I Just Can’t Stop Loving You: Michael Jackson is Yahoo!’s Top Query of 2009

Yesterday, we learned Michael Jackson was Bing's most popular search term of 2009. Today, Yahoo! revealed that the deceased pop star topped their list as well.

Unlike Bing's list, which featured several other deceased celebrities, Yahoo! searchers were apparently jonesin' for Vampires, Wrasslers, and tabloid starlets.

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight
3. WWE
4. Megan Fox
5. Britney Spears
6. Naruto
7. American Idol
8. Kim Kardashian
9. NASCAR
10. Runescape

For top searches on mobile devices, a certain Transformers 2 star took the top spot:

1. Megan Fox
2. Mobile Games
3. Michael Jackson
4. Movies
5. Rihanna
6. Mail
7. Lady Gaga
8. NFL
9. Ringtones
10. iPhone

Of Climategate, Googlegate & When Stories Get Too Long

Daily Telegraph writer James Delingpole got worked up yesterday because his colleague Christopher Booker’s story on the “Climategate” scandal mysteriously disappeared from Google. Skullduggery, he pondered? Nothing so dramatic, says Google. The article simply grew too big in length to stay in Google News. Let’s do the breakdown. Booker’s story of November 28 covered the controversy [...]

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SHOP.com Launches Community Hub

SHOP.com has added a bunch of new features to enhance and encourage social sharing on the comparison shopping site.

The biggest announcement is a new social hub. It's called SHOP.com Community and it features their Facebook and Twitter updates.

Shoppers can already share searches with their social networks, but now SHOP.com is making it rewarding to do so with their new SHOPstar networking program. Members of the program get a little kickback when they refer sales.

Let's say you've come across the perfect snuggie for the LSU and you use a unique URL to Tweet it out to all of your friends - you'll get a little commission on the sales that come in.

SHOP.com is also adding a new lists feature. You can create a list of any type and share it with friends and family.

Launched right at the heart of the holiday shopping season, SHOP.com hopes to develop a few new shopping habits at a critical time.

"With SHOP.COM's new community enhancements and the SHOPstar program, we hope to harness the power of social media and help shoppers with their purchasing decisions in a relevant way," said Mondy Beller, senior vice president of marketing for SHOP.COM.

Happy shopping and sharing!

SES, Chicago, a great showcase platform.

I'm back at my desk after an excellent SES conference in Berlin last week. This was the first time in Berlin and the feedback has been tremendous. But now it's time to focus on SES, Chicago December 7 - 11. Fondly known as the freeze-your-ass-off SES, Chicago always attracts a great crowd ready for the final annual gathering of the search community.

The great thing about the show, is that, it's not about reflecting on the past year, it's all about looking forward to the New Year. So it kind of becomes the industry showcase for examining new and emerging trends as well as technologies. And this year is absolutely no different.

We recently started a new channel over at ClickZ called "Conference Call" which is a series of columns written by presenters and moderators giving an overview of their own sessions. This is a great way to get to know more about the sessions and the speakers before you get to the show.

I did a brief overview myself of a few sessions that I really want to be sure to see. And I think it's worth a quick return, because as I think more and more about us beginning to move away from the general purpose search we've become used to and into a new era of what is largely being referred to as "suggested discovery" I think it's worth a closer look.

To be clear, general purpose search has been based around the simple principle of you give us three words and we'll give you a gazillion documents back (but you'll only be interested in the top ten, of course). And so, search engines have been satisfying a short term information need on a repeated basis.

Now, if I was a baseball fan and the Yankees were my team, I'd probably do a lot of searching at search engines about my team. What's the score? Did we buy a new player? When does the new stadium open? You get the idea. And each time my short term information need is satisfied. But here's the thing, if the service delivering these results knows I need this stuff, why do I have to keep asking? Why don't they just give it to me?

So satisfying your long term information need is very high on the search research agenda. And most certainly, one area this can happen already is in social search. In fact, in social search there are many times you'll get the answer to a question before you've even asked it.

One guy who really gets the whole "suggested discovery" idea is Bill Scott. Bill created and led the IBM Digital Media Consulting & Systems Integration practice until he recently left to form his own company, Easel TV. He'll be speaking on two panels at SES, Chicago. The first is Search on the Edge - From Search to discovery. During this session Bill will explain what his company is doing with suggested discovery on the television.

