Bigmouthmedia Search Engine News: Main Headlines

Bing gains more market share

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:01:00 GMT

As Microsoft's new TV advertising campaign launches in the UK promoting Bing as an alternative to search goliath Google, the self-styled 'decision engine' has already been gaining ground in the search engine rankings, according to the latest figures from comScore.

The research firm has revealed that Bing's US market share rose by 0.2 per cent last month, after previously rising by half a per cent in January. V3 reports that Bing now holds 11.5 per cent of the US search market and is steadily catching up with Yahoo!, which dropped 0.2 per cent to take 16.8 per cent of February's search market.

This is the ninth consecutive month to see a slight gain for Bing. Six months ago, Bing only held 9.3 per cent of the US search market compared to Yahoo!'s 19.3 per cent, showing clear growing strength in Microsoft's search engine compared to Yahoo!

Unfortunately for both companies, it appears that Google's empire still stubbornly refuses to topple, as the Mountain View giant's market share has also increased across the six-month period, rising from 64.6 per cent in August to 65.5 per cent in February and accounting for 9.5 billion of 14.5 billion total searches carried out in the United States last month.

February's top five was rounded out by regular underdogs Ask.com and AOL, with the latter retaining its 2.5 per cent share and Ask.com dropping slightly from 3.8 per cent in January to 3.7 per cent last month.

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Google Apps Marketplace launched

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:49:00 GMT

Google has announced the official opening of its Google Apps Marketplace, where users can discover and install third-party applications that "deeply integrate" with Google Apps.

The Register reports that the Google Apps app store has already been pre-populated with more than 50 apps created by other companies that are configured for use with Google's online office suite, including an online payroll app by Intuit and a free online collaboration app from Manymoon.

Users of Google Apps can access and manage these applications from the Google Apps control panel, and they share the same sign-in as the suite's existing utilities.

The Google Apps Marketplace will work in a similar way to mobile app stores, allowing third parties to create and list any number of applications on the platform for a one-time fee of $100, as well as giving Google 20 per cent of sales. According to Google Apps director of engineering, Vic Gundotra, the marketplace can be built using a developer's "own platforms," "own tools" and "own infrastructure," however he also suggested the possibility of using the Google Apps Engine to help create their apps.

Since its launch in 2006, Google Apps has often been viewed as an alternative to Microsoft Office, and this new expansion will put the Mountain View company in a better position to challenge Microsoft's dominance of the office apps market.

According to Mr Gundotra, Google Apps is currently used by 25 million individuals and two million businesses worldwide. In addition to these new third-party apps, the suite combines popular Google business products such as Gmail, Google Talk and Google Calendar, which can be accessed online without requiring download or installation.

Google recently announced it would no longer be offering support for Microsoft's IE6 for Google Apps users, stating that businesses can get more out of the utilities if using a newer browser - whether that be IE8 or Google Chrome.

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Bing's TV ad hopes to topple Google monopoly

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:48:00 GMT

As Bing's new TV ad campaign hits UK screens today, the Microsoft gang are sure to be hoping that UK net users will 'Bing and Decide' to give the decision engine a shot.

The announcement that Bing would be launching UK TV ads certainly attracted attention from media and digital realms alike, and today eager industry insiders will be able to join the public in making their minds up about the ads.

Rather than merely highlighting the ways in which Bing can aid search experiences, the adverts aim to show consumers how different the decision engine is to other search engines. By showing people suffering from "information overload", Microsoft bosses hopes they will tempt searchers into letting Bing solve their problems for them.

While Bing is currently the third most popular search engine in the UK, there are hopes that this new advertising campaign could help the decision engine get a little closer to toppling Google off its top spot - or at least give the Mountain View giant a run for its money.

Microsoft UK's managing director and vice-president of consumer and online, Ashley Highfield, perhaps puts it best. He said: "This is a big moment - we are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath."

Meanwhile, the industrious company isn't forgetting about its American users. Microsoft is reportedly set to roll out a new design for the MSN web portal. According to CBS, the new MSN has a more noticeable Bing feature, a news section that will feature photos more prominently and the inclusion of easily scannable hot discussion topics and local posts on Twitter.

Currently going full steam ahead, many are eagerly waiting to see how much of a dent Bing makes on the search market if it continues to gather momentum.

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Google seeks to provide the best translation service

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:25:00 GMT

Among other things, Google now provides one of the largest online translation services, handling 52 languages and servicing hundreds of millions of queries every week.

Although its translation services are not perfect, the New York Times reports that Google is rapidly improving the service. In 2004, Sergey Brin received an email from a Google fan in South Korea. Running it through the translation software, the message which was supposed to show the fan's support of Google read "The sliced raw fish shoes it wishes. Google green onion thing!" Since then Google have been on a mission to improve this service.

