Huge Spikes in Search Queries for Olympic Brands, Reports NBC

Huge Spikes in Search Queries for Olympic Brands, Reports NBC
Brands that advertised during Friday’s opening ceremonies for the Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, were apparently hot search topics while the ceremonies were taking place.

People Searching More for Travel This Year

People Searching More for Travel This Year
Google saw a surge in its travel-related search traffic last month, compared to the same month last year, reports travel news site Travolution. The search engine recently reported that travel search queries were up 21 percent from last year, along with a seven percent increase in clicks.

comScore says global search market grew 46 percent in 2009‏

comScore says global search market grew 46 percent in 2009‏

comScore has just released a study on growth in the global search market in 2009. The study revealed that the U.S. remains the largest search market worldwide, while Google Sites retains a commanding position in the global search market.

More than 131 billion searches were conducted worldwide in December 2009, a 46-percent increase in the past year. This number represents more than 4 billion searches per day, 175 million per hour, and 29 million per minute.

The U.S. represented the largest search market in the world with 22.7 billion searches, or approximately 17 percent of searches conducted globally. China ranked second with 13.3 billion searches, followed by Japan with 9.2 billion and the U.K. with 6.2 billion.

Google sites ranked as the top search property worldwide with 87.8 billion searches in December, or 66.8 percent of the global search market. Google sites achieved a 58-percent increase in search query volume over the past year. comScore didn’t report what percentage of worldwide searches were conducted on Google and YouTube separately, just Google sites in combination. But according to comScore qSearch, YouTube accounted for close to 28 percent of the expanded search queries conducted in the U.S. on Google sites in November 2009.

Yahoo! sites ranked second globally with 9.4 billion searches (up 13 percent), followed by Chinese search engine Baidu with 8.5 billion searches (up 7 percent). Microsoft sites saw the greatest gains among the top five properties, growing 70 percent to 4.1 billion searches, on the strength of its successful introduction of new search engine Bing.

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• Google Reigns Supreme In 2009 Worldwide Searches But Microsoft Sees Faster Growth (techcrunch.com)

Retail Boosts Search Spend in Efficient Frontier’s Q4 2009 Report

Retail Boosts Search Spend in Efficient Frontier’s Q4 2009 Report

Tomorrow, Efficient Frontier releases their quarterly search report and we’ve got a sneak peek at the numbers.

Let’s dive in:

Search Spend

Google’s share rose to 74.5%, up from 73.9% in Q3 2009. Yahoo! lost 0.5% share, while Bing lost 0.2%.

Broken down by sector:

• Retail: Up 17% YOY
• Travel: Down 20% YOY, driven by weak CPC
• Finance: Up 2% YOY
• Auto: Up 2% YOY

Google dominates Retail with 82.7% spend, but is not as powerful in Finance, with *just* 60.1% spend. Yahoo! is stronger in Finance at 35.2%. Bing’s strengths are Travel and Autos at 6.8% and 6.5% share respectively. In fact, Bing’s growth in the Travel sector was a whopping 80% over last year.

Clicks

Overall, the click-through-rate (CTR) was down 40% since Q4 2008. This is likely due to comparison shopping features being added to most of the search engines.

With the decline of the CTR, share becomes even more important.

• Google’s share rose to 74.4%, reversing a downward trend since Bing’s launch.
• Yahoo! lost 3.4% share since Q3, coming in at 21%.
• Bing held steady, declining just 0.1% to 4.6% share.

However, click volume was a different story. Google’s click volume grew by 38% and Bing grew by 7%. Yahoo!’s click volume dropped.

Impressions

Impressions for retail queries increased by a whopping 90% over Q4 2008. Remember, more info is being included in the search results, so that explains the dichotomy between impressions and CTR.

Sales

Average transaction size was down 5% over last year, but up 5% over the last quarter. Ratio of orders per impression was down 30%, but keep in mind those in-SERP shopping features.

Projections

After analyzing the data, Efficient Frontiers offered the following predictions for the new year:

• SEM spend will grow 15-20% in 2010.
• Market competition should recover, spurring volume expansion with CPC.
• Ad exchange development will continue to align with search
• Bing is expected to grow 30% in 2010, giving them a 6-7% share of paid clicks.

