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If it looks like Google, it must be Google, and therefore we're ok with it!

Fascinating and slightly intimidating research reported in Adage this week about internal research at Google, which suggests that as long as you badge it Google, user perception and preference on search results goes up, even if it's not Google's results. The research which took search results from other search engines and then re-badged them and retreated them with the Google styling, found that people still preferred them to the results of other engines. Its a damning insight that puts the ky-bosh on the 'build a better mousetrap' scenarios that have pre-occupied every search engine for years in trying to win market share from Google. It also illustrates very clearly the power of the brand, suggesting that only a major drawn out brand building offensive is likely to have any impact for Microsoft, in its war to acquire decent search distribution. Whilst the search battleground is littered with expensive campaigns that... Read full article

Musings on customised / personalised search engine results.

The idea of 1 set of keyword specific search results for all, has always been considered something of an old school way of search engines doing things, although in the light of anything better it was the best thing to be had, and arguably Google have given it the best stab possible. As an improvement to that, personalized search results have always been something to strive for. A user types Jaguar, do they mean the animal or the car. They type 'Paris Hilton', did they mean...ok well you get the idea. A searchers searching habits should in theory at least , provide information which will help Google customize its results to deliver more relevance on a personal and query specific level. These things, despite being good ideas, do take a long time to actually come through and work in practice though. I remember sitting in ad agency being told about... Read full article

Greenlight study identifies most visible flight brands in natural search

New research, conducted by Greenlight, has revealed cheapflights.co.uk as the most visible website and monarch.co.uk the most visible airline in Google natural search results, based on average monthly data gathered in March 2009. Our study analysed 3200 generic and destination specific keywords, which were found to generate a total of 5.5 million flight related search terms in the UK in this particular month. This data was then used to rank the most visible brands on page 1 of Google’s natural search results. Cheapflights.co.uk ranked top, managing to capture 100% of the searching audience, whilst monarch.co.uk was the highest ranking airline and the only one to make it into the top 10. Skyscanner.net and travelsupermarket.com took second and third positions achieving more than 80% visibility each. Our league table ranks a total of 1000 brands. Our study also revealed that more than a quarter of the searching audience used only four... Read full article

Greenlight research reveals most visible hotel brands in natural search

New research, conducted by Greenlight, has revealed tripadvisor.co.uk as the most visible website and hilton.co.uk the most visible hotel chain in Google natural search results, based on average monthly data gathered in March 2009. We analysed 1200 generic and destination-led keywords, which were found to generate an average of 5.6 million hotel related searches per month in the UK. This data was then used to rank the most visible brands on page 1 of Google’s natural search results. Tripadvisor.co.uk ranked top, managing to capture 43% of the searching audience, whilst hilton.co.uk was the highest ranking hotel chain and the only one to make it into the top 20, reaching 6% of all searches. Laterooms.com was the best performing agent, taking second place overall and hotelclub.net took third position. They achieved 32% and 28% visibility respectively. Our league table ranks a total of 1000 individual websites. Our research also revealed that... Read full article