Bing Watch . . . Just Bing It!

Wish you were here Bing

BingWatch team was busy this week attending Domain Fest Global 2010 in Santa Monica which was ended this morning, Friday, January 29.  The event was organized by top-tier domain monetization company, DomainSponsor.com.  This was one of the kinds that "cannot miss" domain conference.  Close to 1,000 multi-millionaires, domain owners, and investors from around the world filled out seats and attended the event when it was originally started in 2006.   The 2010 event was the 5th year in a row.  This year’s keynote speaker was Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO.   Other top speakers included Bruce Clay (Bruce Clay, Inc.) and Danny Sullivan (Search Engine Land).

The merger of Bing and Yahoo search engine was discussed by several panels, as many believe this will help the domain industry.  Many domain owners and investors are so excited to see the deal to be approved by America's Justice Dept within the next few months.

The biggest draw for audiences attending this year's Domain Fest Global was the last day’s dinner trip to Playboy Mansion accompanied by Playboy bunnies and all great looking models in the planet.  Foods, drinks, and hotels were also excellence this year.

On the second day of the event, conference-goers had dinner party at The Getty Center.  The center is located near jammed freeway I-405 and freeway I-10 with breath taking views of the city of Los Angeles.  Conference-goers were also allowed to explore Getty’s special painting collections while the center was closed to public viewing during this dinner trip.

Bing Maps Challenge, a chance to win a $100 gift card (offer ends Feb 19, 2010)

Bing Maps said good bye to Ajax last week and removed “beta” tag on Bing Maps website, while also asked users to move to new maps controller using better quality and better user experience with Silverlight.  In order to gain larger market share of web-based mapping with Silverlight, the Bing team has announced an online game with a chance to win a $100 gift card.  The offer will end on Feb 19, 2010.

Best companies to work for, not at Bing, as engineers have been served with Bing branded lousy soda

While Bing Human Resources department is preparing all necessary paperwork to welcome 400 Yahoo search-engine experts and engineers that will be transferred to Bing within the next few months.  A new ‘happy workers’ data has just been published by Fortune magazine.  The latest Fortune list shows top 100 Best Companies to Work For.

(A) 2010 Fortune magazine list

 
On this latest list, Bing’s parent company has dropped significantly to number 51 for 2010, compared to 2009 which was at number 38. We believe the main reason for this drop was that all Bing engineers have been served with Bing branded lousy soda during the past year.

If a search engineer has a choice, Google would be the best place to work for. Google’s rank was unchanged at number four of the best companies to work for in 2009 and in 2010.

(B) 2009 Fortune magazine list

  

World Search Market, December 2008 vs December 2009

 
Bing continues heading to the right direction in worldwide search market.  The latest data from comScore showing Bing/MSN capturing about 3.1% of world search market.  Bing users conducted about 4.1 billion searches in December 2009, compared to only 2.4 billion searches in December 2008 (an increase of 1.7 billion searches, or 70.3% increase in search query volume).

Google remained world’s top destination for people conducting searches online, capturing about 66.8% of world search market.  Google users conducted about 87.8 billion searches in December 2009, compared to 55.6 billion searches in December 2008 (an increase of 32.1 billion searches, or 57.8% increase in search query volume).

Overall, as per comScore, world users conducted a total of 131.3 billion searches in December 2009, compared to 89.7 billion searches in December 2008 (an increase of 41.6 billion searches, or 46.4%). 

Chef Bing

 
Bing just added cooking recipes with complete details on the decision engine.  It will make so much easier for Bing users to practice cooking and be ready to compete in Iron Chef America.  Users just need to type in a food related search (for example, kung pao chicken recipe), the decision engine will return with a list of selected recipes for the particular food.  According to Bing team blog, most of cooking recipes were pulled from popular websites such as delish.com, MyRecipes.com, epicurious.com, etc.  Each recipe also has user’s rating with some projection of calories and fat amount.

 

Innovative Bing Autosuggest helps users to conduct search faster

Bing has been collecting users’ behaviors over the past few months since launch and recently has improved Autosuggest to help users to conduct search easier and faster without too much type-in keywords.  According to Bing team blog, the newly improved Autosuggest was based on the internal study showing high abandon rate (exit rate) at about 45% after a user conducting first type-in search.  With the new and innovative Autosuggest, Bing team believes the exit rate could be lowered in a long run.

