Author Archives: ghotchkiss

European Vacation – August 5th

This was a very cool day. We were invited into a small village called Montvernier in the French Alps where (follow this now) my wife’s cousin’s son’s girlfriend’s parents had a chalet. I realize the connection was a little strained here, but what the hell, it was an invitation to a chalet in French Alps. Would you say no?

The father was the chief of the local branch of the Gendarmerie, the French national police. The chalet was beautiful, the view was incredible.

This was our first real example of the intricate and involved ritual the French call eating. This is much more than mere sustenance, this is the apex of a cultural evolution hundreds of years in the making. Course by course, we worked our way through the culinary dance, guided by our gracious hosts. Food and wine paired with care, starting with white wine and a fruit liqueur, creating “kir”, with patés and other appetizers. Then on to vegetables and hard boiled eggs, paired with a lighter red wine, then the meat and potatoes, served with robust Merlots and Cabernets, then the most incredible cheeses I’ve ever eaten. We’re familiar with appellation wines in North America, with strict controls on the source of the contributing grapes. In France, cheese is treated with no less respect, and one particularly delicious cheese was made only in the tiny village we were visiting. The hosts brought out a 2 kilo block, which was an incredibly generous gesture. It would be like breaking out the 40 year old single malt scotch for people you barely know. Luckily, I think we sensed the importance of the gesture and showed proper appreciation.

After we wrapped up the cheese and wine, we finished with café and blueberry tarts that somehow captured all the flavor of a fresh picked berry. If I seem obsessed with the food, it’s because the entire country shares my obsession. I wrote a column recently with some thoughts of how in North America we’re obsessed with time, while in France and other European countries, life is more centered on eating and social interactions.

We wrapped up with a stroll up the mountain to the village of Montvernier. This was picture book scenic, and they happened to be having a “Fete du Pain”, or Festival of Bread. The celebration seemed to be centered around the baking of 2 kilo loaves in a communal wood fired oven that was well over 150 years old. The baking and selling of the loaves (we bought two) was accompanied by games and impromptu entertainment.

Sadly, it was now time to head back to Chambéry. We bid adieu to Didier and Nadine, our hosts, and chose to avoid the highway back in favor of a more leisurely drive through the vineyards and small villages. The Savoie region is rich in history, for many years serving as a region that passed back and forth from French to Italian hands. It straddles the main valley and pass connecting the two countries, so was of great military importance. Once can see the string of castles and fortifications that oversaw the passage way. One was pointed out to us that apparently served as a prison for the Marquis de Sade. Although not as famous as its neighbors as a wine producing region, there is also a vigorous industry that turns out some world class wines. On the drive back, we drove through one breathtakingly scenic and ancient village after another, with wineries and lush vineyards set against the rugged backdrop of the French Alps. All in all, an unforgettable day.

European Vacation – August 4

This morning, it was up to catch the train to Chambéry. Chambéry is a small city in the French Alps and is the heart of the Savoie region. It is just around the corner from Albertville, close to Grenoble and Chamonix.Three Winter Olympic venues within a one hour drive (and Torino is less than a two hour drive away). It also hosts one of the Alpine stages of the tour de France. This is where my wife’s cousin and her family lives, along with other aunts, uncles, cousins and other family I was lucky enough to marry into.

The day was mostly taken up by the train ride, but we did have time for a quick car ride to Aix Les Bains, a lake side resort town on Lac du Bourget, the largest natural lake in France. For me, there was a lot of similarities to my home in Canada’s Okanagan Valley. It felt like home, except they were speaking a different language.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose?

First published August 3, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

At the end of this week, thousands of search marketers will begin their pilgrimage to the west, to the mecca of search that is San Jose. It’s time for what has emerged as the premier search gathering, the West Coast version of Search Engine Strategies.

This show always marks a bit of an annual milestone for me. It was two years ago that I became a regular columnist for “Search Insider,” and I also try to shoehorn the sessions I present into our annual family camping vacation, precariously balancing on the cusp of the many professional and social demands that surround SES San Jose and keeping a wife and two daughters from throwing my laptop down the nearest camp toilet. I usually drive in from the campground in Santa Cruz, sunburned, smelling of wood smoke and carrying my “good” clothes, borrow a hotel room and shower from one of my colleagues who chose to forego the “back the nature” route in favor of room service, and try to make myself presentable. For the most part, this tactic has been successful for me.

I’ll be thinking of you

This is the first time in five years that I’m actually missing the show. This year, the family prevails and I’ll be vacationing with them through France and Italy (sans camping, avec hotels). My work tasks have been restricted to writing this column (next week, the Continental European version!) and making the odd, long, overdue blog post. But as SES ramp-up week gets into full swing, I’m getting more than the occasional twinge of regret as I turn down invite after invite. This year promises to be a packed show. Oh well, I hear sipping wine in the south of France can ease those twinges.

I’ll actually be there in spirit, if not in the flesh. I helped Danny Sullivan put together the research update panel, which kicks off the show Monday morning. This session has emerged to become one of the most popular, and my partner Bill Barnes will be there as well. Greg Sterling is filling in at the moderator’s helm, so you can be assured of some pithy comments. I almost wish I were there.

A search snapshot

This show in particular acts as a microcosm of how far search has come. It takes place in the backyard of the engines, and Yahoo, Google and Microsoft will be there in full force. The legendary Google Dance will give attendees a chance to rub elbows with various ultra-bright engineers in their natural habitat. Yahoo will throw some kind of bash, and there will be at least a dozen other formal networking events of various sizes, (including the SEMPO membership get-together on Monday night) sprinkled throughout the four days of the show. And that’s after the sessions; some 75 of them squeezed into five tracks over four days, covering every imaginable aspect of search. At an average of 4 presentations per panel, that’s 300 different speakers, cramming your head full of valuable information. That’s a lot of search, no matter how you slice it. Pity the poor search newbie who is looking at this as his introduction to the channel.

