posted by Karl Ribas on Monday, November 05, 2007
Does anyone have a clue as to what's going on with Microsoft's Live Search URL Submission form? The web address is live and the page loads perfectly, but the form seems to be broken. In fact, when trying to submit a website for inclusion, the form displays the following error: "Please enter a valid URL with the format: http://www.example.com". Obviously, I've quadruple checked my submission and have ruled out the possibility of there being a URL format problem.
I just wanted to see if anyone else was experiencing this same problem. I've already checked around on a few of the forums that I participate on, but the subject doesn't appear to have a thread.
Labels: bing, commentary-rants
posted by Karl Ribas on Friday, November 17, 2006
In the first joint and open initiative to improve the web crawl process for search engines, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft today announced support for Sitemaps 0.90, a free and easy way for marketers and website owners to notify search engines about their websites.
Sitemaps 0.90 is set to be a one-stop shop for webmasters in which they can now alert all three major search engines of their websites, and all at the same time. The companies are adopting Google's Sitemaps protocol which enables webmasters to manually feed their pages directly to Google, MSN, and Yahoo!, and to check whether their sites have been crawled. Before Sitemaps 0.90, webmasters would have to repeat a similar process for each of the major search engines.
Here an official quote from the Google Search Blog:
"Last year we published the Sitemap 0.84 XML protocol as a free and easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about URLs on their web sites so that search engines can more effectively crawl them. We released it under the Attribution/Share Alike Creative Commons license in the hopes that other search engines would adopt the protocol too. And today, we're excited to announce that Yahoo! and Microsoft are joining us in officially supporting the Sitemap protocol."
I personally love the idea behind Sitemaps 0.90. It's not only simple, but also beneficial. As a search engine marketer, it saves me time from having to setup and manage each account individually and provides sites with a more comprehensive and efficient indexing process... allowing for an overall better representation in search.
And let's not forget the users... who benefit from having a more complete, higher-quality, and fresher search index.
For more information Sitemaps 0.90, visit the MSN, Yahoo!, and Google search blogs.
Labels: bing, google, yahoo
posted by Karl Ribas on Thursday, August 03, 2006
I just wanted to take a quick second to announce that Microsoft is planning a pretty big adCenter update... one that will offer a few new features that are geared towards improving their advertiser's overall online experience. The new features, as highlighted in an email I received from the Microsoft adCenter team, include:
- Compatibility with the Firefox 1.5 browser.
- All data (daily, weekly, and monthly) will be updated on a more frequent basis to help advertisers to view results and optimize campaigns more efficiently.
- An option to set and view your campaign and order summaries based on a specific time frame, as opposed to only showing summaries in the life-to-date format. Currently both Yahoo! and Google offer this features and my only comment for Microsoft is that IT'S ABOUT DAMN TIME! Looking at summary stats in "life-to-date" was getting really annoying.
- A user-interface change, specifically to the "reporting" tab, that is said to make it easier to use.
This upgrade is expected to take place this Saturday (August 5th) and between the hours of 7:00am and 9:00pm Pacific Time.
During this time, all campaigns and ads will continue to run, however, advertisers will not be able to access or make changes to their adCenter accounts. Therefore make sure you make all necessary account changes before-hand, because your're going to be very limited on time for Saturday.
For more information on this and other adCenter updates, check out the adCenter Blog.
Labels: bing, paid-search
posted by Karl Ribas on Monday, July 03, 2006
The time has finally arrived... Yahoo and MSN are partners' no-more. As of July 1st (this past Saturday) the MSN / Yahoo! agreement regarding the distribution of Yahoo! paid search listings has ended. That's right! Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers will no longer have the luxury of having their PPC ads reach MSN's search result pages. Instead, MSN will be employing their own PPC program, MSN adCenter, to fit the bill.
Here is an official quote from the Yahoo! Search Marketing division:
"MSN's U.S. search distribution agreement with Yahoo! Search Marketing ends this month, and Yahoo! Sponsored Search listings will no longer appear in MSN's U.S. search results. Although we regret the loss of MSN as a distribution partner, it was not unexpected, and we do not anticipate a significant change in the total amount of traffic to our advertisers as a result."