For example, if a user starts typing “sup” for “superbowl” Bing Autosuggest immediately shows relevant keywords that match the first two or three keystrokes related to “superbowl.”  This new innovative tool helps user to find results faster without leaving the site.

 

Bing + iPhone = a win-win strategy

As Google Android OS is gaining momentum and Google new smartphone Nexus One is starting to capture market share from Apple’s iPhone, businessweek.com has confirmed that Bing and iPhone is talking to each other and to find a way to replace Google as the default search engine on iPhone. 

Similar to Verizon and Bing deal which automatically set Bing as the default search engine on Verizon phones, the deal between Bing + iPhone would also automatically set Bing as the only search engine on any new iPhones, as per businessweek.com.  This will be a win-win financial strategy for both companies, as both could share a portion of mobile advertising revenues for a long run.

Bing’s big boss connects to Twitter and Facebook

 
As American Commander-in-chief, Mr. Obama, made headline news early this morning by publishing the first tweet from American Red Cross.  Now Bing’s big boss, Bill Gates, is also getting into social networking by sending out the first tweet "Hello World."  Mr. Gates first tweet was about his foundation work.  He is currently following about 40 Twitter members, including KaraSwisher, GStephanopoulos, QueenRania, Pierre (Omidyar), Ashton Kutcher (@AplusK), etc.

Aside getting a Twitter account, Mr. Gates is also updating his new Facebook account regularly.  The Facebook account has several photo albums depicting his foundation works in India and Africa.

 

Bing + Yahoo deal has a deadline of February 19 in Europe

According to reuters.com, the European Commission has set a deadline as they are currently reviewing Bing + Yahoo deal that was announced at the end of July 2009.  EU will decide whether the 10-years global deal will pass EU's M&A requirements or not by Feb 19.  As previously announced, Yahoo will earn about 88% of every single dollar generated from Bing pay-per-click advertising on Yahoo search site.

Bing privacy issues

In support to the Article 29 Working Group demand for providing a better policy for privacy matters, Bing has agreed with regulators from European Union (EU) 27 countries to eliminate all data collected on users who conducted search on Bing after six months period, as reported by Bing's team blog.  User data include IP address, email address, phone number, service provider location, and type-in keywords search.

Most of search engines including Bing, Yahoo, and Google had been storing user data in their giant databases for over 18 months.  According to nytimes.com, as per John Vassallo, Bing general counsel, the decision engine will introduce a new way to collect user data during the next 18 months aiming to fulfill the EU demand.  During a press conference in Brussels, nytimes.com quoted Bing general counsel “We support what the Article 29 Working Group is doing. That is why we are making this change.” 

 
(chart posted by Peter Cullen, Chief Privacy Strategist of microsoftontheissues.com)

Mixed results for Bing and Google from Q1-09 to Q4-09, in term of share of search spending and clicks

The latest data provided by Efficient Frontier and was posted a day earlier by Nathania Johnson of searchenginewatch.com, show mixed results in term of share of search spending and share of clicks, for both Bing and Google, during the fiscal year of 2009, from Q1-09 to Q4-09.

 
(A) Share of Search Spending

• Bing captured 3.5% of share of search spending in Q1-09. It increased slightly to 4.1% of share when Bing’s launch in late May 2009. It continued to go up to 5.3% of share in Q3-09, and dropped slightly to 5.1% in Q4-09.
• Google's share hit 74.5% in Q4-09, a slightly increase from 73.9% in Q3-09.

(B) Share of Search Clicks

• Since its launch in late May, Bing’s share of clicks increased from 3.9% in Q2-09 to 4.7% in Q3-09, then, dropped slightly to 4.6% in Q4-09.
• Google’s share of clicks dropped since Q1-09 from 72.3% to 71.0% in Q3-09, but its share of clicks rose to 74.4% in Q4-09.

binged.it, a new Bing URL shortener

Several giant Internet companies (incl. goo.gl, fb.me) have been utilizing URLs shortening similar to the popular Bit.ly or tinyurl.com.  Now, Bing is getting into the same business as well.  A blogger in UK recently found Bing team member @fareologist started to use Binged.it for URL shortening.  A screen-shot from Twitter show Binged.it was first in public use on January 6, 2010.  When a user clicked on binged.it, it forwarded to Bit.ly.  However, as soon as we published this blog (Jan 15, 8:30PM PST), binged.it has been re-forwarded to Bing's homepage.

