It might still be too early to tell how Bing’s new rich-media search feature will affect marketers and their ability to be found online.

However, it’s gone live and it’s working. The new Bing Visual Search feature that displays search results in a grid-like image gallery instead of the traditional list of search results, was announced yesterday at the TechCrunch50.

What’s the concept behind Bing’s Visual Search?

To display simple, clear imagery to help users sort through lots of data easily. Of course you might agree that certain categories of search might find this more useful than others. So far Bing has only launched the new feature in beta (bing.com/visualsearch) which only works for a particular set of categories: cars, animals, people and products.

As explained on Search Engine Land, users must have Silverlight installed on their browsers to fully experience Visual Search. Also, statistics from Rich Internet Application show that nearly 73% of users have Silverlight and its adoption has been growing fairly quickly since NBCOlympics.com relied upon Silverlight for live streaming and on-demand video coverage during Beijing 2008.

The newly launched feature only works for 50 different categories and it is said Microsoft will be adding a new category every month according to what they believe is a popular search result.

So how do you get your product out in the grid-like image gallery?

AdvertisingAge explained Microsoft gets the information from data providers like Zappos or PC World, for digital-camera information, for example.

‘Thus, to make sure your merchandise pops up in Bing’s galleries, make sure you’re present in the feed of more than one industry heavyweight.’

A lot has been discussed lately regarding the growth of Microsoft’s Bing, but how fast is it really growing?  And is its current gain in market share due to the number of people checking out the new search engine?

I think many are keeping a close eye on the new decision engine, wondering how it works and often running comparisons between Google and Bing. But the main difference lies in that Bing helps users make better choices empowering them to gain insight and knowledge from the Web, moving more quickly to important decisions, as their press release states it.

A significant fact that has caught people’s attention is that Bing has a lower bounce rate than all the other search engines out there.

Microsoft’s press release also highlights that previous results from a comScore study across core search engines showed that as many as 30% of searches are abandoned without satisfactory results. The data also showed that approximately two-thirds of the remaining searches required a refinement or requery on the search results page.

A more recent study by comScore revealed Microsoft’s share of the search market rose to 8.9% in July from 8.4% in June.

So as a marketer, how can you gain a high rank on this new search engine? I guess many of us are asking ourselves the same question. For starters, I would say that many of the principles that you put in practice with all other engines would also apply to Bing.

For instance, interesting and original content matters big time. Page titles, keywords all should be relevant and appropriate to the content of your site.

How about signing up with Bing and managing your analytics with them. Try running a PPC campaign. Its been said they have a reputation for delivering better conversion rates and ROI.

In the meantime, do you think it’s good for Google to have more competition? What do you think the panorama will be like in a few months time?

Emerging throughout the hype that is surrounding Twitter and FriendFeed, real time search is receiving heaps of attention throughout the industry. In turn, real time search engines have been popping up everywhere. Among the notable additions is BingTweets, which quite practically combines the search results of both Bing and Twitter Search. Owned by Microsoft, it is a separate entity from Bing and its slogan, “Fusing Twitter Trends with Bing Insights”, accurately describes its function as an opinion enhanced decision engine.

Recently, search industry authorities met at CrunchUp to define and discuss real time search. At the event, various real time search engines were introduced and demoed, highlighting the abundance of new platforms catering to trends, micro-blogs, and real time streams. Seesmic, Brizzly, Lazyfeed, and Wowd were all introduced and all exhibited new ways of embracing as well as displaying real time search results, or Twitter. Some of the main issues raised were how to filter results to keep them relevant and somewhat spam free as well as whether Twitter makes up all or most of current real time search and how long that may last.

