Bing bong: new search engine comes a-knocking

June 6, 2009 · Posted in search engine optimisation · 3 Comments 

No doubt many of you heard on Morning Ireland that Microsoft have a launched a new search engine called Bing. You may even have seen the chair of our Online Marketing Working Group talking about it on the RTÉ News. While Microsoft are touting it as a “decision engine” (as in “It’s time to Bing & Decide”) which will give you the right answer and not more confusion, others are wondering whether it will be a Google-killer.Whatever else their big bucks marketing and PR campaign which rarely goes unmentioned in posts and online articles seems to be working: if you’re on Morning Ireland, you’re mainstream! :)

Now while I’ve been fluting around with it and the other new kid on the block, Wolfram Alpha, only a tiny little bit I wonder how they will manage to break the ubiquity of the Big G. We’ve been busy here in the IIA over the last month with Congress and the Net Visionary Awards and when I did have the urge/ time/ need to search, trying out the search in a new engine was not top of my priorities. Add to this that Google is in my face every time I get a Google alert, check my mail or my feeds etc. etc. And I’ve got the Firefox toolbar and it’s my default search engine in my browser. It’s amazing I even heard about any new search engine!

In the article linked above about whether or not Bing will be a Google-killer, the author, Jordan Golson, makes the very valid point that it’s not neccessarily that there is anything wrong with any given search engine but that searchers do not know how to search to get the results they want or the right results. I can avow to this when I think of the numerous phone calls I receive in relation to certain member companies. I inwardly grimace when I hear some member companies running an ad campaign on the radio knowing that I will be fielding calls from their potential customers. Obviously the IIA does not want to be getting your calls; we do not want to be appearing in search results for our members’ products or services. So if on the one hand the searcher knew a little bit more about how to get the results they want and what to do with the results when they get them that would improve search on any engine. However I do think that Bing’s preview will hopefully steer people in the right direction and away from our phone!

These developments in search highlight the fact that now that consumers have a new improved way to reach your site it becomes ever more important to develop your site as a searchable site. Search algorithms are constantly developed to make them more and more “human like” so that the most popular content among real humans (you and me, like) is served first for certain keywords. That’s not necessarily the most often changed content: the algorithms have become far smarter than that.  How often do you change a blog post? An example? Do a search on Google for “dreech” Or ahem indeed bing it! I have never changed this content (I know what you’re thinking – maybe you should change it drastically and delete it!) but the IIA blog is still considered the most useful site for that keyword. This may be because anyone else writing about the word dreech doesn’t update their site all that regularly. But I’m no SEO expert so I would welcome any comments on the topic. I’m sure the boss will be delighted that we are coming up no. 1 for the word dreech…. :)

You might like to check out some of these other articles about Bing too:

Silicon Republic

TechCrunch: Bing Versus Wolfram Alpha: A Tale Of Two Search Engine Launches

ReadWriteWeb: Microsoft’s Bing is Now Mobile, Too

Mashable: Bing: Microsoft Launching New Rival to Google? (Look at the retweets on that item!)

Tags: , , , ,

Winning blog post(s)

May 15, 2009 · Posted in Congress 2009 · 5 Comments 

IIA Congress 09Big thanks to Ann, Dorothy and Ivan who all entered our recent blogging competition. I thought their entries were all great: Ann’s had a lovely personal touch, Dorothy’s was creative and fun and Ivan’s was totally on message for his blog as well as sharing some great reasons with his readers about why they should come along to Congress.

In light of this and the fact there was only three entries AND because it’s Friday and I am feeling magnanimous I would like to give each of the entrants one ticket rather than award a pair to any one winner. It’s my compo and I’ll make up the rules as I go if I want to :)

Congratulations and see the three of you next Thursday!

Tags: , ,

Wait til I tell you: win a pair of tickets to Congress 09

May 6, 2009 · Posted in Congress 2009 · 13 Comments 

I know many of you have attended far more IIA Congresses than I have. In fact you could probably describe it better than I ever could.

So I thought, “Hey why not share those descriptions with a wider audience?” Tell us in a blog post about your experiences at a previous Congress and link back to this post (so I know about your post and can read it!) We will award a pair of tickets for the two day event to the best blog post on this topic.

Your post can be about benefits you or your company got from attending a previous Congress, interesting/ inspiring people you met at Congress, something funny that happened on the way to, from or at Congress, photographs (with HIlar-i-ous captions of course :) ), video, audio, or video mash-up indeed. Whatever you fancy!

The competition is open until May 13th and the winner will be announced on May 15th.

I also have another competition coming up tomorrow that might be more to your taste so please stay tuned (or better still subscribe to the blog feed.)

Tags: , , ,

Mo gheansaí, do gheansaí, a gheansaí

November 17, 2008 · Posted in search engine optimisation · 15 Comments 

Damien Mulley is running another innovative competition to find the best Search Engine Optimiser in Ireland. The competition has become known as the Geansaí Gorm Competition. (although I think it is being spelt “geansai gorm” without the accent. I’m sayin nuttin! :) ) This phrase was chosen so as not to pollute the rankings of actual businesses because it was unlikely that there are many trying to sell geansaithe goirme online (bang goes the Spailpín Fánach’s line in blue jumpers…)

The competition runs until 3pm on December 1 2008 so if you are really good there is still time to get ranked in Google for geansai gorm. I’m really looking forward to seeing the resuls. I’ll be keen to see how much social media helps the winner or whether the purchasing of AdWords helped. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

Now I’m off to sell all the mentions above of geansai gorm to the contenders… ;)

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Competition time with the IIA

May 12, 2008 · Posted in Congress 2008, Membership · Comment 

Firstly I would like to welcome to our newest member Zircol.com. Zircol is a global, free to join online business network focused on helping Irish companies to grow and on helping Irish entrepreneurs and investors from the Irish community and diaspora worldwide to connect online in the time it takes to setup an account. They already have 6 networks set up including Zircol itself. These networks include a creation and innovation network, an entrpeuners’ network, a healthcare network, and the Wireless Ireland Network.

If you are interested in these networks and the potential they could represent for your business you might also be interested in our Congress which takes place on Thursday (so expect a sharp downturn in posts after today). I have one pair of tickets for Congress for whoever can tell me:

Q. Who is sponsoring our “Build a Great Website” breakout session?

Answers in an email to roseanne@iia.ie before 5pm Tuesday.

We have also notified the winner of last week’s IPod . So if you haven’t heard from us, better luck next time!

Tags: , , ,