While domain name Bing.com has only four characters, and Binged.it has six characters, there is a blur meaning as a ‘short’ URL here.  Maybe Bing should consider to use bi.ng or bing.ly or bing.me for URL shortener.

Bing is still hot in America and captured 10.7% of search market share in December

 
The most widely used Internet traffic data in Wall Street was published today by comScore as cited by Imran Khan, a JPMorgan analyst in New York.  As per the latest comScore data and reported at businessinsider.com, Bing remains the hot chili of search engine and captured 10.7% of search market share in America in December, compared to November’s search share of 10.3% (an increase of 0.4%). 

The red hot chili decision engine has increased a total of 2.7% of search market share in America since Bing launch in late May 2009.

Meanwhile using the same dataset from comScore, Google search market share increased to 65.7% in America in December, compared to 65.6% in November (an increase of 0.1%).  However, if you look at the chart, Google only increased about 0.7% since Bing launch.

 

Bing search market share in America dropped slightly in December

 
As many decision engine users were busy doing shopping during the past holiday seasons, Bing stats apparently took a little bit dives to 9.9% of search market share in America in December, compared to 10.7% in November (or, a drop of 0.8%), as per the latest data provided by Nielsen Company. 

 
Google search market share increased slightly to 67.3% in December, compared to 65.4% in November (or, an increase of 1.9%).

 
(tables: Nielsen Company)

Bing health decision engine

Bing added a health search feature which allows users find information quickly.   When users conducting a health-related search and type-in a keyword for a specific disease or medicine, the decision engine returns with instant answers and provides several links related to the search word, as reported by Bing team blog.  For example, if a user search for “ADHD”, the decision engine will show a definition of ADHD and related conditions, and provides related medications for the disease.  For certain disease, Bing also allows users to drill down the location of medical centers.

Bing versus Google: Allocation of Paid Search Spending in America in 2009

 
Paid Search market share for Bing in America hit a new record high at 13.7% during Q4-09, compared to Q3-09 which was at only 5.4% (an increase of 8.3%), as reported by Craig Macdonald, Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Products at Covario.com, an Interactive Marketing company based in San Diego.  

 
Meanwhile, market share for Google in America dropped significantly to 72.2% in Q4-09, compared to Q3-09 which was at 80.1% of all allocation of paid search in America (a drop of 7.9%).

Click here to download the full report from Cavario.com

Bet your online advertising money on Cyber Tuesday and Green Tuesday

 
A latest data from comScore.com holiday season shopping data show that online buyers spent the most on Green Tuesday (Dec. 15, 2009) which contributed to a total of $913 million.  Green Tuesday hit an all time high of total online spending in one day. 

Cyber Tuesday (Dec. 1, 2009) was considered as the third heaviest spending day in 2009 holiday seasons where online buyers spent a total of $886 million. 

Meanwhile, online marketers who spent all of their efforts to increase their advertising dollar for the popular shopping day on Cyber Monday may had disappointed this past year’s holiday seasons, as Cyber Tuesday just about $1 million short of Cyber Monday’s total of $887 million.

 
According to comScore, online buyers spent almost $29.1 billion during this past year’s holiday season, compared to 2008’s holiday online shopping season which was totaled $27.9 billion (an increase of 4%).

 

(data source: comScore.com)

Bing shows the winning photograph

As previously announced, Bing shows the winning photo on today’s homepage (Jan 6).  The photo contest winner is Justin Kraemer.  From a list of 20 best photos, Bing team picked a skyline image of downtown Seattle (Washington), a city where Bing has his headquarter.

Let’s go to Curacao

Happy New Year 2010.  As we are entering the New Year, it’s a great time to start planning for this year vacation destination.  Bing has recently announced a list of top destination for 2010.  On top of Bing popular destinations for 2010 is Curacao, an island in Caribbean country.  The island is about 2.5 hours fly from Miami.  It has secluded beaches with tropical weather and architecture buildings scenery similar to European style (Dutch).  Plus, natural features incl. wild flamingoes.

(photo: curacao.com)