Search Behaviour Shines Spotlight on Organic Results

Paid search ads tend to be overlooked

Search has become a nearly ubiquitous online activity and Google remains the undisputed king—receiving the largest share of search ad revenue and traffic. But an eye-tracking study by user experience research firm User Centric adds a new perspective. Its research indicates that most search users overlook search ads almost entirely.

The findings showed organic search results were viewed 100% of the time, and participants spent an average of 14.7 and 10.7 seconds looking at organic search results on Google and Bing, respectively. However, only 28% of participants looked at right-side ads on Google, and just 21% did the same on Bing—spending around 1 second viewing all ads combined on each search engine. To put this in perspective, searchers who viewed the left-hand site navigation spent more time doing so than they did viewing ads on both search engines.

One caveat to the study: It was an artificial search environment. The participants were given search terms to use and may not have been using their preferred search engine. However, participants searched on both sites in this study, and the results were statistically significant.

With users spending nearly all their time viewing organic search results, Hitwise’s latest numbers give some further insight. Bing and Yahoo!’s success rates, meaning searches that resulted in a click, are just over 81% whereas Google sits much lower at 65.6% in December 2010 and January 2011.

Although the sheer volume of searches Google handles may bring down its success rate, the difference been Google and Bing is still large enough to draw conclusions. First, users were shown to spend the vast majority of their time looking at organic search results on both search engines, and Bing’s success rate is 16 percentage points higher than Google’s. Therefore, even though Google has more traffic than Bing, the Microsoft search engine generates a greater share of relevant traffic per search.

Additionally, this data indicates that SEO is more essential than ever. Users have learned to overlook search ads, and they will continue to ignore such ads as they become even more search-savvy over time.

SEO will become increasingly challenging as users start to rely on search engines for different reasons. A recent study from Forrester Research found that internet users were 22 percentage points less likely in 2010 to rely on search engines to find websites than they were in 2004. Although this doesn’t mean people are using search engines less to find information about product types or branded goods, it does mean that they are relying on search less to find websites specifically.

Perhaps this change is because internet users are becoming more knowledgeable and do not need to rely on search to find popular sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Also, they may be relying on social media more to find websites. No matter the reason, this data indicates that search users’ behaviour is in constant flux. As search users continue to change their behaviour, marketers will need to adjust their SEO strategy to keep up.

Australian .com.au domain names hit 2 million

WHEN Lloyd Borrett set up a website in the mid-1990s for a local computer company, he had to move overseas to find a suitable domain name - well before it was fashionable to do so.

The restrictions on Australian domain names meant that he could not reserve expert.com.au for Expert, an IT business later acquired by Indian outsourcer Infosys for $31 million. Similar generic names such as florist.com.au or computer.com.au were not for sale.

''Basically, any word in the dictionary was excluded,'' said Mr Borrett, who now works for anti-virus and security company AVG . ''So I went to Norfolk Island instead and registered expert.nf because they had just opened up a registry there.''

The Australian rules were gradually relaxed and the trade in domain names ending in .au has boomed.

Last night, total registrations on Australia's country-code top-level domain reached 2 million, indicating that Australian businesses, which make up almost 86 per cent of .au domain names, prefer local internet real estate. Almost a quarter of a million .au domains have been sold this financial year.

The domain registry manager, AusRegistry, was not able to identify the exact holder of the 2 millionth domain name because the total includes new registrations and those that lapse in what is effectively a five steps forward-two steps back motion.

The milestone does not mean there are 2 million Australian websites, because many of the .au domains registered are inactive, or are used to redirect web traffic to other sites. Also, many Australian residents, companies or organisations maintain websites on the global generic top-level domains such as .com, .net, .org or .info. There are more than 93 million domains registered on the .com top-level domain alone.

Germany manages the largest country-code top-level domain, with 14.1 million, followed by Britain with 9 million registrations.

Australia's tight rules for domain name registration were devised by a University of Melbourne computer engineer and lawyer, Robert Elz, who connected Australia to the internet in late 1989.

Mr Elz, an academic who now lives in Thailand, later handed over the management of Australian domains to a university spinoff company, Melbourne IT, which later listed on the ASX and continues as an internet services and hosting company.

The boom period of the internet in the late 1990s featured accusations of cybersquatting on domain names, especially in the .com name space, but Australia was largely immune from those difficulties because of Mr Elz's rules.

Australian businesses on the web were perceived as trustworthy and still are, said Glenn Gore, the chief technology officer at Melbourne IT.

''It was good for business in how people trust those companies using a .com.au address,'' Mr Gore said.

''If it ends in .com.au, you know that it was not some fly-by-night operation. There has to be a real business behind it.''

This did not mean Australian domain name policies were without controversy. Many webmasters complained of high costs to register an internet name and third-party resellers of domains were frustrated by the rules.

Mr Elz handed over policy and regulation to a new domain name authority, Australian Domain Administration Ltd, known as auDA, and in 2002, AusRegistry won a tender to manage a fully independent registry of .au domain names.