Online Christmas Spending Surge 2009: What to Expect

Online Christmas Spending Surge 2009: What to Expect
The Christmas spirit is in the air, and this holiday season, it looks like the internet is the place to be for online shopping. American holiday spending is already up this year, Apple products top this year’s online search queries, millions are expected to be glued to their computer screens on Christmas day, and Canadians have – gasp – delayed their Christmas shopping this year in anticipation of big sales closer to Christmas. It’s all part of the online Christmas surge that could be bigger this year than ever before.

Google Takes on Ask.com in Deals, Yahoo! in Times Square

Google Takes on Ask.com in Deals, Yahoo! in Times Square

Google has launched a new Deals page, almost two months after Ask.com unveiled their new Deals site. Google’s Deals page features the 900 retailers included in Google Checkout. The Deals site ain’t pretty either:

You can access the Google Deals site at www.google.com/checkout/deals.html

Meanwhile, Google is taking on Yahoo! in Times Square. You might remember Yahoo! is offering free Wifi in Times Square. Google wants people in Times Square to search via Voice by calling 888-376-4336. Answers to the queries appear on electronic billboards. This is part of a campaign to promote the new Motorola Droid, which uses Android.

The billboard campaign doesn’t run all day. You can find it going on from 12:30-2pm and 6:30-8pm most days.

(Times Square photo borrowed from the Official Google blog)

Google Launches ‘Image Swirl’ Into Labs

Google Launches ‘Image Swirl’ Into Labs

Google is unveiling a new type of image search they’re calling “Image Swirl.” It’s available as a limited preview in Google Labs. You can access the Image Swirl search here.

Here’s an example of what you’ll see when you do. I did a search for “golden retrievers” and the initial page of results looks like this:

Then, once you click on a result, you get this:

Click on an individual pic and you’ll, well, just get the thumbnail of that pic in a bubble:

The preview is limited to 200,000 queries, and that will seem like a lot until you search for a term that’s not included. While “golden retriever” is included, “comfort retriever” (a golden/spaniel mix) is not. My dog Ruby is totally offended.

But hey, that’s why it’s in Labs. It’s a nifty tool, good for refinement of image searches without having to type in a new query.

Google Flu Trends Intense in Canada, High in United States

Google Flu Trends Intense in Canada, High in United States

Okay, so Google Flu Trends has been around since November of 2008. But Google has found that certain search terms are good indicators of flu activity.

Check out the world map below to see how Google Flu Trends uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity. It is intense in Canada and Norway. It is high in Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, and the United States.

Each week, millions of users around the world search for health information online. As you might expect, there are more flu-related searches during flu season, more allergy-related searches during allergy season, and more sunburn-related searches during the summer.

You can explore all of these phenomena using Google Insights for Search. But can search query trends provide the basis for an accurate, reliable model of real-world phenomena?

Google has found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for “flu” is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries are added together.

Google compared its query counts with traditional flu surveillance systems and found that many search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often Google sees these search queries, it can estimate how much flu is circulating in different countries and regions around the world. Their results have been published in the journal Nature.

So, according to the world map, now would be a great time to visit Australia, where flu activity is minimal. Throw another shrimp on the barbie.

Search-based keyword tool

Search-based keyword tool
The Search-based Keyword Tool provides keyword ideas: Based on actual Google search queries; Matched to specific pages of your website with your ad and search share

Google Syncs Mobile and Desktop Searches

Google Syncs Mobile and Desktop Searches

Google has enabled new sync features between desktop computers and mobile devices, specifically for local search and query suggestions. You need to be signed in, of course, to makes use of the sync. Here’s what to expect if you do:

Local

If you’re searching on Google Maps, you can star various local businesses. Later, you can pull them up on your phone on Google.com under the Local section. Just look for “Starred Places.” Once you bring them up, you can access mobile optimized Place Pages, the new local content pages Google just released.

There’s also a new category browse feature if you’re looking for something to do, but you’re not quite sure what it is or where to go.

These features are available in the US and China.

Query Suggestions

Typing on a mobile phone is tedious, so to make querying Google a little easier on your mobile device, Google is syncing queries. If you’ve searched something on your desktop, it will now show up as a query suggestion in your mobile search. You have to sign in on your mobile search with the same account that you use on your desktop. Web history also needs to be enabled to use the query suggestion sync.

This feature is available for iPhone, Android, and Palm OS phones.

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