One of the most exciting aspects of BING, at least for me, was the travel engine platform. The way Microsoft made it sound, advertisers were going to have tons of opportunities to expand sales to the Microsoft travel audience. What we have found in our initial foray is a bit different, though. While it’s true that several of our travel advertisers have seen decent gains within Microsoft search, the more cutting-edge prospects within the travel engine have been tied up by big sponsorship deals among OTAs and larger brand advertisers. Now, I’m certainly not condemning these preliminary sponsorship deals, but I look forward to the day when the spaces open up to the rest of us regular guys who do not possess multi-million dollar sponsorship budgets.

Specifically, I would like to see MSN take a more comprehensive approach to detailing its products to advertisers, rather than relying on potential customers to seek out this information. The entire BING travel space could be revolutionary in a few years, and if they’re going to take on Google, they’re going to have to be more proactive about the specifics. How do I take advantage of the new features…tell me please!

You’ve no doubt seen this application, but it does more than finish your sentences. Not only does Google toss out common searches based on your typing, a URL might even appear for the first listing or in a sponsored ad at the bottom. Such is the case in the screen capture below, where all one has to do is type “flic” before a link to flickr.com is shown.

Google search for Flic

Fancy and convenient. But how does this look in your web analytics? The good news is that the click will still appear as a natural search or paid search visit in most services. However, the associated keyword in the case above is simply “flic.” All of a sudden, many sites are going to notice an uptick in misspelled words similar to their brand from Google, and likely a drop in the proper spelling “Flickr.” Take a look for yourself and see if this explains why people might be searching for your “websit.”

The first question that we got when word of this first came out – much like at the time of the launch of Wolfram Alpha, Cuil and every other media-dubbed Next Big Thing – was ‘how does this change my SEO?’. And it’s a fair question – MSN added new functions and are clearly testing others, and there had been talk of integrating behavioral information into results so that if you looked for ‘fish’ it would know whether you were looking for a restaurant or a rod and reel. Google sneezes and everyone’s rankings change, so what happens when it’s changing – dun dun DUUUUUH – names?

The answer to what Bing will change about how you approach SEO – much like most every other great leap forward in organic search – is nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

No matter what changes are brought to bear by Google, Yahoo and the rest of the bunch, SEO at its core is about three things: Is your content readable, are you pursuing the right keywords and are engines getting maximum value from your site – and until your content doesn’t matter anymore, your SEO strategy should be the same.

That’s not to say that search engines won’t expand their ability to read content, that new keyword sets won’t become important and that there won’t be new ways to put your site’s best foot forward. On this last point, there have been a lot of new opportunities created by Bing and especially by Google to improve both your search positioning and the way that your results appear in search engines. A good SEO team should be working with you on things like applying microformats to your pages and other new opportunities that have arisen with the engines’ newest toys.

Still, these opportunities won’t matter much if engines can’t see your site in the first place, or if you’re trying to sell shoes from a page without the word ‘shoes’ on it. These issues will make up the vast majority of how well you appear in search engines, and have been since the days when dinosaur’s roamed the earth and Google was a twinkle in Larry Page’s eye.

In essence, if you want to be ready for the next big Bing, make sure you’re ready for MSN first and see if that doesn’t take care of most of it.

Apparently, the idea behind Bing is that it should convey to the user the sound that is made when a light bulb goes off in one’s head, like what happens when Wile E. Coyote gets a great idea or when you solve a Rubik’s cube. My colleagues and I chatted about this at length, and we determined that Bing is not the sound that at all goes off in our heads at the point of enlightenment.

For me the sound is an obvious ‘ting’ with some vibrato to it. For my good friend Brian, who tends to be more left brained, the sound is much more course and sharp. We did our best to find it but the closest we could find was ‘e-spark2’. Ding also seemed to be a very popular reponse. Eureka, gasp, AH!….on and on and on. This other guy thought it sounded like the bell on the counter of a cheap motel.

Later, I brought the discussion to the car. Since my daughter and spend a lot of time in the vehicle, and there is usually a lot of empty air to fill, I asked her what she thought about Bing. She’s never been much for short and sweet so her answer didn’t surprise me in the least. A very animated, “wait, wait, I got it, I know this one.” To be honest we both concurred that might be a little long and cumbersome to remember at the keyboard.

Whatever the sound, we’ll see if MSN’s new search is worth me switching from Googling to Binging anytime soon.

