BING: Because It Needs Google

Google and Bing have been at it for years with the latter (supposedly) poised to eat out of the former's leadership. But, never had they reached very heated temperatures until an interesting turn of events recently. A few hours' back, Google claimed Bing uses their search results! Backed by a string of evidences from an intricate sting operation (details of which are here), coupled with a PR move that stung as well, Google published on their own blog their findings of what might just be the start of an epic battle with Bing.

So, how did Google do it? They came up with a number of "synthetic queries" or queries that users would least likely use. For each synthetic query, they assigned a top search result that returned a link totally unrelated to the query. One such example would be "hiybbprqag" which, when Googled, would return (at least, during the sting operation) what appears below:

Try Googling for it now, though, and it'd return an awful lot of news and blogs fanning the coals of this war (this includes what might just be the new definition of the query, according to Stephen Colbert). But, I digress. At any rate, again, the query would return a link to the Wiltern seating chart. So, what happens when you Google (harhar!) the query on Bing?

Surprise, surprise.

Of course, Bing was not going out without a fight. A little subtlety goes a long way and it could not get any subtle, if not passive-aggressive, than this. But certainly, subtle was not going to make this exciting. But, throw in a war in Twitter and you've got something entirely worth following. Oh, how wonderful to pore over raging emotions bottled up in 140 characters or less.

Dare I ask what's happening?

2010 Year in Review: Justin Bieber and the Weirdly Named Apple Product

For would be authors out there, that title might just sell (despite the rather corny, if not awkward, phrasing of such) if 2010's status updates and searches were taken into consideration. Across all platforms of internet giants, Justin Bieber and the iPad managed to squeeze itself into the consciousness of users having been in 2010's top 10 status updates, tweets, and searches. Oh, what would 2010 have been without these two.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo recently released their year end reviews of what got mentioned the most and what got searched the most in 2010 with interesting and mixed results. So, what did we do in 2010?

We shared news (and acted on it). 2010 had us talking about events that made headlines the world over, such as the BP Oil Spill (#1 in Trending Topics and Yahoo!) and the Haiti Earthquake (#4 in Trending Topics and #5 in Memology). Yahoo claims that it’s the first time that a news story has taken the No. 1 spot. Despite such news not appearing in Google’s Zeitgeist, the Haiti earthquake made waves among Google users as Google claims that “donate to Haiti” was the fastest rising humanitarian aid query in 2010. We were the ones who weren’t fooled by BP’s attempts of cover up (from the press release of Photoshopped images of their workstation to the ban on photos taken from the Gulf) and we knew better than to be mum about it. Certainly, we did not just make ourselves aware of such news. We went out and did something!

We rejoiced at triumphs (and were united by it). We watched closely as drama unfolded right before our eyes and we knew we just had to spread the good news to everyone. The rescue efforts for those trapped in the mine collapse in Chile had us glued to our social networks so much that Facebook claims that keyword use of “miners/mineros” (#8 in Memology) leading to the final rescue spiked 33 times – one for each miner – with the biggest spike during the final rescue! Plus, who could forget the World Cup (#2 in Memology, Trending Topics, and Yahoo!) when we rooted for our own teams and made heroes out of soccer players and, guess what, Pulpo Paul (or Paul the Octopus - #10 in Trending Topics). We even shared the fascination over the Vuvuzela (#5 in Trending Topics). And, I dare say that Justin Beiber (#3 in Zeitgeist, #6 in Memology, #8 in Trending Topics and Yahoo!) might just be the triumph that we lauded (and even giddily gushed over) the most as we tuned into the life of a pop star that started from YouTube and ended up trumping all other mainstream artists the likes of Nicki Minaj (#4 in Zeitgeist), Katy Perry (#7 in Zeitgeist), and Britney Spears (#10 in Yahoo).

We dreamed big dreams (and looked forward to achieving it). Apple and Google had us salivating for their latest creations in 2010 and it kept us talking (and sometimes sourgraping) about the iPhone 4 (#4 in Memology, #6 in Yahoo!), the iPad (#2 in Zeitgeist, #4 in Memology, #6 in Trending Topics), and Android (#7 in Trending Topics). But, more than that, 2010 fuelled our more personal desires, thanks in part to B.o.B.’s hit single “Airplanes” (#9 in Memology) which had us pretending that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars and wishing on them just to see what it could bring us in 2011 (#10 in Memology).

