Search or Experience, But Not Both

Recently, I had the idea to perform a test that truly tested the relevance of the search results themselves; on Google, Yahoo! and MSN. My thought was this; when you look at the results themselves, they are not that different, so why does Google have nearly 64% of the search market share (according to Hitwise) where MSN sits in a distant third with less than 9%?

Is there something we’re not considering here?

Does Google just make it easier to do what you need to get done?

I think the answer to both of these questions is yes. There are some things that we’re not considering here, and having a background in graphic design made it easy for me to have an affinity for what’s being missed. As Marissa Mayer will admit, Google is very focused on the end user quite passionately and I’m sure that a part of that market share can be attributed directly to that fact, and maybe more than just a part.

The gist of our study involved a single page of results on paper from each of the big three engines using the same keyphrase, in this instance we chose “digital camera”. We passed this around a small sample of people and had them choose what they felt the top 3 most relevant results were out of the entire list, not on each page.

Not only were the results surprising, but they were completely backwards from what we and every other search marketer would have expected.

When we scored the results (3 points for 1^st choice, 2 points for 2^nd choice and 1 point for 3^rd), MSN came out as having far and away the most relevant results. The margin was not just a 10% or 15% margin, MSN was more than 3 times as successful as Google in terms of its relevance. And when measured against Yahoo, MSN outperformed those results as well, doubling Yahoo’s relevance score.

It seems that Google is doing many of the other things right in order for their relevance to be perceived as well as it has been. Their Progressive Disclosure model has allowed them to keep the interface clean and their users well taken care of, as the Google tools they need only show up when they need them.

Basic design principles are adhered to on the results page and, as much as people mock the simplicity of the homepage, there are more benefits to it than looking clean and tidy. This “clean and tidy” homepage also keeps the user’s mindframe “clean and tidy” or more focused if you prefer. There are less distractions to a user’s focus when compared to the portal page for either Yahoo or MSN.

This is proven through our Eye Tracking 2 whitepaper. When you compare the condensed pattern on Google results pages against the spread out activity on the busy portal pages, it displays obvious remnants of distraction. And when you consider that short-term memory has a forward memory span of approximately seven items plus or minus two (Miller, 1956), those distractions are doing more to detrimentally affect the pure search experience by filling our little short-term memories with news, pictures, ads and information… All of which have nothing to do with what we’re searching for.

So, MSN may have the most relevant results (according to our little panel), but it turns out that it’s more important to do the rest of the search experience up right. Which begs another bit of insight; it seems that in the phrase, search experience, the word that we would expect to be the most important often isn’t.

So MSN, or Windows Live Search as you are trying to be referred to as, if you want to put a cork in the leaky dam of market share, put more experience into the search experience.

Manoj Jasra Interviews Bill Slawski

Manoj Jasra from Web Analytics World is at it again. This time he's discussing research, social media optimization and social bookmarking with Bill Slawski, the President of SEO by the Sea.

Listen to Manoj's latest foray into podcasting to hear what Bill has to say about:

• SEM in 2006 (specifically Social Media Optimization and Social Bookmarking)
• What we can expect in SEM in 2007
• New patents by Google and what we can expect from Google in the future
• Google's steady Growth and Google's competitors
• The future of Yahoo, MSN and how they can make up ground on Google

And listen for Bill's info on Danny Sullivan's secretive Search Marketing Expo, which I know we're all keen to see the launch of. It's a great listen and well worth your few minutes to start your week off right. Great work Manoj.

Search and the Strength of the Human Spirit

Helen Hill, my sister-in-law, was one of the two people on this earth that I really felt were taking it into their own hands to make a difference in New Orleans, if not the world. If you were to perform a search for her name right now, you would learn, among other things, that there wasn't a picture taken where she wasn't smiling, that her unique talent for DIY animation has earned her recognition the world over, that she kept a pocket full of change so that there was always something to give the growing homeless of New Orleans, that she was an amazing mother, a loving wife, a daughter that made her parents and family proud to know her, and that she was killed on January 4th leaving a huge hole in the hearts of her friends and family worldwide.

I miss her... and so do her friends the world over. If you met her once, you would too. On the day after the incident her friends from LA, where she had attended Cal Arts created a tribute site for Helen, helenhill.org, that people from all over the world have now poured their hearts into with memories, pictures, video and audio of her sweet voice. The site was almost immediately accessible via Google and became a bright spot on the search page littered with stories of her murder and of the baby and husband, a Doctor for the poor of New Orleans, a beautiful, caring man, that she left behind. This man, Paul Gailiunas, who survived the attack, is the other person on this earth that i feel has taken it into his own hands to make a difference, and who's spirit has been buoyed by all the support and love sent his way from all over the world, and by the love of his 2 year old son Francis.

