• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 30, 2019

Adult websites gaining traction from mobile devices, DuckDuckGo and Microsoft Bing increases in search traffic, Bernie Sanders' new way to search and target voters, and Mary Meeker's annual internet trends report caught your attention in 2019. But that's not all.

Here's a list of the top ten interests that also includes data, rebranding and acquisitions. 

Adult Websites Top Visits From Mobile Devices

Consumers transitioned from desktop to mobile searches in the past decade, but in 2019 a report from Perficient, then Stone Temple Consulting, delved into the data analyzing the markets that are taking the lead.

DuckDuckGo's Billions Of Searches Detract From Google, Bing Advertisers

In early January 2019, DuckDuckGo revealed in a tweet that its search engine served more than 9 billion searches in 2018 and is on pace to “shatter” that record in 2019. Helping to drive searches, in December 2018 it finally got its hands on the website Duck.com, a domain that at the time was owned by Google. Clicking on Duck.com took searchers to Google’s engine, not DuckDuckGo.

Microsoft Sees Bing Ad Revenue Inch Upward

Microsoft’s fourth-quarter earnings 2018 report showed that revenue from its search advertising, excluding traffic acquisition costs, rose 14%. Revenue from LinkedIn rose 29%.

Azure, Microsoft’s cloud services, experienced the most growth at 76%. Overall, revenue rose 12% to $32.5 billion. Around that time, Yahoo -- which served Google Shopping ads since early 2016 -- began to exclusively rely on Bing for its search ads.

Bernie Sanders' BERN Will Search And Target Voters

Senator and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders during a rally in April announced an online tool that allows anyone to contribute to the campaign's voter database, without the opt-in of the owner of the personally identifiable information. BERN -- the name of the new database -- allows supporters to log the names and other information of anyone they choose.

The database matches each name to a voter record before noting their level of support, priority issue and even union membership.

Are Brands ‘Exiting’ An Era Of Search?

The 2019 Benchmarking Local Media’s Digital Revenues report from Borrell Associates suggested the search and advertising industry might exit the era of traditional search-engine dominance. The report noted that buying keywords on Google or Bing seemed like old-school marketing when considering the ease of reaching consumers based on their GPS location, what they clicked on two days ago, or what search terms they typed in this morning.

Why SEO Isn't Enough

It is now increasingly important to combine paid and organic search into campaigns, including deep-click navigation. Perhaps that’s because Marty Weintraub, founder of digital agency Aimclear, believes there are time when Google sends free traffic to websites, but this is becoming less frequent, explaining that psychographic, paid, organic, search, social, retargeting and programmatic are all media that go into a well-rounded campaign.

Google Acquires Superpod For Q&A Expertise

Google acquired the startup Superpod, an app that allows people to post questions and receive answers from experts within an hour. Superpod allows users to ask questions and receive answers from experts, which could support future services in Google Assistant. Former Google employees Sophia Yang and William Li founded Superpod in 2016, and raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Precursor Ventures, Charlie Cheever, Social Capital, and the House Fund.

Elite SEM's Next Act As Tinuiti

One of the largest independent North American performance and data-driven digital marketing agencies rebranded from Elite SEM to something a little quirky — Tinuiti. CEO Zach Morrison explains why the company, which manages about $1 billion in ad spend for companies like Birchbox and DoorDash, would rebrand.

Mary Meeker's Annual Internet Trends Report And What Search Marketers Should Know

Mary Meeker released her 2019 Internet Trends report at Recode's Code Conference in early January, covering all things digital -- from the slowing growth of internet users and smartphone unit shipments to the possible impact of privacy changes on ad targeting.

Apple Defends Sharing Browser Data With Google, Tencent

Apple defended reports that it sends some user private search browser data to Google and the Chinese tech company Tencent.

The feature is built into Apple's Safari web browser for Macs, iPhones and iPads. It is designed to warn people when they visit sites that hackers create to trick them into sharing login passwords for banks, email and social media.