The NY times recently ran a comparison of Google Translate, Babel Fish and Microsoft's Bing Translator. Although none of these services can compare to a human translation, in all of the separate translations; French, Spanish, Russian, German and Arabic, Google Translate offers the most accurate translation of the text.

Although the basic translation service (text to text, or webpage translation) is not perfected yet, Google is advancing the technology, using image to text translation. Basically, this service would allow someone on holidays to take a photo of a menu, directions or anything else they need a translation of, upload it to the web and get an instant translation.

Translation websites are nothing new, in fact programmers have been building such devices for decades. What makes current programs different however - Google being a classic example - is that the new software is designed to make statistical guesses rather than following a set of rules. For example, after reading thousands of passages of accurately translated text, the software is able to statistically work out accurate translations rather than simply following a set of language rules.

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Steve Jobs confirms no iPhone tethering for iPad

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:24:00 GMT

Apple founder Steve Jobs has confirmed that users of the new iPad will not be able to tether their tablet to the internet using the 3G connection of their iPhone.

The Register reports that Jobs replied with an unequivocal "No" from his iPhone, when emailed by Swedish trance DJ Jezper Söderlund asking if a Wi-Fi-only iPad could use an iPhone's 3G tethering.

Despite Jobs' seemingly definite reply, which The Register is confident was genuinely from the man himself, the decision to provide internet tethering from the iPhone is presently one made by carriers, with companies such as O2, Orange and Vodafone offering various tethering plans for the iPhone 3.0 in the UK since its release last June.

However, Apple fans in the US are less well catered for. While the iPhone's exclusive carrier AT&T has promised tethering since November 2008 - when CEO Ralph De La Vega said his company was in discussions with Apple to arrange a tethering plan - one has yet to appear.

Apple's eagerly-awaited iPad is set to launch next month, and has already sparked a 'war of the tablets' among rivals, especially after the device was billed as the industry's next hot platform at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that up to 15 tablets are expected to be launched this year, most of which will be powered by Google's Android platform. With tablets already confirmed from Microsoft and HP as well as Google, analyst firm Gartner is predicting that 10.5 million tablet PCs will be shipped this year.

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Online ads could come under new ASA remit

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:01:00 GMT

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has received recommendations for ASA's remit to be extended to include communications on websites and social networks.

The Advertising Association (AA) submitted the recommendations following months of debate and growing pressure on the online advertising community to be held more accountable for the way they communicate with children.

While all marketing communication taking place in paid-for online space is already subject to CAP examination, Brand Republic reports that all communications on organisations' own sites and other non-paid for space online will also fall within the scope of the CAP code, should the recommendations be accepted.

According to Brand Republic, Rae Burdon, chief operating officer at the AA, said: "Contrary to general understanding, much advertising online is already in remit and there's a very high level of compliance with the existing rules.

"There are some complex issues in the remaining space which require careful analysis. The industry has delivered to CAP a clear mandate that first and foremost will protect consumers and children, that will also - crucially - protect editorial content, and that will, if accepted, maintain CAP/ASA's reputation as a world-class operation.

"The whole industry has pulled together to make this happen. What's important now is effective implementation and raising consumer and stakeholder awareness."

An extended remit is expected to come into play in the third quarter of 2010, subject to appropriate consultation and the formal ratification of the CAP and ASA.

Pressure for the move has come from a variety of corners, including influential reports such as Digital Britain, the Byron Review and the Buckingham Report. The recent Sexualisation of Young People Review also called for the changes.

It is hoped that such amendments will make it easier to better regulate the advertising campaigns children are engaged in, and they way companies communicate with them online.

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Microsoft launches Bing TV ads in the UK

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 01:00:00 GMT

Microsoft has launched a new TV advertising campaign in the UK promoting its 'decision engine' Bing as an alternative to Google, by mocking the "information overload" that often accompanies its rival's search results.

The Guardian reports that the $2 billion (£1.3 billion) campaign will begin this Wednesday and run solidly for a month, then continue in two-week bursts until the middle of June. Using the tagline 'Bing and decide,' the ads were created for Microsoft by agency JWT, and feature ordinary people requesting everyday information only to receive nonsensical "speaking-in-tongues" replies, intended to mirror the often-confusing search experience.

Microsoft has revealed that its campaign is directly targeting Google's dominance of the search engine market, which is even higher in the UK than in the US - the search giant holds 90 per cent of the UK market compared to Bing's modest three per cent share.

Microsoft UK's managing director and vice-president of consumer and online, Ashley Highfield, said: "This is a big moment - we are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath."

Mr Highfield believes that Bing offers a real solution to the desires of consumers and advertisers, and hopes that the campaign will raise awareness of alternatives to Google. "People feel overawed by the internet and what they turn up when they are searching," he added.

"We are also in a world where people have forgotten there is an alternative search engine."

