The Pre-Commerce Blog

More Reason To Rank Highly In Google

A new feature of Google, when used in FireFox, gives an even bigger advantage (and extracts a bit of a toll) from top ranking pages.

Google now pre-fetches 'top results' (they don't say how many) so that these pages load faster when users click them. This means users are going to have another incentive to click top results instead of venturing further down the list. It also means a lot of bandwidth is going to be sucked up (and paid for) because of Google caching.

I wonder how analytics programs reflect these cache hits? Will we think we got visitors, or a bot visit, or what? Anybody know?

Search Engine Usage Stats - January 2005

Via Internet Retailer

The majority of Internet searchers use multiple search engines, according to a study by Nielsen//NetRatings. The finding shows the volatility of the search market as the major players intensify their competition for user loyalty. The study found that 58 percent of Google searchers also visited at least one of the other top two search engines, Yahoo! and MSN Search. The use of multiple search engines also applies to Yahoo! and MSN searchers. Approximately 71 percent of Yahoo! searchers also visited one of the other top two engines, and 70 percent of MSN searchers also used one or both of the other two. Top Search Engines by Search Share, January 2005, U.S., Home & Work * Google Search - 1,923,153 searches = 47% * Yahoo! Search - 868,174 searches = 21% * MSN Search - 523,188 searches = 13% * Total - 4,085,880 = 81% NetRatings also released the latest rankings of the leading search engines, measured in terms of search query volume for February 2005. * Google took first place with a 47 percent of total searches, with 1.92 billion queries. * Yahoo! came in second with 21 percent market share, based on roughly 870 million queries. * MSN, meanwhile, came in third place with 13 percent market share, based on approximately 520 million search queries.

Posted by Craig Danuloff at 2:17 PM

Recommended Links

* Quote-Filled Article on ClickFraud from ClickZ "About 15 to 20 percent of all click activity is erroneous. Seventy percent of that is not by real people," Boyenger said, referring to bots designed by fraudsters to click on PPC ads. "The advertiser is the loser and the companies offering PPC are winning, and so are the affiliates."

* The Future of PPC prices by Kevin Lee of Did-It The consensus is prices are high -- and will probably go higher. There's clearly a lot of anxiety about current prices; many marketers are already at their maximum level of discomfort, given the return on investment (ROI) or conversion metrics they'd like to hit for campaigns.

* Eye Tracking Study Shows 'Golden Triangle' for Search Results The key location on Google for visibility as determined by the eye activity in the study is a triangle that extends from the top of the results over to the top of the first result, then down to a point on the left side at the bottom of the “above the fold” visible results. This key area was looked at by 100 percent of the participants. In the study, this was referred to as the “Golden Triangle”. Generally, this area includes top sponsored, top organic results and Google’s alternative results, including shopping, news or local suggestions.

Business Blog Launch: The Green View

We're pleased to announce a new lawn care weblog that we've created for the GreenView fertilizer division of Lebanon Seaboard.

The new blog is part of an expanded online presence and ecommerce launch for GreenView, who aims it to inform and communicate with people interested in their products and areas of expertise - fertilizer and lawn care. The blog covers the full range of lawn care issues from equipment to techniques, from grass seed to weeds, and provides a very steady stream of tips and Q&A. We're even hoping to have a number of different home owners provide 'diaries' of their own experiences working to have the kind of lush green lawn that the neighbors can't help but envy.

A blog is a great way for any company to humanize itself and its products, and share the wealth of subject matter expertise that usually stays stuck inside the business and hidden away behind formal marketing communications. The good folks at GreenView are providing another great example of this every day. It's going to be fun and interesting to watch throughout this spring and summer lawn care season - and beyond.