Bing Launches. adCenter Unchanged. Google Carries On.

The big news of the last few days has been the launch of Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. Many people seem to think that Google has built an unstoppable machine via its domination of search, and that Microsoft should just focus on Office and its enterprise software business. I’d suggest that all our experience of the last 15 years tells us that this would be foolish.

Nothing can lose value quite so fast as an Internet brand, and Google are perfectly positioned to make a huge misstep at some point or another. If Microsoft can stay in the game, they should. Who knows what can happen, and in the meantime they still have a billion dollars a year in free cash from Office alone with which to keep pushing at the door. Which brings us back to Bing.

Key questions for affiliates are how advertising on adCenter is going to be affected and whether Bing going to gain market share from Google. The first question is easy, for now: Microsoft’s official position is that there aren’t going to be any immediate changes to adCenter. The algorithm has improved, but ad units, keyword buying and ad placements all stay the same. Volume will probably increase, if only because Microsoft has a record-breaking ad campaign planned around the launch.

So far as market share is concerned, it seems to me that Bing, while it’s not a Google-killer, is sufficiently different and sufficiently good that it will take back some ground from BigG. We have seen a number of comparisons between the two around the Intertubes, and most agree that the results returned are of equal quality to Google’s, but that the difference is in the interface, which is subjectively richer. You can compare for yourself the two side by side with this nifty little Google-Bing comparison page.

My takeaway is that Microsoft may finally have learned a lesson from Apple. Bing’s user experience is fresh, clean and modern. It feels as though it has been put together with design in mind. And Apple have proved that is worth a lot. Google is incredibly good at leveraging its algorithm expertise into new projects, but their design aesthetic is determinedly functional.

If Bing ultimately shows that Microsoft’s search algorithm has caught up with Google’s, and as a result proves that search functionality is on the way to being commoditized, then bringing design into the battle to make the user-experience more rewarding may yet provide Microsoft with a competitive advantage. For a while.

Full disclosure regarding this post: the Bing home page currently features a photograph of a village in the Cinque Terre. Since I went there on my honeymoon, I may be biased. If you haven’t been there, you should.

 – Chris Trayhorn

Epic Advertising

Epic Advertising is a global online marketing company that provides advertisers and agencies with measurable Internet advertising impact. Leveraging proprietary and patent-pending technologies, and over 40,000 publishers, Epic provides its advertising partners with performance and direct response marketing services, search engine marketing, media planning, branded marketing campaigns and targeted, worldwide reach.

buy.at

buy.at is leading the next generation of affiliate marketing, driving significant online sales for 200+ of the largest e-commerce brands. Affiliate marketing is our specialty – we are committed to creating and delivering campaigns that align with our client’s existing marketing strategy and that maximize online results. Our clients benefit from a customized suite of industry-leading commercial and technical innovations, supported by a proactive account management team of marketing and technical experts. Also, our network pioneered the “open-network” model, enabling advertisers and publishers to communicate directly to build trust, improve performance, and build strong relationships.

In 2008, buy.at became part of AOL’s Platform-A organization, and operates as a wholly-owned business unit of Advertising.com. This relationship supports buy.at’s expansion to the United States and worldwide, as well as enhances Platform-A’s performance-based offerings to advertisers and publishers.

Publishers

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To find out more about buy at please email us at businessdevelopment@buy.at

Local Pages

With the complexity and growing number of product service companies and businesses advertising online, it is easy to get lost in all of the clutter. But what if there was a way to stand out from the crowd?

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With more and more consumers turning online to search for local products and services, Local Pages connects companies and businesses with the people who are actively searching the internet for those products and services. Most importantly, Local Pages places the priority towards keyword precision making it easy for a potential customer to find you.

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LinkShare

LinkShare is a leading provider of full-service online marketing solutions specializing in the areas of Search (SEM), Lead Generation and Affiliate Marketing. As the online marketing industry continues to evolve at a fast pace, advertisers and publishers are turning to LinkShare for technology innovation, experience and a passion for driving results.

MarketHealth

Established in 1998 and formerly known as Joebucks.com , Market Health is now the world’s largest integrated online marketing company in the health and beauty industry. The Market Health Affiliate Network allows you to market and promote the world’s leading health and beauty offers on the net.

The Market Health Network is a global leader in the health and beauty industry offering a wide variety of business opportunities for our affiliates and merchants. Our goal is simple…To help merchants and affiliates work together in growing both of their businesses in the health and beauty industry.

We are an energetic and accomplished company focused on creating the highest converting products on the internet today. We believe our affiliates and merchants are the most important asset to our company and support is our number one priority.

Digital River oneNetworkDirect

oneNetworkDirect is part of the Digital River family of companies – a group of e-commerce and e-marketing experts committed to providing companies big and small with everything they need to successfully build, manage and grow profitable online businesses on a worldwide basis. Some of the world’s leading multi-national companies use Digital River’s portfolio of comprehensive e-commerce technology, tools and services to drive online results for the Internet’s biggest brands. Founded in 1994, Digital River (NASDAQ: DRIV) is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with offices located across the United States, Europe and the Asia Pacific. For more information about Digital River and our family of companies, visit www.digitalriver.com.

Hydra

Hydra is the largest and fastest growing CPA advertising network distributing effective results-based campaigns through banners, social media, email and search marketing. Hydra delivers customers for advertisers including well-known household brands, online service providers, and hundreds of consumer product and service companies. Our thousands of publishers range from the largest portals and social network sites to a broad network of highly engaged vertical affiliates.

Tip of the Week

Everyone is looking for ways to monetize Twitter these days. The latest effort is Tweetbucks, a startup designed to allow social media users to make money via affiliate links and CPC. Essentially a Twitter-enabled CPA network, Tweetbucks also has a nifty “custom ad-frame” that you can enable that displays ads at the top of any destination page to which you Tweet the link, paying you on a CPC basis.

Tweetbucks looks like a good way to test the waters in terms of converting followers into buyers, and a great way to reduce your follower list dramatically if you don’t use it with sensitivity and transparency.