Where Yahoo Might Again Compete In Search: Mobile

Kara Swisher on Friday broke the news that Yahoo was working on two internal (no longer) secret initiatives to get Yahoo back into organic and potentially paid search and thereby separate from Microsoft. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been critical of the Search Alliance with Bing and its impact on her company.

The Search Alliance deal, negotiated by Mayer’s predecessor Carol Bartz — Scott Thompson is like theWilliam Henry Harrison of Yahoo — is pretty much a failure for Yahoo. It has benefited Microsoft and helped Bing to grow share, but mostly at Yahoo’s expense. Google has essentially been untouched by the Alliance.

Putting aside any legal or contractual obstacles, Danny Sullivan expressed skepticism that Yahoo could be competitive in search again. I think that’s true on the PC. But there might be another arena where Yahoo could succeed — in mobile.

While Yahoo probably couldn’t beat Google in straight up mobile search the company could build out additional verticals with a search component. Local comes to mind in particular but this would potentially apply to any of the verticals featured on the Yahoo homepage:

With the right content and user experience, Yahoo could generate new “search” usage and ad revenue from mobile. Though Google is widely used in mobile, basic “search” is generally not the preferred way to find things. Take for example the following data from Placed and Cars.com about how smartphone users look for price and product information while on auto-dealer lots.

Search is there but it’s a fourth choice. Accordingly search is far less formidable on smartphones than it is on PCs. If Yahoo were to go “all in” on mobile and develop a range of compelling experiences and apps it could generate additional search traffic and targeted ad inventory in a vertical or specialized context.

I’m not saying any of this would be easy. (I don’t know what the Yahoo-Microsoft Search Alliance contract says about mobile.) Quite the contrary, it would be enormously challenging to do it all well. But there is an opening here for Mayer and company.

Postscript: I neglected to discuss above how Aviate, the intelligent homescreen Yahoo acquired, might also further this mobile search objective. In my original post on the acquisition this is what I said:

In April last year, I suggested that Yahoo pursue a similar “home” strategy on Android. The Aviate acquisition now gives the company that opportunity. Why not maintain Aviaite but with Yahoo branding (e.g., “Yahoo Home/screen”)? The company could also integrate a Yahoo search box into Aviate, effectively “colonizing” Android for Yahoo search.

Aviate or “Yahoo Home” would potentially turn Android (Google) devices into Yahoo devices. And it would probably be more widely adopted than Facebook Home because it surfaces rather than buries or hides apps as Facebook Home did. Overall, Aviate is much more useful than Facebook Home.

Google Brings Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool To AdWords

Google announced it is adding a Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool to AdWords to help marketers better understand how AdWords campaigns are part of the sales funnel.

Advertisers can look at five different attribution models in AdWords and compare up to three attribution models simultaneously to analyze keywords, ad groups and campaigns that are contributing to the funnel, but aren’t represented in last click conversions.

The five attribution models in the new tool are:

 Last click: Gives all credit for the conversion to the last-clicked keyword

 First click: Gives all credit for the conversion to the first-clicked keyword

 Linear: Distributes the credit for the conversion equally across all clicks on the path

 Time decay: Gives more credit to clicks that happened closer in time to the conversion

 Position-based: Gives 40% of credit to both the first- and last-clicked keyword, with the remaining 20% spread out across the other clicks on the path

According to the post, AdWords advertisers should “Stay tuned” for more attribution-related features. The new tool is rolled out globally.

With Nadella’s Appointment, The “Search CEOs” Now Run Google, Yahoo & Microsoft

Satya Nadella being named CEO of Microsoft isn’t just big news for Microsoft. It’s big news for search. For the first time in ages, the three major search companies in the US are all run by CEOs who either came out of a search-background or have a solid understanding of it.

Despite the attention search has gained over the years, I feel like it still gets overlooked as the powerhouse it is. It’s responsible for about half of online ad spending in the US. It’s where the majority of Google’s money comes from. As I joke, Google Glass and those self-driving cars are being funded by ads about mesothelioma and payday loans.

Search is a money-maker. It’s not as cool as social, where so much of the attention is these days, but it’s the dependable product that, done right, can lead to huge profits. Just ask Google. Having a “search CEO” who understands the importance of the product can potentially be a big win. Or, at least, perhaps part of a win. That’s because winning against Google is still so very tough.