Search on this 2011, everyone!
*This post is based on press releases by Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Google. For more insights and drill downs on the matter, visit their respective year in review posts (or any variation of said phrase) in the following links: Facebook Memology, Twitter Year in Review, Yahoo Year in Review, and Google Zeitgeist. +This post is part of the 2010 Year in Review series, a week-long series of blog posts dedicated to reviewing what the world was up to in 2010 in terms of social media and... other things. I'll get back to you on that by the end of this week.

CDMP Week: A Layperson's Overview on Search

Search has become part and parcel of our daily lives as most of the information we get from the internet we usually get through search. And, this does not merely limit itself to our digital self but our entire being, as what Google’s famous “Search Stories” ad (click to create your own! This is fun, trust me!) drives at.

But, how does it actually play into marketing? In order to fully understand this, one has to look at how Google (and other search engines) work. For one, whenever you type in a keyword, Google returns a list of pages in response to your search and you are most likely to click on the links on the first page, if not just the ones on top of said page. After all, why would you have to go through the effort of going to the 27th page or the 5,723rd link when you know that the first links are most likely to be more relevant than those somewhere last? As a marketer, therefore, your ultimate goal is to reach the top of the heap in order to gain more ogling eyes. Or, at the very least, gain headway in the list than your competitors and/or detractor. Time to call in Aling Nena.

Wakarima-corn has long settled in the long stretch of Katipunan Avenue among a number of other Japanese corn stores. Now that Aling Nena has gained a following among the community and with the Yuletide season fast pulling in tourists, it’s high time she decided to take advantage of the situation. Katipunan Avenue is known for its Japanese sweet corn but, most certainly, the tourists went there for the corn and not for any specific store. So, what to do? There are two ways for Aling Nena to take advantage of this influx of searchers:

1. Search Engine Optimization. Aling Nena has gained a steady following among her loyal buyers in the community and, with that, she’s more than confident that a handful of them would ultimately lead searchers to her. The more trusted* loyal buyers she has, the higher chances are that searchers would be able to discover her little stall. SEO works the same online. Your website’s organic rank is determined (partly) by the number of trusted* sites which link back to your website. The higher the number of trusted* sites linking back to you, the higher the chances that you’ll be on top of the search results page.
2. Paid Search/Search Advertising. Aling Nena, despite having lots of loyal buyers remains undiscoverable. So, she resorts to rallying a few of her minions to distribute Wakarima-corn flyers to the tourists. Online, marketers and brands resort to this same tactic through paid search where they bid on a certain keyword so that they could appear in the search results page. Note that this is targeted inasmuch as marketers only pay to advertise to people who search for a certain keyword. In Aling Nena’s case, her minions know full well that they are only to give flyers to tourists and/or people on the lookout for Japanese corn.

*I put emphasis on this as certain search engines put weights (crudely defined) on sites in terms of their relevance. You're most likely to gain more momentum in organic search when Mashable links to you than when a geocities page (one that you built yourself) links to you. Offline, you could see this as that huge divide between President Obama and Aling Nena's son endorsing Wakarima-corn. Sure, most people would believe Aling Nena's son but President Obama would be able to pull more attention towards Wakarima-corn.
+This post is part of the CDMP Week series, a week-long series of blog posts aimed at explaining digital marketing strategies through offline analogies. This has been partially intended as a fulfillment of one of the requirements of the Certified Digital Marketing Program (formerly known as the Digital Marketing Diploma Program). The CDMP (DMDP) is a one-year diploma course under the Internet and Mobile Marketing Association of the Philipppines (IMMAP) and Ateneo's Center for Continuing Education (Ateneo CCE). Enrollees go through a crash course on a number of digital marketing concepts and tactics and, in the end, have the opportunity to be dubbed as one of the few Certified Digital Marketers as recognized by IMMAP. To learn more, visit www.imadigitalmarketer.com or go to their Facebook page here.