Ask Reimagines Search, Adds Relevance Algorithms, Real-Time Capabilities by Laurie Sullivan

Ask.com's newly appointed U.S president, Doug Leeds, says he intends to reinvent the "question and answer" engine, and has embarked on a project to take the company in a new direction. The technology relies on query signals that Leeds insists have not previously been built into search. To extract and rank existing answers, rather than ranking Web pages that contain information, Ask has developed a set of algorithms and technologies based on relevance signals geared toward questions and answers. ...Read the whole story

  • search 360i Develops Metrics And Study To Boost Page Rankings by Laurie Sullivan

    Digital marketing agency 360i has developed a measurement tool it believes can calculate the effectiveness of a brand's visibility in natural search engine rankings. The metric, dubbed PageShare, monitors the effectiveness of brand and non-brand keywords in universal search and social media query results. A study of 100 advertisers supports the new metrics. ...Read the whole story

  • CIMM Modifies Agenda, Research Request: Focuses On Set-Tops, Collaboration by Joe Mandese

    The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) has slightly modified its research plans, making digital set-top data its primary initial focus, and posting a new "request for information" from potential research suppliers that could lead to the funding of multiple projects. CIMM, which is being backed by major networks, advertisers and four major agency media units - Interpublic's Mediabrands, Omnicom Media Group, Publicis' Starcom MediaVest Group, and WPP's GroupM - said the revisions come after initial meetings with five potential research suppliers: Nielsen Co., Rentrak, TiVo, TRA and TNS. ...Read the whole story

  • Bing Climbs In Search Market Share by Laurie Sullivan

    Microsoft and Google have gained in U.S. search market share at Yahoo's expense, according to comScore. Stats released late Monday suggest that Yahoo continues a nine-month slide, an analyst says. ...Read the whole story

Search Is For The Drills; Social Is For The Holes by Kaila Colbin

How do people engage with your product or service? Do you sell something like kayaks, which become a part of people's lives, passion and identity? Or do you sell couches, which tend to only interest people while they're shopping for them? A Twitter search for "kayak" reveals all sorts of conversation about people indulging in their favorite activity, conversation that a kayak manufacturer could participate in to become part of the community. A Twitter search for "couch," on the other hand, reveals conversation focused on laziness -- not exactly fodder for potential couch sales. ...More

  • Applied Video & Social Search by Rob Griffin

    So I am sitting around with some friends last weekend watching sports on TV. We get to laughing about the E*Trade baby ads. Well, what do you know? We ended up whipping out the laptop and searching for the ads to watch them a few times. What a brilliant creative execution -- and how brilliant that we were able to re-enjoy the ads again together as friends. Then of course, much to my friends' chagrin, I started waxing poetic about the merits of SEM, video, and social media optimization. My point is that great creative begets the need for video ...More