Google’s Search CEO: Larry Page

You can’t get anyone with more “search CEO” cred that Google’s CEO Larry Page. He’s a CEO who literally built Google’s first search engine, along with cofounder Sergey Brin. And long before Google got into seemingly every other product under the sun (smoke detectors, anyone), Page was CEO and still closely tied to the search product. He gets search.

Of course, Page handed over the CEO reins to Eric Schmidt, then took them back again. Did it make a difference to Google’s conquest of search? Hard to say. Google pretty much had won, at that point. Its share of the search market in the US has stayed pretty solid after the change.

Google’s continued to churn out impressive search products, like conversational searchand Google Now. But the degree that Page is deeply involved with any of this, or responsible for it, is unclear to me. Personally, I’ve been under the impression search really isn’t that important to him, as attention is focused in other places.

By important, that is, something where he either shows a personal interest or gets personally involved. I could be wrong about all this, but it’s rare that I hear him talk about search much or see him at any of Google’s search-related events. He has a luxury here, in that Google has plenty of long-term, experienced execs who know search well. They’re “search natives,” so to speak, so maybe Page figures search is the safe area he doesn’t need to mess with.

Yahoo’s Search CEO: Marissa Mayer

Marissa Mayer oversaw Google search (the consumer-facing part of it, rather than the under-the-hood part) for about a decade, giving her plenty of search cred as the CEO of Yahoo. She knows search.

Unfortunately, Mayer inherited a company that largely gave up all of its search technology to Microsoft. And for all her knowledge of search, there’s no coming back from that.

Sure, Yahoo can try with the new search initiative that Recode wrote about last Friday. Sure, maybe there is an opportunity in mobile. But as I wrote in 2009, Yahoo was over when it cut that search deal with Microsoft:

And then there were two. Make no mistake, Yahoo’s out of the search game. I know the spin. Better user interface, new ways to innovate, a winning play. Let’s not kid ourselves. They’re done. Not today, not necessarily in a year, but down the line at some point. Done.

I’m coming up on having covered search for 18 years. In all that time, I have never seen a search engine recover from a sustained decline. I expect Mayer has no magic solution that will change that, despite all her search knowledge..

Rather, I expect she’ll do what I predicted when Mayer took over as Yahoo CEO. Try for a better deal with Microsoft or seek a new one with Google. Continue to talk search as being strong so as not to freak out investors even though ultimately, she’s “sunsetting” that product in hopes that other products will do better.

Microsoft’s Search CEO: Satya Nadella

Anyone who’s a veteran of the search space already knows Satya Nadella’s name well. He’s the person who in 2007 inherited the mess that was Microsoft Windows Live MSN Search, the search engine with almost as many names as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Orange County Southern California.

When Nadella took over, Microsoft had started down the path of building its own search technology but still hadn’t gotten anywhere.

By the time Nadella moved on elsewhere at Microsoft in 2011, Bing was moving up, both in share and respectability as a solid alternative to Google. It has continued that rise. Some knock it as being the number two to Google. I think having the number two search engine in the United States is an incredible achievement and one that ultimately may lead to profits.

Figuring whether Bing is profitable is tough because Microsoft doesn’t break it out as an independent operation. It’s also tough when Bing is being woven within all types of Microsoft products. But Nadella is someone who knows the power of search, and I’d expect that’s going to see Microsoft playing the long-game there, rather than dumping search as some thought potential CEO candidate Stephen Elop might do.

What Search CEOs Bring Beyond Search

So there you have it. Three companies all run by people who understand the power of search, the direct connection it makes with consumers, their demands and needs and how minutely that can be tracked (four if you want add in CBS Interactive chief Jim Lanzone).

Years ago, I spoke about how search marketers were unique not because of search because they were also “metrics marketers,” that they understood that marketing could be tracked, should be tracked and be proven to pay off.

I still believe this, that search marketing especially has given us a generation of marketers that’s rising up where it’s about CTR and ROI and things that can be proven rather than CPM and “lift” and potential audience.

Those metrics marketers are going to continue to look for places that allow them to get measurable results. And so, I feel that the “search CEO” may also be the “measurement CEO” who understands that need and ensures that they are delivering products for that rising generation of metrics marketers.

