CNET Japan Search Engine Conference and Microsoft’s Marketing Vision
Ryuichi Ishida, Editor in Chief of CNET Japan, kicked off today’s conference with a review of the Innovation Conference and this fall’s theme of search technology. Search Engines presenting at the conference include Yahoo Japan & Overture, Google Japan, Ask Japan, Goo, Big Globe, MSN and LiveDoor. Ishida says that the challenge of looking for information is ongoing and search services are constantly changing to address this challenge. With the growth of the Internet among households, mobile, business and other media; using search is becoming the norm for the general public these days.
Ishida sites a recent survey “When it comes to purchasing a product, 50% of these people utilize search services. Looking at home appliances, 70% of those surveyed used search services. Search has become a daily process in our normal lives.”
Does the search system have value? This is something that we have to constantly monitor. How valuable are the results? This is the mission of the search companies which all have their own definition of such value.
The underlying theme of the conference is blogs, Web 2.0, and the user controlled Internet experience. Microsoft Corp’s Derrick Connell followed CNET’s Ishida with his presentaton: Beginning of the Beginning for Search and Digital Marketing. Connell focused on emerging trends in the search industry, where it is going, and how we can work together to improve the search industry over time.
Has search innovation reached its peak? No, we’re at the beginning and Derrick feels energized by the future of search. Users are becoming less and less satisfied with complex queries and time taken to find relevant answer in search.
Connell constantly referred to the User in Control, which is the end user choosing which information he/she is served and via which channel. Examples of this include : Search is an illustration of how users are controlling the information they are looking for, Users controlling default Homepage Settings, users controlling ads shown to them by using anti-pop tools, and RSS.
* RSS : 10% using RSS knowingly, users controlling information sent to them.
* Podcasting : Consumers broadcasting their own video and shows. 80 – 90 million searches for podcast related terms per month on MSN.
* 50% growth in DVR, Choosing when to watch when you want to.
How do we build technology which enables users to better control.
Communications to the Web:
Communications permission based, no longer giving out email addresses, spam, privacy security. IM is the new email. Video, voice makes communications richer. Video sessions growing on MSN Messenger Video, longer time, more engaged. Normal people and younger kids adopting as main communication tool. Needs to be taken into account for search.
Growth of self expression: Internet to date has been very read only. Consumer as publisher trend is growing; blogs, vlogs, . Why? Tools are simpler. Anyone can blog now. Business model of self expression : contextual advertising fueling the growth of blogs and self expression.
People always online : Cell phone, shopping from work, text messaging, MSN Messenger gets 10 billion minutes per month by users. People are always on.
Connell, being a marketing guy, also reviewed advertising trends and Microsoft’s direction in intimate, user profiled and tightly targeted advertising by reviewing Frequency of Two Way Communication, Brand Association, and ROI metrics.
Tailor the message to each individual user. Marketing to the user in a way that they have chosen to receive the message. Ongoing dialog with users via blogs & RSS : something MSN is working with on both Windows Live and MSN Spaces.
* Brand Association : Sprite IM Game example : Average time spent with advertisement, 1:43 with Sprite game. 75% uplift of click thru effectiveness.
* Profit per Marketing Campaign: Better audience intelligence, better reporting and ROI.
* Microsoft’s mission : Responsibility to continue work on platform and extend cross devices and third party developers. Live.com and advertising platforms. Microsoft Ecosystem?
* Microsoft’s Role in Moving Forward – adCenter: Great software for advertisers. 400 million MSN users per month