This shouldn't come as that big of a surprise to many... the MSN / Yahoo! days have been numbered ever since MSN first announced its plan to create a PPC program. In addition, for the past few months MSN has been serving many of its own adCenter ads, in place of Yahoo! ads, on its search results pages. This was most likely done to help search users and advertisers adjust to this weekend's transition.
So what exactly does this mean for Pay Per Click marketers? Well, if you haven't done so already, you should definitely consider breaking-down your overall Pay Per Click budget to accommodate MSN's new program. Most likely you've already split your advertising budget between Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google Adwords but now you really should consider "slicing the PPC pie" a third time. Even though MSN's reach is no where near that of Google's and Yahoo's advertising networks, MSN still rakes in over 40 million searches a month... and quite frankly, that's search engine traffic that no one can afford to miss out on.
In fact, now would be a great time to begin an MSN capaign. PPC competition isn't at its fullest and the per-click costs usually associated with competitive keywords are, for the most part, dramatically less. Of course, this is until the word spreads farther about the MSN adCenter program and the ending of the Yahoo! agreement.
For more information on MSN's adCenter program, including how to sign up, check out the adCenter home page.
What do you think? Does MSN have what it takes to compete on the frontlines with Yahoo!'s and Google's already established PPC programs, or do you think that they'll fall short? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Labels: bing, paid-search, yahoo
posted by Karl Ribas on Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Looking to get involved in MSN's adCenter, the new Pay Per Click program allowing advertisers to buy search ads directly from MSN? Until now, participation has been limited and only a handful of "invited" search advertisers have been able to take part... that is until yesterday.
From 9am until noon Pacific Time, MSN opened a 3-hour window and allowed anyone willing and wanting to create an account the option to do so. Like all other PPC programs, registers had to provide basic company/affiliate information as well as some general billing-type information... a process that took at most 10 minutes to complete.
So why am I Blogging about this now... after all, the window has been shut and sealed? Well, I am happy to announce that I was fortunate enough to have learned about this ordeal just in the knick of time and was able to register an account. That's right! As of today I am officially taking MSN PPC clients and if your one of the many interested in buying PPC advertisement on MSN... I'm your hook-up.
As an advertiser, the obvious benefit is that not too many advertisers and Search Marketing companies have access to MSN's adCenter. This detail alone allows you the ability to pick up top-choice keywords for fractions of what you're currently paying at Google and Yahoo!, and I may add without a bidding war with your competitors.
In addition, there's no telling how long the current partnership between Yahoo! and MSN (the agreement that allows Yahoo! to show its paid advertisement on MSN search results) is going to last. I can easily see MSN buying out the rest of that agreement at any time and thus leaving Yahoo! advertisers exiled from MSN. Not a good place to be when you consider that MSN is 1 of the 3 biggest search engines in the game today.
If you're interested in getting your MSN campaign going, check out my Pay Per Click Management page for further details.
Labels: bing, paid-search
posted by Karl Ribas on Friday, November 04, 2005
While Microsoft's new "live" software push is mainly seen as an effort to compete with rivals such as Google and Yahoo!, there are a number of smaller companies that suddenly find themselves in Redmond's competitive crosshairs.
As part of its broad announcement on Tuesday, Microsoft revealed plans to offer for free a number of things that its rivals charge for, including services such as virus scanning and Internet-to-telephone calling and Web hosting.
On the telephone side, Microsoft showed off the ability to call any traditional phone number from within the new Windows Live messenger client. While instant messaging programs have had voice chat for some time, Microsoft's move would be broader by allowing free calling to traditional phone numbers as well.
On the security front, Microsoft went beyond its already announced plans for the subscription OneCare service. In addition to that paid program, Microsoft plans a new Windows Live Safety Center--a free Web-based program that allows on-demand scanning and removal of viruses. This addition is a great idea and one that will no doubt prove to be beneficial for many.
On a side note, is it just me or does it seem as if Microsoft is trying to take over the world? They are competing on so many fronts that taking over the world seems like a logical explanation. Let's review:
- Microsoft's Windows runs on like 98% of the worlds PCs.
- Microsoft's Office is no doubt used in every office in the world.
- Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the #1 Internet browser.
- Microsoft's IM is one of the most popular messaging programs.