BingTweets, in my opinion, seems to have considered all or most of the aforementioned issues. The site individually brings together a Twitter feed, Bing search results, Twitter trending topics, and a ‘share this’ box which allows users to tweet their results. One can search for something on Bing, follow another topic on the Twitter feed, browse trending topics, and share their various results all at the same time. Conversely, a user can have all results focused on the same topic, to receive the most relevant data (Bing) as well as what is currently being said about it (Twitter). An ideal setting for search, one could argue…

However, one thing that immediately jumped out at me was the fact that the compressed Bing section cut out the ads displayed to the right of the organic search results. Although it is possible to scroll over, it is certainly not your first instinct, as most of the search results are in plain view. This raises broader questions of how real time search might effectively implement sponsored links without losing clicks and whether PPC ads will get lost in these multi feed platforms.

It is clear, though, that Microsoft is keen on beefing up their search presence, and it would surprise me if they hadn’t considered all of the above. It looks increasingly likely that they will strike a deal with Yahoo, taking over a significant chunk of the search market and making them a viable contender to Google’s throne. Shockingly, Google is one of the few companies yet to drop a real time search engine. They continue to exhibit untouchable sentiments, with actions such as their recent snubbing of the concerns of European newspapers. One thing is certain; Twitter and FriendFeed have brought real time information streams into the spotlight. Who dominates this train and how is unsure, as it has not yet arrived at the station.

Imagine you are reading your favorite magazine on the web, and as you are about to turn the page with a lazy hand gesture, a big, annoying, full page advertisement featuring a famous movie star is smiling at you and whispering your name to get your attention.

The magazine is intelligent, and knows who your favorite actor/actress is. Yes, you are signed in with Facebook Connect. You can’t help staring at her/him in admiration. Ok, for the post’s sake, let’s say it’s a she. And it’s Scarlett Johansson.

Scarlett is showing you a new cellphone model, and when you least expect it, she’s already gotten your undivided attention (pretty soon). How could she have known that seconds ago you were doing some comparison shopping for that exact cellphone? That’s the power of retargeting.

All you need to do is stretch your hand to take it, follow the link to the landing page and you’re ready to complete the transaction.

Project Natal: full-body motion user interface

What may sound like a prophetic vision of a distant future by science-fiction novelist Philip K. Dick, could become our near future reality if Microsoft Xbox’s Project Natal will succeed in revolutionizing user interface in day-by-day computer usage. Project Natal is full body motion control: hands-free, no remotes, no controllers, no joypads!

Xbox Project Natal could be Microsoft’s final blow to Nintendo Wii’s domination in console wars. Now it’s not only Nintendo’s turn, because, as every gamer knows, why go for a single hit when you can score a combo? Project Natal is a menace also to Sony’s vision of Playstation 3 as the only center of home entertainment in our living rooms.

Project Natal from the Xbox to the PC

From casual gaming to every day PC usage, ensuring a higher degree of interactivity and optimal user experience could be the next step on the road to mass informatization. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told CNET that Project Natal’s camera was not just intended for games, “but for media consumption as a whole, and even if they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication.”

Will man be ready to abandon his best friend, the mouse? Productivity could be increased by the new interface, and the same could happen to the way we traditionally experience the web: new website designs, new interactively enhanced rich media ads, new ways of integrating social media in everyday life.

Are you dreaming of a future of physical interface to virtuality, or you realistically think that homo technologicus isn’t willing to move all his muscles to achieve what a simple keystroke can accomplish?

For more on the subject, view Project Natal on YouTube or visit Project Natal’s Official website.

According to the data firm StatCounter, Bing, which was launched on June 3rd, took 8.23% of U.S. Web searches in June, up from 7.81% for Microsoft search just prior to its rollout and 7.21 percent in April.

Interestingly enough, though, Google has gone through a slightly slow period since the launch of the new engine, from 78.72% to 77.48%, considering this to be the first time ever Google loses share to Microsoft.

Bing’s success, according to Microsoft, is attributed to its technologically advanced features. The world’s first decision engine, as they brand themselves, looks to provide users with a lot more information on the search results page, without requiring its users to click through to external sites. Also, it clearly excels in some everyday areas like travel, shopping, images, competing head-to-head with Google.