Anyway, along the path to our destruction by merciless cyborgs are some new online technologies from Microsoft and Google that are kind of creepy and ominous, but I actually think they’re pretty cool.

Microsoft/Experian Custom Database Targeting: While an invention from Microsoft and one of the big-three credit information companies might sound as if it were designed by Satan himself, it’s not quite as evil as you think. This tech allows us to identify potential customers with Windows Live Passport IDs for targeted campaigns on the Microsoft Media Network. The data is then matched and segmented by Experian data hounds and parsed back out as “anonymous” records to the Microsoft Media Network. Benefits include the capacity to target offline consumer online, site cookies aren’t needed for remessaging and you will be able to use “look-alike” segmentation to reach new customers according to the purchase path data of your existing customer base.

• Why it’s creepy: Do you want the same entity that reports on your credit keeping track of your consumer interests?
• Why it’s cool: You’ll be the first adopter. This particular engagement tool is somewhat pricey (a $150k minimum), but geez, the customer insight is staggering. Like the results of a comScore study, this tool will provide advertisers with highly competitive user feedback and market segmentation.

Google Behavioral Search Targeting:Not only will Google allow users to read their browsing history, but they will have fully launched their “interest-based advertising” concept which involves targeting around interest categories and exchanges with specific customers. This one is a little eerie, since its search interest listings appearing in sponsored search rankings can potentially creep you out. If you’ve been recently served a Cholula hot sauce ad during a seemingly-unrelated image search for “Gary Busey Mug Shot,” this is why. What do the two have to do with each other? You tell me. It’s obviously a secret between you and Google.

• Why it’s creepy: Google can apparently read your thoughts based upon what appear to be mutually exclusive searches. It’s unnerving because they have enough brain power and cash to dig even deeper. Where will consumers draw the line?
• Why it’s cool: As a search marketer, I have mixed feelings about “interest-based search,” since it eliminates an area of relevance (based on quality score). However, the insight gained from interest categories in Google’s network syndication has made big advances in the way we think about messaging to the consumer in search. And if it’s as intuitive as Google claims, the potential rapport to be established with a consumers is invaluable.

Dynamic Ad Targeting: Some vendors such as ChoiceStream have taken targeting to a new level. Instead of merely capturing user category behavior, advertisers have begun using targeted methodologies based upon decisions consumers make along their individual purchase paths. In other words, it’s a whole new level of granularity. Marketers will have better foresight into a consumer group’s affinity for a given brand.

• Why it’s creepy: It’s similar to the Google product described above. It’s probably terrifying to paranoid conspiracy theorists, but then again, those people probably don’t even use computers anymore.
• Why it’s cool: This level of targeting allows marketers the ability to create thousands of personalized ad scenarios on the fly.

Friend Finder: Here’s another application from Google, designed to give users in 27 countries across 42 languages the ability to find each other via mobile device. The tool will help you send SMS, IMs or even call another user (calling someone with a mobile phone? That sounds crazy!). Like with their map product, Google uses a web service based on geo-location. MyLocation mixes GPS and any Wi-Fi enabled phone (including Cell-ID).

• Why it’s creepy: It’s another possibility for user-backlash, since it’s one more invasion of privacy. We’re already connected by landline, internet, email, cell phone, etc. At some point, users will want some time alone. What’s worse, it’s sort of like having a marketing guy eavesdrop on your conversations.
• Why it’s cool: It’s sort of like having a marketing guy eavesdrop on your conversations. Imagine having the ability to contextually target a conversation between two people arguing over where to meet for lunch when your client is an advertiser such as Chili’s.

I don’t know that increasingly personal marketing tools will precipiate the end of humanity, but if marketers can get on board with a couple of these things, the online economy will bounce back with a vengeance.

Hasta la vista, baby.

But what else might be buried in the dry, boring text that we don’t even scroll through before we tick the ‘accept’ box? Here are the top nine quiet changes to Facebook’s T&Cs you might not have noticed:

1. Creators of new ‘become a vampire’ or ‘become a werewolf’ apps are to be promptly be shot with a silver bullet.
2. More than three profile picture changes per day will incur an automatic $.99 charge from iTunes for your copy of ‘You’re So Vain’.
3. Status message changes made between 1 AM and 5 AM will be automatically syndicated to your city’s Craigslist Erotic Services listings.
4. Status message changes made between 1 AM and 5 AM via mobile phone will be required to pass gmail’s anti drunk-mail testing.
5. Thirty or more status changes in a day will result in a ban from Facebook, which will then be re-directed to Twitter where you belong.
6. We’re getting rid of ‘poke’. Seriously, what was that ever about?
7. We’re getting rid of ‘In an open relationship’. The four people who this actually applies to complained we were diminishing their love by letting just anyone enter into one.
8. ‘About me’ entries longer than 700 characters in length will be replaced entirely with randomly selected ABBA lyrics and descriptions of cats. Just to save you the time.
9. All content created on Facebook.com belongs to the site in perpetuity – especially the dirty pics we won’t allow you to post. You don’t think we actually delete those, do you?

