wanted $2 million ($AUD2.3 million) otherwise he was going to spill the beans on Mr Letterman.

Ok. Back to the purpose of this post. After typing in Regina Lasko I noticed at the bottom of Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP) a Hot Trends information box is appearing. Just like the one below.

You can see I have focused on the hot trend for Regina Lasko, which is currently #1 out of 100 and ranked “volcanic” on the Hotness Scale. Other terms on the hotness scale include — on fire, spicy, medium and mild.

Trend information is also highlighted visually. You can see from the graph there has been a surge in people searching for Regina Lasko around 6pm PDT.

This is how Google Trends appears on the search results page:

Google has more than likely added “Hot Trend” information to the search results due to the popularity of Twitter and the demand for real time information. It will be interesting to see how hot trends and real time search evolve.

If you want to see how trend results differ in Bing and Yahoo try their trend tools:

Cheaper Car Insurance in Australia. Competition heats up online!

DanW — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:32:52 +0000

Over the past few years the Australian insurance market has seen an increase in competition from the likes of Budget Direct, Real Insurance and Youi.

There are other online insurers such as Bingle, The Buzz (part of IAG/NRMA), eCar Insurance and Just Car Insurance, but for the time being lets take a look at the first 3 companies.

Budget Direct jumped in to the Australian insurance market back in 1999. However, it was not until 2005 where the search interest for “Budget Direct” started to rise. Since 2005 Budget Direct has experienced consistent growth in online searches.

Two of the more recent insurers to enter the market, Real Insurance and Youi, have experienced very strong search interest since entering the market. This is more than likely a result of their aggresive advertising, in particular television advertising.

The results below show how their advertising is driving an increase in the popularity of searches for their brands.

The Old Vs The New in search results

Increasing numbers of people are searching online for cheaper car insurance before they buy or renew so we thought it would be interesting to see how the more established players in the market, NRMA, AAMI, GIO, Allianz, QBE and the like, are responding to the increase in competition.

Let’s take a look at a couple of popular search terms:

Car Insurance

For the search term “car insurance” AAMI is currently ranked #1 in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The next 3 positions are taken up by newcomers to the insurance market – Youi, Just Car Insurance and Budget Direct. Allianz and NRMA come in at positions 5 and 6 respectively.

In sponsored advertising results Budget Direct takes to top position with the traditional insurers, Allianz and NRMA, in positions 2 and 3. eCar insurance and Youi are competiting strongly for this keyphrase with position 4 and 6.

Cheap Car Insurance

The search term “cheap car insurance” is won hands down by the new insurance players. In the SERPs Budget Direct, Bingle and 1cover (underwritten by Allianz) take the top 3 positions. The same applies to sponsored search. Youi, eCar Insurance and Budget Direct are currently paying a high Cost Per Click (CPC) in Google Adwords to hold the top positions.

Overall, when it comes to the online space and search engines I would have to say the older more established insurers are losing the online war to the new players in the market.

Budget Direct, part of the Budget Insurance Group, seems to have the highest and most consistent rankings in the SERPs and for Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. We think Budget Direct is worth watching closely, especially after the stellar success of their campaign for Compare the Market (Compare the Meerkat) in the United Kingdom.

Below is one of the television ads responsible for driving people online to search for Compare the Meerkat, or should that be Compare the Market.