As pointed out in Affari&Finanza, Repubblica’s finance supplement, Bing is looking to fill the gap left by other traditional search engines like Yahoo! and Google. According to a research by Microsoft, 42% of Yahoo! and Google users are not satisfied with the results which then forces them to redefine or reword their queries. Only 25% of the clicks generated seem to be successful.

Although not all of Bing’s first month positive results are thanks to its meticulous engineering, Ballmer has commented Microsoft plans to spend a sweet $80 to 100 million in marketing and advertising campaigns, compared to the $25 million Google put aside for the same purpose.

As of now, we can’t really say Google’s users are switching over to Bing and making that their exclusive search engine, however, and as the previous numbers show, users are definitely willing to explore alternatives and test other options.

“If nothing else, it will at least get people to realize that Microsoft is in this game and that there is an alternative to Google…”

Bing has come out swinging and is currently experiencing more buzz than Live Search ever had. With what appears to be a good product, and an aggressive advertising campaign against Google ($80-100 million), Microsoft looks poised to cement its role in search as the ‘decision engine’.

Based on the assumption that Bing is successful in increasing Microsoft’s stake in the world of search, one benefit that instantly comes to mind is more competition for Google. Overall, this makes the web a healthier place. More specifically, though, this would make advertisers less dependent on Google Adwords. This potential tilt in scales would force Google to listen more carefully to the needs and wants of brands, advertisers, as well as users.

For example, as of June 4th, marketers are officially allowed to bid on competitor’s trademarked terms to trigger display of sponsored search ads on Google in about 200 countries. This has concerned many brands because it has driven up the cost of keeping paid search ads for brand keywords in top positions next to organic search results. In what Google is calling a pro-competitive move, advertising costs are being driven up without much retaliation. If Microsoft, which does not allow bidding on trademarked keywords, held a larger percentage of searches than advertisers would have an alternative and Google would have to think twice before making a move like this.

Google has already reacted to the release of Bing by adding a link to its home page that says, “Discovering the web“, that takes the user to a page outlining Google’s numerous search features. It’s a nice feature which highlights various search functions that many users may not have known about. But it took some pressure from Bing for Google to apply this.

Furthermore, Google has recently been criticized for its move to request and display work from top artists without paying for it. Google’s argument was that they will be giving the artists so much exposure that they should not have to pay for the art as well. The simple fact is Google is a healthy company that pulled in a staggering $21 bn in global revenue last year. There is no need for them to save a few pennies at the expense of hard working artists. This just highlights the greedy and expansionist attitude that has grown on Google without a significant competitor.

Bing’s success would, in turn, most definitely be a good thing. A healthy dose of competition could be exactly what Google needs. Last week, Steve Ballmer announced that Microsoft would be willing to spend 5 – 10 percent of operating costs (or $1.12 – $2.25 billion) a year over the next five years on search alone.

Not only may Google have a serious search competitor on their hands, but evidently, one that has both determination and very deep pockets.

It’s official, Microsoft will be launching its new search engine (beta version) code-named Kumo next week according to a recent update we received from the Microsoft Advertising folks this morning.

However, The Wall Street Journal suspects the search engine will be officially unveiled at the D: All Things Digital conference which is to be held between the 26th and 28th of May. Microsoft has not given any confirmation to this, its spokesman refused to comment.

As we had covered on a previous post, the new search engine had been undergoing internal tests for several months. Wall Street Journal says the technology is designed to cut down on the length of typical Web searches by grouping the results of a search for, say, a particular model of car into helpful categories like parts, used car listings, online discussion forums and videos showing the vehicle.

In theory, results should be provided in a more organized manner as well as guarantee a more enjoyable search experience, resulting in increased consumer satisfaction and more users who use it more often.

While Microsoft and Yahoo! witnessed a decrease in marketshare in the U.S. for the month of April; Microsoft at 8.2% and Yahoo! at 20.4%, Google continues to lead the Internet share market with 64.2% after increasing up 0.5% that same month. How long do you think it will take before Microsoft catches up to Google?