I asked Bill if he could give me broad brushstroke (pun intended) of what he'll be covering.

This is what he told me:

First, I'll be talking about the connected TV in general and how the TV will increasingly get content over broadband as well as over Cable, Satellite, Terrestrial and closed IPTV networks. I'll also talk about why the TV is a very different environment to the PC and why just putting regular websites on the TV won't work. This includes the fact that search on the television is the wrong model and that we need to move towards suggested discovery. No-one is going to type into a Google type search box on their TV when using just a remote control!

Then, I will explain what we're doing with Suggested Discovery and how you can use more and more sophisticated technology to create a more and more simple experience that is appropriate for the television. I'll cover how we aggregate data and results from multi-modal sources to offer consumers a range of appropriate and relevant content that retains the serendipity of television - "Beyond the recommendation engine." And finally I'll talk about how the same concepts can be used to enhance TV programme-making - so that the content itself can be dynamically tuned to the audience based on the audience's response to it.

Yes, when Bill expanded for me on the idea of being able to monitor the audience viewing habits and then begin to create content specifically for that audience segment, you begin to see how beneficial this is to both audience and marketers.

Bill will also be on the " Beyond Googling: 5 Years Later it's a Different Audience" panel. Here he'll give us even more insight to where he sees search going.

In particular he'll be talking about "Relevance" - How will brands deliver a fresh and relevant experience to consumers, in whatever context and on whatever device?

Really, he says, the future of search, discovery or whatever it becomes is all about data, permission & trust and business rules. He also says we need to collect and maintain more data - preferences, behaviour, context, community - from more sources than ever before. This will happen naturally as both devices and the companies that provide services become ever more sophisticated. Of course the generic provider will evolve and become much more intelligent and will aggregate from multiple data sources - not just a crawl - however it is the combination of the two roles (maybe but not necessarily by the same organisation) that will deliver real value to the consumer.

Bill goes on to say that, the consumer is now in control: How do we reach them? How do we raise our proposition above all the others that are fighting to be in the consumers' domain? How do we understand which rules our target market has defined? And how do we conform to those rules in order to reach our target? Can we identify the individuals at the hub of social groupings who have disproportionate influence? Can we offer them something extra in return for endorsement?

A whole bunch of extremely interesting questions to ponder.

I can tell you, after doing some checking around, this Chicago SES is about to be one of the best ever. And there's already a great buzz going on. And BTW, a little birdie (no, not Twitter) told me that there are still some rooms available at the Hilton at this time.

Okay, let me go and cherry pick another session to highlight tomorrow.

Search Month European Edition, November 2009

In Search Month European Edition we bring you a monthly update of European search news, with related links to full coverage. Here’s what happened in November. Germany says Google Analytics is illegal. According to an article in Zeit Online, German federal and state government officials are convinced that Google Analytics is against the law in Germany. [...]

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Win the largest marketing library next week at SES Chicago 2009

At SES Chicago 2009 on Wednesday, December 9, at 12:30 p.m., there will be a drawing to give away the "largest marketing library." Attendees of Search Engine Strategies Chicago can enter their business cards up until just before the drawing.

The drawing will take place in the Exhibition Hall, and the lucky winner must be present to claim the prize. (If you are a twin or triplet, use the canonical tag to show that you are the original winner, not a duplicate.)

Here is a partial list of the titles to be given away:

"World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories" by David Meerman Scott.

"Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time" by Joel Comm, Anthony Robbins and Ken Burge.

"Taming the Search-and-Switch Customer: Earning Customer Loyalty in a Compulsion-to-Compare World" by Jill Griffin.

"33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking" by Juliette Powell.

"Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion" by Gary Vaynerchuck.

"Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers" by Seth Godin.

"Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone" by Mitch Joel.

"Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust" by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith.

"Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversion" by Tim Ash.

"Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online" by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss.

"Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results," "Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing" and "Always be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer" by Bryan Eisenberg.

"eBoot Camp: Proven Internet Marketing Techniques to Grow Your Business" by Corey Perlman.

"Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business" by Erik Qualman.

"What Would Google Do?" by Jeff Jarvis.

"The Truth about Search Engine Optimization" by Rebecca Lieb.