The managing director also said that a key aim of the campaign was to focus on Bing's "visually rich" offerings, compared to the plainer look of Google.

"It is a battle not just of mind but of heart as well," Mr Highfield explained.

"We are wanting to make an emotional connection - we are ploughing a different furrow here."

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Smaller browsers demand greater presence in Microsoft's ballot screen

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:48:00 GMT

Six web browser manufacturers have complained to the EU that Microsoft's browser ballot screen does not give fair representation to their products.

Microsoft was required to offer Windows users a choice of web browsers from 1 March, following an anti-trust investigation by the European Competition Commission that found Microsoft Internet Explorer to be taking too large a slice of the browser market, due to it being the default option for Windows operating systems.

The change has seen Microsoft giving European users of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 a choice of alternative browser options, displaying Mozilla's Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple's Safari and Opera in prominent positions.

But it seems that even with this concession to fair competition, the Silicon Valley software giant still hasn't done enough - at least according to the makers of Avant, Flock, Maxthon, Slim, Sleipner and Green browsers, who have all signed a petition demanding fairer representation. These browsers are also available on Microsoft's ballot screen, but users need to scroll to the second page.

Makers of the twelfth browser offered, K-Meleon, did not sign the petition, which states: "The final choice screen design leaves the vast majority of users unaware that there are more than five browsers to choose from.

"We are only requesting the simple addition of any text or design element, that would indicate to an average user that there are choices 'to the right of the visible screen'."

The BBC reports that Microsoft's ballot screen is already leading to a rise in the number of Windows users exploring other browsers, with the makers of Opera claiming that downloads of its browser had increased threefold in the past week.

The immediate success of the ballot screen in Europe has spurred the European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) - which includes such notable Microsoft rivals as Adobe, IBM, Opera, Oracle and Red Hat - to implement something similar for Windows users in the rest of the world, calling on "competition agencies around the world to give their consumers the benefit of browser choice, which will spur competition and improve the Web experience for all."

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House of Lords ruling could block YouTube

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:36:00 GMT

A new Bill approved in the House of Lords may have drastic consequences for video sharing sites such as YouTube, Vimeo and FootyTube, as well as any other site with material infringing copyright protection.

The Digital Economy Bill had sparked much uproar with leading digital companies - including Google, Yahoo! and Facebook - writing to Peter Mandelson about Clause 17 that would have given future secretaries of state new control over monitoring user data and introducing new technical measures.

This clause was removed but replaced with a late amendment that will allow a high court judge the right to issue an injunction against any site with a "substantial amount" of copyrighted material. With no current definition of how much material adds up to "substantial", this has raised questions over the Bill.

This move goes in a different direction to the mooted 'three strikes' rule. Instead of targeting users who access illegal material and cutting off their internet access, the Digital Economy Bill will aim to remove sites that offer access to material it doesn't have the right to host, thereby limiting the chances users have to come across pirated or illegal work.

The new law means copyright holders should ask websites hosting and linking to the material in question to remove the problematic content. If this is unsuccessful they can contact ISPs to block the site and then, if needs be, go to court to force the ISPs to block the site. This would mean that a site such as YouTube would be unavailable for all users in the UK.

A spokesman for Mandelson's department said: "The law must keep pace with technology, so that the government can act if new ways of seriously infringing copyright develop in the future. However, business will not wake up one morning to a world in which government has taken extensive digital powers."

Some internet users are crying foul and a petition has been set up on the Number 10 website, in relation to censorship and giving the control of the internet to a single minister. On the other hand, many media companies are glad that the copyright they have on their content will be better adhered

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Microsoft releases first application for Android phones

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:24:00 GMT

Microsoft has released its first application for Google's Android phone, one of the major competitors to Windows Mobile.

Microsoft Tag is a colour barcode reader application launched last year by the Silicon Valley software giant, which offers an alternative to other barcode technologies such as QR-Code, Datamatrix and ShotCode.

Microsoft also claimed that its colour barcodes are capable of holding more information than other formats. A major difference from standard barcode software is that Microsoft Tag only holds the location of a URL or server holding the user's data, which can then be accessed using the code reader application from a mobile handset.

The BBC reports that the application was previously released for Windows phones as well as rival iPhone, Blackberry and Symbian handsets across 2009, but this is the first time Microsoft has offered an application for the mobile product of its Mountain View nemesis.

Microsoft previously crossed the same bridge with Apple when it released its Seadragon application for the iPhone in December 2008, which paved the way for Tag being made available to Apple phones in early 2009. The company evidently held off a lot longer in making its barcode reader available to Android users, and according to the BBC, the move was made against a background of greater cooperation between mobile operators regarding phone software - namely the formation of the Wholesale Applications Community last week.

This community was established to challenge the dominance of Apple in the smartphone market, with major players including O2 and Orange combining their resources to create an open platform for mobile applications.

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