Marketing Pilgrim

High off their success in bringing SOPA to its knees, assorted superficial social extremists–ASSEs for short–have decided their next target should be Google. Not because of privacy issues, click fraud, or something that actually matters. No, the focus is on how Google+ is being intricately tied to search results.

Did you know that Google is…gasp…manipulating its search results for its own benefit? No, really. Apparently, Google+ is being forced down our throats and poor, helpless companies such as Facebook and Twitter are worried YOU are not getting the best results. They’re rallying a movement not seen since Google started adding paid ads to its search results!

I’m telling you! Facebook avatars and Twitter profiles are going to be changed over this! This is an outrage, one that even Hitler’s coming out of retirement to comment on (NSFW, btw).

Bing is not the decision engine anymore. In new ads there is a new attempt to position the search engine away from the “Bing and Decide” approach. Now Bing is for Doing. The new ads are more about the emotional, dare we say, social side of the engine. The story of the snowboarder, Kevin Pearce, is a great one and quite inspirational. I am happy to see his recovery.

Will this ad help Bing in its battle against Google? You decide.

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Sometimes I don’t see announcements but instead I am surprised by a change on my Android phone. I noticed that the Google search bar looked different but didn’t go much past that until I read a post at the Google Mobile blog detailing some changes that Google has mad to its search function for those version of Android that are less than Ice Cream Sandwich.

Here’s a quick look at the difference which won’t tell you much other than stark black and white are in at Mountain View.

Here is the company line on the changes

Hot on the heels of Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, we’ve updated Google Search for previous versions of Android: it’s all around faster, to get what you need quickly. In this version, you’ll notice:

Microsoft’s Bing search engine grabbed 15.1% of the total search pie in December, a rise of .01% over November. Nothing to write home about? Actually, it is, because with that .01%, Bing slid past Yahoo to become number two on the charts.

Here are the numbers straight from comScore:

USAToday says the jockeying for position was due to a partnership agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo that gave Microsoft the searches so Yahoo could save money.

I say, it was the Bumble that earned Bing that second place ribbon. From Black Friday on, Bing flooded the TV ad market with commercials based on Rankin-Bass’ classic retelling of Rudolph. The Bumble used Bing to find out how to be scary. Yukon searched for a hot yoga studio, and Mr. and Mrs. Claus went bubble wrap crazy.

I have been watching from the fringes as people squabble over the new offering from Google “Search Plus Your World”. All I can see that has been accomplished is that the Internet industry press is starting to look less like reporters and more like advocates for whatever constituency they are trying to impress. The worst offender is Apple’s mouthpiece, MG Siegler, who is fully convinced that Apple represents heaven and Google represents the powers of hell and he will tell everyone about it over and over and over. Ridiculous but it is how this has played out.

There is a bit of storm raging in the Internet world. It’s one of those where all the experts jockey for position to get their opinions received by those who will ultimately pay them to do things. As a result, much of the analysis and “examination” of the latest search moves by Google is self-serving.

This change is a bit different in that is has caused Twitter to respond to the change as if it has some say in how Google does business. This is one of those times where the commercial Internet collides directly with the ideal of the Internet. Open sharing for all is the ideal while the business side is busy creating the best mousetrap to capture users so they can see ads. Not everyone’s ads, mind you, just their ads. There’s open then there are profits .

If you have been wondering when the latest update to Google’s search offering would be then today is your day. Google’s “Search Plus Your World” (notice the clever use of plus in the title wink, wink, nod, nod) is starting to be rolled out today to English language searchers who are logged into Google.com.

As we like to do here at Marketing Pilgrim, we’ll give you the video intro from Google just to whet your appetite regarding this rather significant addition to the Google search function. It comes from the official Google blog

Here is some more from the Google blog regarding the specific changes. We recommend you read the entire post.