Over the past decade, the auDA board has gradually relaxed the controls of internet name management and sales in Australia while still maintaining the integrity of the system.

''The biggest reform milestone was introducing the new registry in 2002, said Paul Szyndler, auDA's general manager of public affairs.

From then on, anybody could set up a business to sell the domain names and the competition led to large price falls for those setting up websites.

Story by Glenn Mulcaster www.smh.com.au

Android Takes Lead in Smartphone OS Share

 

When it comes to US consumer marketshare by operating system, Android (29%) appears to be pulling ahead of RIM Blackberry (27%) and Apple iOS (27%), according to new Nielsen Company analysis of January 2011 data. But an analysis by manufacturer shows RIM and Apple to be the winners compared to other device makers, since they are the only ones creating and selling smartphones with their respective operating systems.

HTC, Motorola Follw in OS Share

HTC follows with 12% of consumer smartphone owners having an HTC Android device and 7% owning an HTC device running a Microsoft OS. Ten percent of consumer smartphone owners had a Motorola Android device and 1% owned a Motorola device running a Microsoft OS.

The other device manufacturer representing a significant percentage of consumers using a smartphone with the Android OS is Samsung (5%). Two percent of consumers also use a Samsung smartphone running Microsoft OS.

Ten percent of consumer smartphone owners use a device running Microsoft OS. The Palm/Web and Symbian operating systems combined only account for roughly 8% of the US smartphone market.

Android Skews Younger

Of the three most popular US smartphone operating systems, Android seems to attract more young consumers. About 21% of Android users are 18-24 (representing six of Android’s 29 share percentage points), compared to about 15% of RIM Blackberry and Apple iOS users (four of 27 percentage points each).

The youngest adult consumers segment is where Android has a notable edge on its two chief rivals. Percentages of all other age brackets are fairly similar.

comScore: Google 2nd-Biggest Smartphone OS in ‘10

The rapid adoption of Google Android mobile devices during 2010 made Google the second-largest smartphone operating system (OS) in the US by the end of the year, trailing only market leader RIM, according to a new white paper from comScore. “The 2010 US Digital Year in Review” indicates that among smartphone OS platforms, RIM retained its lead with 31.6% market share in December 2010 (although decreasing roughly one-quarter from 41.6% the previous year).

NBN legislation passes lower house

After hours of debate, the National Broadband Network bill and relevant legislation have passed the lower house.

They will now go to the Senate for consideration.

Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese says it's a historic step forward toward the NBN.

Attempts by Opposition communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull to have the legislation amended have failed.

Facebook to Surpass Yahoo! in Display Ad Revenues This Year

More than one in five US display dollars will go to the social network

For the first time, the largest share of US display ad revenues will go to Facebook, eMarketer estimates. The social network’s 80.9% growth in display ad revenues, to $2.19 billion this year, will mean Facebook sees 21.6% of all US display ad dollars.

That will put it ahead of Yahoo!, where eMarketer estimates display revenues will be up 16%. Yahoo!’s market share will inch up to 16.4%, while display gains at Google push the site’s share of display spending to 12.6%. Meanwhile, AOL will drop from 5.3% of display ad revenues in 2010 to 4.4% this year.

“Yahoo!’s US display ad revenues will increase by double digits each year from 2010 through 2012. Despite that, not only will Facebook’s display revenues surpass Yahoo!’s this year, Google’s revenues will exceed Yahoo!’s next year,” said David Hallerman, principal analyst at eMarketer. “What that leapfrogging trend confirms is the strong demand among brand marketers for online display ad placements.”

In the search market, Google will solidify its position as the top site with an increase in market share of nearly 4 percentage points, to 75.2%. eMarketer expects Microsoft, where search revenues will be up 16.4% in 2011, to increase its market share slightly for the next two years, while search revenues at Yahoo! will continue a slow decline, dropping to $1.1 billion this year from $1.28 billion in 2010.

Declines will also continue at AOL throughout the forecast period.

“Even as some observers expect Google’s search revenues to fall due to competition from Bing, the reported revenue reality shows that after a relatively ‘slow’ Q1 2010, net US ad revenues at Google grew by 27% or more each of the following three quarters,” noted Hallerman. “It will be hard for Bing to stop the Google juggernaut, and, in fact, Bing’s search gains are basically accompanied by Yahoo!’s search losses.”

“In fact, Google’s gains in search will help its display business, and vice versa, as more and more marketers will see the benefits of linking those two ad formats through a single provider,” said Hallerman. “That same trend will help Microsoft—but not as much as Google—since Bing’s search dollars are a mere fraction of the marketer investment with Google.”

Top Viral Videos - Feb. 2011

 

Ads that originally aired during the 2011 Super Bowl and videos featuring autos were heavily featured in the list of the 10 most-shared online videos tracked by Unruly Media during February 2011. In addition, seven of the 10 videos featured some type of vehicle, making February the second straight month viewers felt a need for speed.

