Is Google now rotating SERPs positions

Within the specialist press there have been quite a few murmurs about Google starting to rotate positions within the results pages, we've noticed it here but don't see it as a massive problem. Has anyone else noticed it with their results?

Search Engine v Social Networking Part 2

In a previous blog http://www.clickinsight.co.uk/2009/10/search-engines-are-still-important.html I mentioned how although Social Media traffic was rising, so Search Engines were still important.

Following on from that theme there are some really interesting graphs to take a quick look at here - http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/loosing-to-the-social-web-visualized/

They illustrate how virtually all major online brands have lost traffic to their sites over the past two years. The correlation between that and the growth of Social Media traffic is truly staggering.

Search Engines ARE still important!

With all the hype surrounding social networking, don't forget Search. Social Networking figures are certainly on the increase and in this interesting piece by Chris Crum he illustrates how almost 18% of the online population now use Social Media as a means of finding information. BTW, if you're reading this then you're part of that 18%. So Social Networking should be part of your online strategy.

But, Search is still the large the dominant figure, 37% of respondents quoted Search Engines as the place they started looking for info and an additional 34% said Online portals (which are powered by search engines).

Here's an extract from the article, the full piece can be viewed on the link.


"In a nutshell, there is a segment of the online population that uses social media as a core navigation and information discovery tool — roughly 18 percent of users see it as core to finding new information. While still a smaller percentage than those who use search engines or portals like Yahoo! or MSN, it is a significant figure," says Nielsen. "And as social media usage continues to increase (unique visitors to Twitter.com increased 959% YOY in August) I can only expect this figure to grow."If you were still questioning the possibilities of getting traffic from social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., perhaps this information will help ease your doubts. While the traffic may not always be as significant as what comes from search, additional traffic is additional traffic, and the viral potential offered by social networks shouldn't be ignored.

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2009/10/06/social-media-will-not-replace-search

Searching for a Search Engine

It's Friday and it's getting late, so this one is a little more light-hearted. What do you get if you put the term "search engine" into Google? Well number one is Google of course!

But after that is where it gets interesting...

Number 2 is Dogpile, a favourite of techies but probably unheard of by Joe Public.

Number 3 is AltaVista, YES they are still going!

Then we get Ask Jeeves.

Next up is Yahoo, a biggie, followed by Wikepdia surprise surprise.

Finally at Number 7 comes Bing, Google's biggest competitor. So how has it ranked only at 7 when in market share terms it's number two? Something underhand possibly...

To show it's not all one way though a search on Bing for Search Engine doesn't return Google on the front page!