I write this post to commend Google on recognizing this site as quickly as they did, not because it was the right thing to do, or they were affected personally, but because they are so efficient and relevant. And in times like this, when everything else is so calamatous and emotional, it's nice to have something efficient and relevant to rely on.

Matt Cutt's Ties with Google

In a recent post on his blog (see – The Real Lesson from this Week), Matt Cutts discussed the need for Google to not just have one unofficial blogger (himself), but for them to have “lots of unofficial bloggers”. This could simply be an attempt to spread the wealth, opening up the waters for new Google bloggers to swim in. Or it could be that Matt is slowly letting go of the steering wheel, easing back in order for someone else to take control.

And on another post (see – Page View Metrics? Bah Humbug!), Matt came to the defense of Yahoo! because of the flack they’ve been receiving about their market share of pageviews dropping after implementing AJAX into their excellent new mail system.

Could the techie face of Google be ready to try something new, or, as his wife so rightly put it, “when do we move on to our next adventure?” I somehow doubt that any move that Matt makes will be to Yahoo though, as this doesn’t really present itself as a new adventure for the wife and cats.

Is the SES rock star ready to take a final bow from the Google stage? Or should we marketers stop speculating already and leave the guy alone? Though it is interesting to speculate, and as Matt himself said “You know you’re doing something right when you get included as gibberish in spam emails.”

Also written by Andrew Spoeth

SES Chicago - Gord Hotchkiss Discusses the Eye-Tracking Study

Enquiro's CEO and President, Gord Hotchkiss, is interviewed by TopRank Blog at SES Chicago today about the new MSN, Yahoo and Google Eye-Tracking Report. In the interview Gord touches on some of the key points in the study including how the MSN and Yahoo users experience on Google appeared to be considerably more favorable than on their engine of choice. Also discusses the issue of perceived relevancy on the engines. For more information, visit this review of the report.

We're all Verklempt, Discuss Amongst Yourselves, We'll Give you a Topic... Google vs. MSN vs. Yahoo!

If you've read the original Google Eye-Tracking White Paper released by Enquiro, Eyetools and Did-It, you'll know the impact and discussion it has caused in the industry with the unveiling of the Golden Triangle and accompanying insights giving the search marketer an edge with their Google specific strategies. Quotes from this article have been picked up all over the industry, from sources such as Danny Sullivan and Anne Holland, and is used as training collateral for many organizations with an interest in online marketing.

Well, prepare yourselves because the next wave of insight is at the industry's doorstep! A few of us here at Enquiro have been working dilligently on the last few pieces of information for the new Eye-Tracking White Paper with Gord Hotchkiss at the helm, a White Paper that broadens the scope of the original by 2 engines, MSN and Yahoo! This new paper definitely offers insights for the search marketers out there by digging into topics like the the effect of sponsored listings on each engine by area, banner blindness and the growth of navigational search. But this paper also has plenty of new information that those usability and the onsite experience junkies will find very interesting. For instance, have you ever thought about the impact that the MSN or Yahoo! portal page might have on the rest of the search experience? How positive or negative news stories or images might affect the success of the searchers experience? No? How about perceived relevancy on the engines? Which engine is really the most relevant? Is Google always number one? We all have our theories, and this paper will help to quantify some of them, and generate discussion around others..

Do we have your attention? I haven't seen the final version yet, but I'm really curious! Be sure to check it out!

Download a sample of the impending report here.

Google Goes Multivariate

Goole has just released a brand new robust tool for Multivariate Testing, Google Website Optimizer. I don't know if you've seen this yet, but it is really worth looking into if you have been considering performing some landing page testing, as i'm sure all of you have. The tool appears to be very easy to use, requiring some code to be placed on your landing page, much like Google Analytics, and in those coded areas, it allows you to provide alternative blocks of text, images, buttons, headlines or other variables that you want to test.

The reporting offers you real and estimated data based on actual actions taken from your landing page, allowing you to immediately see which combinations of variables are the most successful. For instance, some of the columns include Estimated Conversion Rate Range, which gives a range of conversion success in comparison to the original combination of variables, the Chance to Beat Original or Chance to Beat All, which show the probability of any combination outperforming the original layout or all the other combinations of layouts. And the quantifiable column, Observed Improvement is a measure of improvement over the original layout, although Google does state that a larger amount of data is required before putting too much stock in this one.

Like I said, this is a great tool, and best of all it's free! Well, it's free as long as you have a Google Adwords account, but if you have been waffling about starting a PPC campaign, this would be the time to do it in my opinion, this is a great opportunity to immediately test and refine your landing pages with realtime data. For much more insight into Sponsored Campaigns, visit Rick Tobin's blog sponsoredb2b.blogspot.com.