Videos Put Viewers in Super Mood

Three of the top 10 most-shared videos in February 2011 began as ads aired during the 2011 Super Bowl (Feb. 6, 2011). These include the top two videos, “Volkswagen Commercial: The Force” and “Chrysler Eminem Super Bowl Commercial: Imported from Detroit.”

Another Volkswagen Super Bowl ad, “Volkswagen Commercial: Black Beetle,” made the list at number seven. Interestingly, perennial Super Bowl advertiser Doritos scored the ninth spot on the list with “Doritos Crash the Super Bowl 2010 Finalist: House Rules,” originally aired during the 2010 Super Bowl.

Super Bowl ads are noted for their production values, humor and use of celebrities. The top video featured a little boy dressed as “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader and combined humor with feel-good cutesiness and pop culture. Volksagen’s other “Black Beetle” commercial offered top-notch stop-motion photography and the Chrysler commercial featured music from Eminem, one of the most popular musical performers of the past decade (and a Detroit native). The 2010 Doritos spot also offers a potent combination of humor and an adorable little kid.

Keep Things Moving

Following a January when five of the top 10 videos featured a vehicle, February’s list included seven vehicular videos. These included three auto commercials (the two Volkswagen ads and the Chrysler ads), the two installments of the popular “Gymkhana” series of extreme stunt driving videos, a video of extreme biker Danny MacAskill performing daring deeds across Scotland, and the longtime favorite Evian video of rollerblading babies, proving once again cute little kids sell big.

Indian Video Scores Again

For the second straight month, a video aimed at the Indian market cracked the top 10. Following an Indian McDonald’s ad which ranked in January, this month “Silent Indian National Anthem,” a patriotic video showing Indian schoolchildren standing and saluting while an instrumental version of the Indian national anthem plays in the background, was ranked number nine.

India is the world’s second-most-populous country and has a rapidly growing economy, making it a potentially lucrative market for viral videos.

Top 10 Most-shared Online Videos February 2011

1. Volkswagen - Commercial: The Force
2. Chrysler - Eminem Super Bowl Commercial: Imported from Detroit
3. DC Shoes - Ken Block’s Gymkhana Three, Part 2 – Ultimate Playground, L’Autodrome
4. Evian – Roller Babies
5. Trance Urban - The Most Amazing Beat Box Video Ever
6. Danny MacAskill – Way Back Home
7. Volkswagen - Commercial: Black Beetle
8. Silent Indian National Anthem
9. Doritos - Crash the Super Bowl 2010 Finalist: House Rules
10. DC Shoes – Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two, The Infomercial

Online Video Gains Momentum

The online video market continued to gain momentum in 2010, with an average of 179 million Americans watching video each month, according to a new white paper from comScore. “The 2010 US Digital Year in Review” indicates that engagement levels also rose during the year, with viewers watching online videos more frequently.

More than 88.6 million people watched online video on an average day in December 2010 (up 32% from December 2009), while viewing sessions totaled 5.8 billion for the month (up 13% year-over-year). Americans also spent about 12% more hours viewing online video in 2010 (14.2) compared the prior year (12.7) due to increased content consumption and more video ad streams. The average American streamed a record 201 videos in December 2010, up 8% from 187 a year earlier.

Social Media Is Not Killing Email

Email remains the top choice for marketing communications among all age groups

 

The latest death knell for email was sounded by data in comScore’s “2010 U.S. Digital Year in Review” report, which noted a decline in time spent with web-based email among all US internet users under 55. Users ages 12 to 17, who have been most likely to drop email in favor of other online communications like social networking, had the steepest decline in usage, down 59%.

But web-based email checked at a desktop computer is only one slice of all email communications, and email represents an overwhelmingly important communications channel.

According to research from customer relationship marketing agency Merkle, 87% of internet users checked personal email daily in 2010, a number that has changed little since 2007. Among those with a separate email account for commercial email, 60% checked daily, down just 1 percentage point since 2008.

Further, social media usage is hardly taking away from email. Rather, social media users are significantly more likely than other internet users to check their email four or more times per day, and less likely to check infrequently.

Mobile access is also encouraging email users to check more often. More than half (55%) of those surveyed who had an internet-enabled mobile phone checked their personal email using their phone, and nearly two-thirds of mobile email users checked their account at least once a day.

There is some evidence that personal communications are shifting away from email, though. Messages from friends and family are taking up a smaller share of all time spent with email, while the share spent with commercial emails is rising. And the proportion of respondents spending at least 20 minutes per week with email from friends and family fell from 71% in 2009 to 66% in 2010.

But email is still a major method of communicating for the vast majority of internet users. Across all age groups, it was the top choice for receiving commercial communications. Most respondents preferred the phone for personal communication, but email was the most important online channel for communicating with friends and family among every age group except 18- to 29-year-olds, a demographic for whom email was tied with social networks.