So I guess speculation will be over soon since next week we will not only know what the new search engine is all about, but we will also learn its real name. Here is a list of names that have also emerged for the much anticipated brand:

Kumo

Bing

Hook

Sift

What do you think will happen to Wolfram now?

Instead, it was the third-party websites who were opening their doors to Facebook by allowing Facebook users to connect to their websites using Facebook Connect.

So what does it mean that Facebook is now OpenID? It means that if you wish to register or just log in to Facebook using another OpenID provider, you may be able to do so (see image below).

Some advantages this new merge with OpenID has to offer Facebook users are that it makes participation in the network easier since it is no longer necessary to start from scratch and create a new ID and password. Users can register using any of the accounts displayed on the image above ie: Gmail, Yahoo!. First timers are already showing to be most proactive due to the quick registration process this new modality has to offer.

Also, it carries payloads of user data (ie: contact lists) that can yield immediate personalization for a richer experience. And finally, it offers authentication that you really are who you say you are. That opens up a whole world of possibilities technically and culturally.

It would be very useful if more websites of the likes of Google, Microsoft or Yahoo! joined in and supported OpenID. As Jason Kincaid from TechCrunch says, users could really benefit from this as it would allow them to seamlessly jump from one service to another, and take advantage of the suite of products they each have to offer. However, since these are by no means comparable to Facebook’s, there’s a good chance they won’t be giving those up quite yet.

The conference, which was dedicated to e-Commerce in the consumer electronics sector and the shift between online versus offline consumption, opened up with Antonio Besana, GFK’s Director, giving a brief sum up on the latest findings and emerging e-commerce trends.

He explained how there’s an increasing number of consumers who are now shopping online in a more frequent manner, which is resulting in that the Internet remains the fastest growing sales channel.

e-Commerce itself rose significantly in 2008, a growth which is primarily attributable to the fact that more people are shopping on the net than ever before. In 2008, the number of online purchases rose by 12% to 29.5 million out of an estimated spend of 252 million euros in Europe, according to a study by casaleggio.it.

Amedeo Guffanti (see image below), 77Agency Partner and Business Strategist, intervened by explaining that despite the economic crisis the world is facing today, e-Commerce is proving to be a great opportunity for branding and having online presence, especially for companies that had never before considered the Internet as an alternative marketing strategy, making particular reference to the fashion and luxury goods sector. Some brands 77 is currently working with that have decided to tap into the online world include Athlete’s World, Miss Sixty and Dimensione Danza.

In conclusion, we can say that today’s crisis has helped businesses expand their horizons and marketing strategies. Some more than others have in fact realized that the integration of the different channels- online, offline, mobile- serve as great contribution to improving customer loyalty, client interaction and the overall availability of products and services. In this sense, it is of great importance companies begin jumping on the bandwagon in order to survive the economic downturn and seek for innovative, non-traditional marketing methods.

Rumors say Microsoft Corp. has begun testing the modified version of its revamped online search service, dubbed kumo.com, which is said to replace its current portal Live Search.

The unofficial search service will be launched in an attempt to seize first place position in the search engine market. According to comScore, search engine shares break down like this:

• Microsoft: 9.8% share on US online searches
• Yahoo!: 22.2% search engine marketshare
• Google: leads the bunch with 58.8% marketshare

Kumo is a Japanese term which means spider and it was discovered that the domain kumo.com was fully owned by Microsoft after news were revealed in an internal memo by Microsoft’s Senior Vice-President of research and development division, Natya Nadella, that said:

“Kumo.com exists only inside the corporate network, and in order to get enough feedback we will be redirecting internal live.com traffic over to the test site in the coming days.”

As of now, Microsoft’s Live Search, at live.com, still remains the company’s search engine for the public.

There’s much speculation on the matter and until Ballmer steps out to communicate the rebranded Live Search, it will still be a simple rumor.

Will kumo.com enhance its position in the search market?