Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

I just read an article on AdAge.com that talks about how Microsoft is going after Google with a new ad campaign and a new search engine called Bing. It seems like every few months there is the next “Google Killer” that promises to revolution search. Remember Cuil? Now the buzz is on Wolfram Alpha. The issue isn’t whether or not Google is the best search engine in regards to relevant results - it comes down to the fact that Google is good enough.

The software giant (Microsoft) is set to launch an $80 million to $100 million campaign for Bing, the search engine it hopes will help it grab a bigger slice of the online ad market. That’s a big campaign — big compared with consumer-product launches ($50 million is considered a sizable budget for a national rollout) and very big when you consider that Google spent about $25 million on all its advertising last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, with about $11.6 million of that focused on recruiting. Microsoft, by comparison, spent $361 million. Certainly Google has never faced an ad assault of anything like this magnitude.

I love the name Bing for an online brand but hate it for the name of a search engine, how soon before we start seeing ads with “Bing! Your search is done” everywhere? Putting the name aside will Microsoft’s Bing be a better search engine? Possibly. Will the average user actually stop using Google because Bing is better? Probably not. Google is firmly entrenched as being synonymous with searching online and that won’t go away anytime soon. Google has the brand association that can not be bought …as long as people continue to  “Google it”, no other search engine stands a chance.

So what should Microsoft do? They should focus their ad campaign on being #2. Admit defeat, crown Google the king and go after Yahoo’s search share. A “We’re #2″ ad campaign will not only be effective but probably save the company millions. But Microsoft has billions in cash so they will have no problem spending whatever they want  - can’t wait to see all those articles talking about how they spent $100 million and upped their market share only 2%.

BING!

Microsoft is finally seeing the light when it comes to the power of the browser and works to continue its mantra of  “software plus services”. Yesterday the boys in Redmond announced that they will be offering a “lightweight” version of various Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) that can be accessed through the browser. The new service, called Office Web Applications, will be part of the next release of Office. Office Web Applications will be delivered through Office Live and will offer free ad-based or subscription based access.

“As part of the next release of Office, we’re announcing that Microsoft will deliver Office Web applications - lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote - through a browser. With these new applications, people can use a browser to create, edit, and collaborate on Office documents. What’s great is that this provides a consistent Office experience when and where our customers want it, regardless of whether they are accessing their Office documents through the PC, phone, or browser.”

Now this should come as a shock to no one considering it makes perfect sense and Google has had tremendous success with their web-based Office type products. So the question becomes, will they work outside of Internet Explorer? Based on previous Microsoft product launches I would say no – or at least not function correctly. Now I am a huge fan of Firefox and Google’s Chrome, but if I was Microsoft I would make Office Web Applications I.E. exclusive – want to use our products then use our browser. All is fair in love and the browser war.

Check out some Office Web Applications screen shots below:

Facebook went “live” today with Live Web Search functionality within their site search box. The integration was part of Microsoft’s $250 million investment in Facebook last year and has been long in coming. When Facebook users start to type a search query, along with “Search Facebook” and related network information, there is now a “Search the Web” feature. When choosing to search the web the user gets Live.com web results integrated into the Facebook UI with Microsoft AdCenter results displayed alongside the results. When a search result is clicked the user is taken to the Live.com search engine result page.

From the Facebook blog: “By integrating web search into Facebook, you can increase the information available to share with your friends, family and coworkers on the site. For example, your friend may invite you to an event at a new restaurant. Without leaving Facebook, you can check out the details of the restaurant on the web. Or, say you see photos in your News Feed about a friend’s recent trip to Dubai. Inspired, you can search the web for more information about travel without having to leave Facebook. Along with your search results, you may also begin to see ads for products, services or other things that are relevant to your query. “

Microsoft says that this is the first step in their partnership with Facebook and are currently exploring additional ways to “integrate Live Search more deeply into the Facebook experience”. This is certainly not the last we have heard on this and I am sure there will be better integration of Live Search within Facebook. However, looking at what went live today how much is this really going to do for Microsoft? I am sure Microsoft will see some incremental revenue from their ads, but I question how many people are actually going to search the web while within Facebook. For those that do search the web I would have though there would be better integration of Live Search within the UI - is this really going to take search share away from Google and Yahoo? No, it wont.

I hoping this is just a first crack and better integration will be coming shortly. Lets go Microsoft!

Microsoft just launched their latest gimmick to try and increase their search engine usage market share. SearchPerks, which went live this morning, rewards users for searching using Live Search on Live.com, MSN.com, Hotmail or Windows Live Messenger. Basically, once you sign up and download their “Perk Counter”, you get 1 ticket for every search you do (up to 25 per day), you can then exchange those tickets for prizes like concert tickets, games, airplane miles, etc.

From the offical SearchPerks website, which by the way can ONLY BE VIEWED IN IE 6.0 or higher:

Here is how it works:

• Get 500 tickets just by signing up and downloading the Perk Counter

• Start searching using Live Search at Live.com and MSN.com, or on Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger

• For every search (up to 25 per day), you’ll earn a ticket towards great prizes

• Stay tuned for additional ways to earn tickets once you join the promotion

• Redeem your tickets for prizes once the promotion ends on April 15, 2009

Is it me or does this sound like something from 1998? Does Microsoft really think this is going to work? Here is what will happen, a bunch of web users will do their searches on Live.com until April 15, 2009 - cash in their tickets and then 99% of them will never come back. Microsoft will see their search share go up a few percentage points during this gimmick but will drop back down to their original level when all is said and done.

Seriously Microsoft? Why don’t you focus your efforts on 2 things 1) making your search better , which includes integration of the Powerset semantic search and 2) buy Yahoo search.

Google officially launched their new open source web browser, Google Chrome, today. A “Chrome Announcement” webcast took place at 2pm EST to announce the new entry into the browser wars, however, an online comic book meant to introduce the new product accidentally went live yesterday making today’s announcement a bit less dramatic.

So what is Google Chrome? Chrome is built in the open source model ( based on the WebKit engine) and focuses on a simplistic user-interface (sound familiar?). Basically it is a stripped down browser that focuses on the “tab” functionality already seen in Internet Explorer and FireFox. However, even though I don’t view Chrome as ground breaking it does have some interesting features (most of which can be found on either IE or FireFox). The most significant feature is how each tab operates independently - meaning that if one tab crashes it does not take the whole browser with it, this feature also enhances browser security. Chrome also combines the browser address bar with the search box, calling it the “OmniBox”, where a user can both type in a URL and conduct a web search.  Thankfully since Chrome operates off a standard platform web developers wont have to worry about optimizing their websites specifically for Chrome. You can find out more about Google Chrome’s features on their official blog.

Why Google Chrome? According to Google “All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends — all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.” According to me this is just another way for Google to control the web users experience, maintain market share and eventually monetize through the integration of Google products (e.g. AdWords, Youtube, etc). Google Chrome launches in 43 languages and in over 122 countries - however, it is only available for windows based computers for now.

So my take? Because it is Google they will grab a small percentage of the browser market share. But what real reason is their to use it? Yes, the “OmniBox” is cool and I love how each tab operates independently, but in the end how is it better than FireFox? It might be a better browser, especially when it comes to the monstrosity that is Internet Explorer, but what reason would all those non-tech savvy web users, who are happy with their IE version whatever,  have to change? None. What I do want to see is Google Chrome for mobile devices - this is an obvious next step for Google and where they gain some serious traction.