Postscript: As Google’s web spam chief Matt Cutts noted on Twitter, if you want to go beyond companies with popular search engines but which are lead by those with search experience, Tim Armstrong, the CEO of AOL, definitely belongs on that list. And while Sheryl Sandberg isn’t CEO of Facebook, as Facebook’s COO, she still has a deep knowledge of search from her days at Google.

Google Brings Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool To AdWords

Google announced it is adding a Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool to AdWords to help marketers better understand how AdWords campaigns are part of the sales funnel.

Advertisers can look at five different attribution models in AdWords and compare up to three attribution models simultaneously to analyze keywords, ad groups and campaigns that are contributing to the funnel, but aren’t represented in last click conversions.

The five attribution models in the new tool are:

 Last click: Gives all credit for the conversion to the last-clicked keyword

 First click: Gives all credit for the conversion to the first-clicked keyword

 Linear: Distributes the credit for the conversion equally across all clicks on the path

 Time decay: Gives more credit to clicks that happened closer in time to the conversion

 Position-based: Gives 40% of credit to both the first- and last-clicked keyword, with the remaining 20% spread out across the other clicks on the path

According to the post, AdWords advertisers should “Stay tuned” for more attribution-related features. The new tool is rolled out globally.

Doodle 4 Google Contest Asks, “What Would You Invent To Make The World A Better Place?”

Google announced its newest “Doodle 4 Google” contest today, asking young artists to create a doodle around the theme, “If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place…”

According to the announcement, parents, teachers and after school programs may submit applications on behalf of students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Submissions must be received by March 20, with 50 state winners announced and opened to public voting on April 29.

To determine state winners, Google says it has invited a panel of guest judges, including authors Lemony Snicket, Mary Pope Osborne and creator of the Percy Jackson series Rick Riordan. Also astronaut Ron Garan and directors of the LEGO Movie Chris Miller and Phil Lord will serve as this year’s Google 4 Doodle judges.

The final winner will be announced in June. Award prizes include a $30,000 college scholarship and a $50,000 Google for Education technology grant for the winner’s school. Also, the winning Doodle will serve as the Google logo for a day.

Google has partnered with Discovery Education to provide activities and videos for teachers and parents, and is offering virtual field trips of its headquarters. Students also will have an opportunity to meet and talk online with the Google Doodle team via Google’s Connected Classrooms.

Contest rules and applications can be found on the Google 4 Doodle website.

Google Search Redesigns Stock Quotes “Card,” Drops Competitor Links, Then Brings Them Back

Yesterday, Google launched a new design of the stock quotes “card” at the top of its search results. The new card dropped links to competing financial websites, something Google previously had in place since 2000. But after attention was drawn to the fact, Google quietly restored the links.

Google Operating System noted the change and the drop of competitor links yesterday,as did TechCrunch. And that’s what we saw when we first posted this story at 9:22am ET today:

Compare the new card above to the old one below, and you can see how the links to competitors were removed:

Google has provided stock quotes at the top of its results for searches on stock symbols since 2000, and those quotes have included links to competitors since that time.

A few hours after our story on this originally went up, however, Google updated the new look to restore competitor links. Actually, what seems to have happened is that it went back to the old design as shown at the top of this article.

Was the new design a brief test? A reconsideration after attention was drawn to removal of competitor links? We don’t know, but we’ve asked Google for more.

Postscript: A Google spokesperson sent us a statement, “We’re always experimenting with new formats and features for answers in Search, but we don’t have anything specific to announce here.”

Facebook Will Launch Graph Search For Mobile “Pretty Soon”

According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg during Facebook’s recent earnings call, Facebook’s Graph Search will hit mobile devices ‘pretty soon.’ It’s now been a full year since Graph Search was launched and mobile integration only makes sense.

According to cnet, Zuckerberg stated the following quote in regards to Graph Search on the call:

“Pretty soon, I think, you should expect us to roll out the mobile version of this. I think that that’s going to be an important step, because most of the usage of Facebook overall is on mobile, so we expect that that’s where engagement will really start to come from on Graph Search over time.”

This will be a welcomed feature for mobile as Graph Search seems like a product that was really made for mobile. Using quick search queries to see where friends are, and what destinations are nearby.

So what’s the reason that the rollout has been so slow? According to Zuckerberg there is great complexity in indexing more than 1 trillion connections and status updates. He further noted:

“As a number of people on the team…have told me, a trillion pieces of content is more than indexed in any Web search engine.”