Will Bing change the way you think?

Image from Don't touch my moleskin.

Are you excited about Bing too?

There is a lot of chat about Bing this week.

If you haven't already heard of it...

Bing is a new product designed by the Microsoft team.

It is branded and designed as a decision making engine, not just a content aggregator based on content relevance which is essentially what search engines do... find the most appropriate info you queried by scanning all corners of the web and if people refer to your pages on the info your ranking will also be higher on the search results (proven credibility).

The Bing Teaser video has not gotten a whole lot of views, but it still illustrates how the product can be used to make your search on the web a little more intuitive and social (referral marketing at work).

What does this mean for the future of Google?

At this stage, probably not a lot since the technology is still at its infancy and there are question marks over whether the product is suitably different (one doubts it is)

It would be interesting to see how the users from different countries adopt Bing and whether the design of the search algorithm will continue to evolve into a social phenomenon like Google had in the 90s but only time will tell.

There is a lot of heat from the business community on what Microsoft's search engine prospects are despite its attempt to aggressively advertise and differentiate its market position.

Personally I do not want to be dismissive about Bing, I am excited that there is something that can move the attention from Google for a little while. Hopefully Bing will make search more dynamic and socially inspired to help us make better decisions about what others think of the content we are looking at.

Bing is also supposed to be localised for the Au market soon as well, so keep an eye out and give it a go.

- jeff

Digital Touchdown?

We saw one of the most thrilling finishes in Super Bowl history but how was it from a marketing perspective?

The us ad agencies as ever, delved deep in to their creative heart for this years superbowl ads - the most expensive media spot in the world. 3m dollars for 30 seconds sounds even more expensive during the GEC doesn't it? 

What interests us the most this Superbowl is the channel extension into digital that brands are pushing. In such uncertain times, a 30 second tv ad for 3m seems hard to justify, but if you build in a mobile element, social marketing, search, user generated content and datacapture then it somehow seeems a little more palatable. 

Whilst many media observers review the ads on creativity, we have looked at those campaigns that have stretched the dollar value online.

E-Trade (share trading and investing) released outtakes of its SuperBowl ads online before the game to drive interest, and they unified the campaign through search, social media and the TV spots. Frosted Flakes, whilst not the most creative spot got the most from the campaign driving people online to nominate a sports playing area that needed renovation courtesy of Kellogs. 

And the loser? Denny's ran a free breakfast promotion but failed to put a URL on the TV ad... shame. 

One frustration we have in digital is spending so much money on TV spots but not backing the campaign up with something as simple as search. Brands must make it as easy as possible for consumers to find their campaign online in the days following the TV - even if brands spend money on campaign terms alone (for the Fujitsu guys out there, this means buying "Economatch" terms in search), more on that issue for Superbowl brands here

As for our favourite TV ad? Doritos Snowglobe user content ad wins it (again) for us. Incidentally, you can watch them all on the Ad Blitz on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/adblitz

Tell us your favourite.

Cheers

Nic

Is the future of Search looking more Sci-fi?

Search engine is like a guiding stick on the big wide world on the Internet. We have all come to depend on it at some point, personally I just find it easier to browse pages without having to remember exact URLs. Luckily there are so many apps available to help users to keep bookmarking their favourite websites with ease on tools such as Delicious and Digg.

I came across an interesting article about the future for search and how artificial intelligence could have a major role in how information will be segmented.

It is a cool prospect, especially with the rise of citizen journalism aka Blogs and web 2.0 technologies think Forums but improved with social functions ie. Facebook and Myspace etc. People are essentially finding information about topics from all kinds of different places and in marketing terms, the brands would ideally want to achieve reach and scalability to maximise their market presence.

So what does all these changes mean for the search domain?

Google is still the largest force to be reckoned with, but that could very well be about to change very soon, with a rise of start ups offering a different search experience. Think multimedia, more than links and social apps/Mobile scanning, all making the info search experience richer and more importantly relevant to what the user wants to see in the first place.

The fundamental difference would be Google's current ad model is one based on the largest ownership based on referrals thus setting the power of its influence. However, if the social influence gets so wide and spread out, the power of one will surely diminish over time... so keep an eye out on how you find your info next.

Will Google reign or will the old fashion way of asking a friend prevail?

Only time will tell but it should be exciting nonetheless...Let's not forget the web will always grow around people

- jeff yiu