If you read even a couple of these books, then you will be the smarter than a 5th grader. But wait! There's more!

The day before the drawing, there will be Author Luncheon in the Expo Hall (rear right) on Tuesday, December 8, from 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

You can have lunch and network with your favorite author and/or SES speaker. This special event includes:

Andy Beal, CEO, Trackur, author of Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online.

Cindy Krum, Chief Executive Officer, Rank-Mobile, LLC, author (in February 2010) of "Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are."

Dennis R. Mortensen, Director of Data Insights, Yahoo!, author of "Yahoo! Web Analytics: Tracking, Reporting and Analyzing for Data-Driven Insights."

Sally Falkow, President, PRESSfeed.

Andrew Goodman, SES Advisory Board & Principal, Page Zero Media, author of "Winning Results with Google AdWords."

Bill Hunt, President, Back Azimuth Consulting, author of "Search Engine Marketing, Inc: Driving Search Traffic to Your Company's Web Site."

Greg Jarboe, President & Co-Founder, SEO-PR, author of "YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour A Day."

Yes, yes, I should disclose that I'm the author listed above, but at least I'm listed last.

If this list looks long, it is -- but these are only some of the authors who will be speaking at the event. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, there will be more than 22 authors speaking at SES Chicago 2009.

And this was just handed to me: It appears that The BuyerSphere Project is now available online!

What is The BuyerSphere Project? Well, if you didn't attend SES San Jose 2009, then you missed the session about a major B2B research initiative, conducted by Enquiro with input from Google, Business.com, Covario, Marketo and DemandBase, that showed most marketers aren't effectively leveraging online assets to their best potential.

Here's my interview with Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO of Enquiro and author of The BuyerSphere Project.

Gord Hotchkiss, Enquiro at SES San Jose 2009 discussing Buyersphere Project

This is, indeed, a ton of books. Perhaps, this is why Cyber Monday started on Black Friday for Amazon.com, as I reported this morning. Who knows.

‘Black Friday’ Queries Up 20% on Google

Keywords related to "black friday" increased by more than 20% on Google last week. The data was culled over a two-day period - Thanksgiving and Black Friday - and compared to the same two days last year.

Two terms, "black friday sales" and "black friday ads," were up by over 50%.

Searchers narrowed their queries by adding a brand name to the keyword phrase. The fastest rising queries were:

• "Walmart Black Friday"
• "Kohls Black Friday Ad"
• "Sears Black Friday Sales"
• "Target Black Friday Deals Online"

Some terms pointed to the desire for more information on the in-store shopping experience, such as "Walmart Black Friday Store Map."

Search Gives Back: eZanga Gets Jolly and Donates Thousands to Charity

eZanga is spreading holiday cheer in a big way this year. So far they've donated thousands to the following:

• M.O.T. Big Ball
• M.O.T. Senior Center
• Toys for Tots
• Fulfilling wishlists for local kids and seniors

Do you have a "Search Gives Back" story to share? Contact me here and let me know.

Michael Jackson #1 Bing Query of 2009

Bing has released its top queries for 2009. The late King of Pop tops the list, followed by a popular social network and a pandemic disease.

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twitter
3. Swine Flu
4. Stock Market
5. Farrah Fawcett
6. Patrick Swayze
7. Cash for Clunkers
8. Jon and Kate Gosselin
9. Billy Mays
10. Jaycee Dugard

Cyber Monday: Not the Biggest Online Shopping Day of the Year (Yet)

Over at Focus.com, they've graphed out some juicy data collected by the National Retail Federation and comScore showing that Cyber Monday is not the biggest online shopping day of the year. Not yet, at least.

Every year, the biggest online shopping day of the year becomes earlier and earlier. In 2000, it was December 18. Last year, it was December 9, a Tuesday.

Most of the biggest days of the past 9 years have landed on Mondays.

If this trend keeps up, Cyber Monday could become the biggest online shopping day of the year in about 6-8 years. But it could stabilize in the second week of December. Time will tell.

This year, December 7th is projected to be the biggest online shopping day of the year, and yes, it will fall on a Monday.

By the way - Black Friday is not the biggest in-store shopping day of the year either. The Saturday before Christmas is. This year, that's December 19.

via Consumerist