BING, Bing, bing, BOOOM

Welcome back, Mr. Microsoft!!! It was long since we had some "little disagreements" regarding the magnificent, fast and optimized Vista, but I promise I will be again neutral when analyzing bing concept and results.

First of all, the "beta" concept has been copied from Google. Maybe it is only stating what sometimes is unavoidable: launching a product that is still in development phase. I would say that finally they recognized the risks (selling Vista beta 2 would have been an interesting concept), but there is a strong need to gain some momentum in order not to lose one of the last trains of Internet for Microsoft.

Analyzing precedents, Windows Live Search was... sorry, I cannot continue. Creepy, annoying (more than one left IExplorer because of it), slow, unreliable, commercial, not relevant... everything you don't want in a search engine, there it was.

Now bing tries to put some pressure on Google, hoping to gain market share and benefit from the huge (and growing) advertising pie of Internet.

IDC, in one of its studies, states that the worldwide Internet advertising spening was of $65.2 billion in 2008 and a predicted one of $106 billion in 2011. Not only that, but it is also more resilient to financial crisis, being more targeted and paid by CPC (Cost per Click - meaning not only attention, but customer attention and intention). For a more detailed study, the report from IAB & PwC

A perfect example could be the results of Q1 in US showed by PwC and the IAB, where decline in ad sales are compared between different media. While online revenues decreased just a 5%, real-life newspaper ads had a 29.7% decline.

Therefore, we are talking about a resilient, consistent $65.2 billion market with enormous growth possibilities. Talking about search share of that market, it would be a 45% in the US. Something around $30 billion worldwide!!!!

Well, now we know why Microsoft wants a powerful share engine. There is a strong business case behind it, let's see how they worked it out.
Graphically appealling, they Google layout has been copied - links at the top and the bottom, nothing else to give sense of simplicity, even the round letters of the name bing. Something nice is the changing and relaxing background photos, good for Microsoft!!!

What about search? Is it fast? I'm going to search FAST to evaluate both the quality and the speed of a bing search. And the results are.... WOW.

WOW. It's fast, no doubt. But... what about relevance? Developer web page, email of a Spanish telecom, an audio converter and a ferry are among the 6 most relevant results for Bing... WOW.

The image search, however, has some really nice features, being able not only to choose among size, but also layout, color, style and if people are present. Good system of thumbnails, by the way.

Disastrous News search and shopping is done through CIAO. Good initiative from Microsoft, trying to benefit from Ciao's experience and platform rather than building something that does not work - as happened with the rest of features, sorry to say that.

Why??? There is real need of replicating what Google does really well? Microsoft, stop wasting precious time and money and try to reinvent Internet search. The amount of information is reaching points where search is no longer enough, when recommendations and personalization will rule over the rest of searches. Amazon has significant advantage, but there are some start-ups as Strands that would help to shorten that gap with their recommendation engine. It is, in fact, interesting not only for Microsoft, but for many big players.

Future? Not much for Bing, that will BOOM soon...

Book Marketing!

Book promotions is something that is not very common. It is something reduced to some authors as Tom Clancy, Patricia Cornwell or Stephen King, really well-known best-sellers that assure big success with their new books. But with innovative and marketing-oriented writers as James Patterson, new ways of promoting a book have been searched. Some are really new and fascinating, as book trailers.

We talked about book trailers in the Business Models Analysis classes as a new way to develop book consumption. But some concerns were also spotted:

• Wouldn't it spoil actual customers?
• Wouldn't it change the preferences of possible book buyers? Attracting customers by making them actually SEE something that takes place in the book... maybe is counter-productive, making them go to the cinema to see a film, to have a visual experience. Or not?
  

Well, in my opinion, the answer is clear: NO. It is not only something that the industry is doing in order to lose money. It is becoming more and more popular (as we can see in TrailerSpy or in BookScreening) because, in some cases, it really works!!

I would like to attract your attention at Sherrilyn Kenyon and her Dark Hunter series. It takes the concept to the limit:



What can it bring in terms of sales increases? Let me show you some of the comments:

I pictured Ash differently but he's still hot. No wonder Artemis is crazy about him. Hate her...

omg the book made me cry

dear god, this book was amazing! the first part was awesommmmmee! the 2nd, woow!

It is more than a preview, more than a promotion. It is a new way of discovering the book for new readers AND a meeting point for the traditional readers where they can exchange opinions and act (maybe without knowing it) as evangelizers. Moreover, it sparks fan's creativity, making them come up with new videos (and viral customer-driven marketing) of their beloved saga:



New ways of using new channels... I think it is really innovative and useful. Will it be the future, or just another distraction? Place your bets!!!