Five Tips to Cope — or Even Thrive — Through Downturn
A Dig Through Ad Age Archives Reveals How to Grow in Adverse Times

LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) — Ad Age has dug deep into our archives to analyze the issue of innovation during three of the worst times: the Depression and recessions of the early ’70s and early ’80s.

It certainly caught my attention so I clicked through only to find out that in order to access THE GOLDMINE I’d have to pay for the whitepaper.

Sigh.

Exactly AdAge, release a paper that was only created because of the*unforeseen events of today’s economy and then charge for it! Brilliant! Thriving in your own downtime and then pimping it out to my inbox. Disguised as help!

You sneaky little devil.

*depends on who you ask

While I realize that most of you know this, the recent release of Yahoo’s top 10 searches for 2008 merely confirms. Before we take a look at the psyche of American searcher’s though, let’s just quickly rattle off a few things we’ve collectively lived through these past 11 months. Hmm… let’s see. Our financial system has and continues to be a roller coaster ride invented by the Devil where the moments of reprieve are simply when there isn’t blood squirting out of your eyes, Michael Phelps ears have 4 medals hanging from each one, Hurricane Ike’s arbitrary swath of destruction, OH AND I KNOW!!! The first African-American ever elected president in the United States history……Really all pretty pithy.

America, here are your top 10 searches for 2008:

1. Britney Spears
2. WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)
3. Barack Obama
4. Miley Cyrus
5. RuneScape
6. Jessica Alba
7. Naruto
8. Lindsay Lohan
9. Angelina Jolie
10. American Idol

Sure the Brittany thing is easy to be irritated with but the WWE absolutely undoes me. It’s not even real!

I did feel a bit guilty when reviewing my own personal search history. It might not be Brittany but it sure includes gruesome medical anomalies in image form (not just for me though – I share). We all have our secret escape routes but still…..This really makes me question the audience or at the very least the intention of Yahoo! users. I’m not going to make any sweeping statements yet. At least not until Google’s Zeitgeist year in review is released.

Until then I’m going to do some “work” and find out what some of these top 10 even are.

First of all, it’s selling Performics SEM, the search agency side of Doubleclick to a third party. A lot of agency-types heaved sighs of relief at the expected (though unconfirmed) news that Google won’t be pushing them out of business. Not like this, anyway. Secondly, the engine is also integrating Performics Affiliate into its product line. While most of the articles talking about these shuffles haven’t really highlighted this facet of the Doubleclick deal, from an affiliate’s perspective, this is pretty intriguing, and by intriguing, I mean terrifying. If you’re an affiliate, your competition is now a lot bigger and stronger. Of course, if you’re a publisher, this is akin to winning the big prize on a scratch-off ticket, since SEM integration will likely get a lot easier.

I think what’s going on here is that Google has found a way to spread its revenue around should paid clicks continue their alleged slow down. Instead of conquering the proverbial world, perhaps Google is preparing for the possibility that its planet may be in peril. On the other hand, the moves add a whole new level to Google’s commercial presence. It already wields Google Product Search and offers shopping cart technology in its ads, but now it has direct access to major advertisers on a new part of the business. Never mind that it now has tons of traffic-hungry affiliate marketers right in the palm of its hand. If these guys aren’t running AdSense, already, you can bet they’ll be registering for it now.

Obviously, Google has no intention of subjugating the earth and eating people,⁴ and selling Performics appears to be a gesture of good faith. However, it will be interesting to see what happens across the affiliate landscape. My advice? Watch the skies, and look out if you see Larry and Sergey donning red jumpsuits.

¹This plot device would be aped thirteen years later in a bigger, louder, crappier movie that suggested, among other absurdities, that an alien species able to master interstellar travel could be bested by Jeff Goldblum and a Powerbook 5300.

²Incidentally, in light of his affinity for animals, I’m going to assume The Beastmaster is a vegan.

³Googleliath?

⁴As far as you know.