- Microsoft's MSN is one of the top search engines on the net.
- Microsoft's Xbox is one of the top videogame consoles.
Let's face it; they should probably rename earth to Microsoft. What other company could stand to go toe-to-toe with such competition as Apple Macintosh, Netscape, Mozilla (FireFox), Norton, MacAfee, American Online, Yahoo!, Google, Ask Jeeves, Sony, and finally Nintendo all at the same time. These are all leaders in their own respective markets and yet Microsoft makes headway in each. It's truly a scary thing. Kudos to you... Microsoft.Labels: bing, industry-news
posted by Karl Ribas on Friday, June 03, 2005
After five months in beta, Microsoft's MSN has released the final version of its desktop search application, which is said to incorporate many new features based on extensive user feedback.
I first came across this great searching tool at the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference back in mid December. Since then I see that MSN has significantly beefed up the degree of control you have over desktop search, both in the initial set up process and in the desktop search options. Among these improvements is the ability to specify which items should be indexed. Users can use a simple dialog box to select "emails" and "all hard disks," "email" and the contents of the "My Documents" folder, or select specific files and locations to be indexed using an explorer-like panel.
Other Advanced indexing options have been added which allow users to option of specifying file types to be indexed as text, and list a set of file types that should not be indexed. With both of these options, the program comes preconfigured with a number of appropriate file types. MSN Desktop Search is said to have the ability to index more than 200 file types, but users will also be able to add filters to index additional file types.Overall, I feel that the final release of the MSN Toolbar Suite is a significant improvement over the beta versions I first played around with. The product remains heavily Microsoft-centered, however, and is best suited to those who are regular users of Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer.
Download MSN Toolbar and Desktop Search SuiteLabels: bing, industry-news
posted by Karl Ribas on Sunday, April 24, 2005
Infospace announced this past week its plans to add Microsoft's MSN Search results to its search engine and directory. With this deal, Infospace Search will now have direct distribution agreements with the four leading Web search services, including Google, Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves.
Infospace will feature MSN Search results on its private-label partner sites, Dogpile and WebCrawler, along with its other branded search properties. It, along with its other web search properties, products, and network, reaches about 14 million user... a pretty sweat deal for both parties if you ask me.Labels: bing, industry-news
posted by Karl Ribas on Friday, March 18, 2005
The time has finally come when Microsoft's MSN will tighten up it's boots, re-lace it's gloves, and step back into the ring to go toe-to-toe with search engine rivals Google and Yahoo!. Microsoft, who a little over a month ago released its own search technology, has signaled a direct assault on one of the main profit-generators of Google and Yahoo when it unveiled its plans for MSN AdCenter, a paid for search engine placement program (Pay Per Click), a program that will easily dip into the pockets of its search competitors.
With this type of paid-placement product, Microsoft will move into the mother lode of a multibillion dollar ad business dominated by Google and Yahoo. Search-engine marketing is expected to be worth as much as $5 billion this year, and nearly $9 billion annually within four years, according to Jupiter Research. Microsoft's piece of this multibillion dollar pie has been smaller than the shares enjoyed by market leaders Yahoo and Google, and now the software giant is hungry for more.
So what does this mean for us Pay Per Click managers... well everything! For the last several years, Overture has supplied the sponsored search listings adjacent to and above MSN search results, a partnership that has helped buoy profits of the Internet property. As we all know, attaining a top listing MSN was as easy as outbidding your competitors in Overture and even though MSN has no plans to immediately discontinue this partnership, rest assure that it is going to happen. The Overture and MSN partnership is inked up to the end of June 2006, which gives MSN plenty of time to further develop and test their new ad network. MSN already has plans to roll out AdCenter in Singapore and France in coming months in which will permanently bump Overture ads in the long run and let MSN own a major source of its advertising revenue.
MSN AdCenter can only mean one thing to the eyes of all that are involved... an opportunity to profit. Microsoft will develop the third major paid online search advertising platform and at the same time take the search engine fight to the next round, by ultimately providing an alternative to costly Google and Overture campaigns.
Visit your neighborhood bookie, place your bets, and stand back because round 3, of the search engine wars, has just begun! Ding, Ding!Labels: bing, industry-news, paid-search