No show gets deeper or more intimately into search. Danny Sullivan, Chris Sherman, Karen Deweese and a virtual legion of presenters who all put their unique spin on the show, have made this the must-see event and turned SES into a tremendously successful franchise. The West Coast show is book-ended by a no less successful East Coast version in New York, and it has been repeated at locations around the world. It’s a long way for Danny, an ex-journalist who thought he might do an impromptu study on these things called search engines, a minor but rather interesting development in the online world, circa 1996. Searchenginewatch.com was born (I’m sure I was one of the earliest subscribers) and the rest is history.

You’ve come a long way

Danny must shake his head in wonder sometimes. Nobody has been a more consistent observer of the search world, and he’s been privileged to have extraordinary access to the key industry players. He’s sat in the front row as the industry struggled, emerged and launched into hyper-growth.

Danny Sullivan is still the first person analysts and journalists turn to for insight and commentary. During the show, he flies at a frenetic pace, fueled by Coke and donuts. Meanwhile, the implacable Chris Sherman acts as ying to Sullivan’s yang, ably stewarding the international shows (a note of irony that Danny, who lives in England, coordinates the North American shows, while Chris, who lives in Boulder, Colorado, does the international shows). And somehow, they manage to pull it all together for each show, seeing each eclipse last year’s attendance numbers. I attended my first SES in Boston in 2000. I started presenting almost three years ago now. It’s been tremendously exciting to see them continue to grow bigger and better with each iteration.

Well done, Chris and Danny. Again, I almost wish I could be there to tell you in person. But by the time you read this, I’ll be somewhere in the south of France, and that has its own consolations. But I’m sure our paths will cross before long. Chicago, perhaps?

 

European Vacation – August 3

I’ve been on European soil for a little over 48 hours now and a few things are notable. We escaped from the Hell that is New York in the midst of a heat wave. 100 degree weather that we were told “feels like” 120. All I know is that it was an oppressive wall of wet heat that made everyone in the Big Apple really. really bitchy. Despite that, the day was pretty much jam packed. Thanks to Anton at Acronym for slipping us past the crowds at the Empire State Building. The view was fantastic, if a little hazy. After, we discovered the benefits of a well air-conditioned museum on a really hot day, as we slipped inside the confines of the Met for a few hours of reprieve.

We had promised the kids a real “New York Slice” and we realized whilst sitting in Little Italy that there was no way we could get back to the hotel, get our bags and get out to JFK. We gulped the pizza down in eight minutes flat and headed out to try to catch a cab. On the way to the airport I asked the cabby if he thought we could make it to the airport. There is no breed of animal on the earth more pessimistic than the New York cabby, unless of course it comes to their ability to do the impossible. Any mere mortal would be hopelessly mired in the steaming and volatile stew that is Midtown Manhattan, but this individual (I believe his name was Anwar) could not only get us to JFK, but get us there close to on time. Of course, there was a small price to be paid. A quick calculation on my part indicated that although pricy, the cost was not totally ridiculous. With a shrug to my wife in the back (the heat had sapped her strength to protest) we put ourselves in the hands of Anwar. The cab was air conditioned and as long as it was heading in the general direction of JFK, I decided it was a better place to be than the street.

Anwar proved to be a good as his word, and got us to the airport in good time. On the way, we got a lovely guided tour of Queens, including what Anwar assured me were “the really nice” parts of Queens. I remained unconvinced. Then, we traded the hell of Manhattan in a heat wave for the hell of International Departures from JFK. One thing confused me. Why with all that is possible through computers and centralized reservations systems, would Delta Airlines be unable to figure out that 4 international departures within 15 minutes might require more than 4 people working a 12 position counter. Why do airlines continually do this to us, installing ticket counters that are at least 4 times larger than they ever intend to use? Also thanks to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for insisting that JFK keep the temperature at a nice refreshing zillion degrees. It was a wonderful way to cap off our day. We got on our flight (delayed for two hours) and with relatively little additional adventure, were on our way to Milan.

We landed in Milan, where it was cool and raining. I’ve never seen us more welcoming of crappy weather. This wasn’t rain; it was sweet nectar from the gods. We arrived at the Una Hotel Century, steps from the Stazione Centrale in Milan (where we had our first experience with Trenitalia, the Italian train system, as we made reservations for tomorrow’s journey to France. It took us an hour just to figure out which line we were supposed to be waiting in). A quick check in and several moments of confusion as we tried to figure out the hotel room. For some reason, none of the lights seemed to work. Finally, my 10 year old daughter Lauren told us to put our room key in a small slot near the door. Voila..light! Smart kid..I think we’ll keep her.

We grabbed a quick nap and then set out to explore Milano. The metro brought us to the piazza in front of the Duomo and we were immediately accosted by several swarthy Italians who grabbed our hands, jammed bird seed in them, after which we were swarmed by pigeons who proceeded to have a food fight while perched on our arms, shoulders and heads. My other daughter, Alanna and my wife, Jill were the first to be swarmed, then it was my turn. Lauren kept her hands firmly on her camera, establishing her place as our photographer, making her exempt from the pigeon mugging. My wife was not terribly impressed, with thoughts of bird flu running through her head. My initial reluctance was overcome by several assurances of “Free! Free!” Apparently that word doesn’t translate well in Italian, because after we’d had enough of our version of “The Birds” and tried to escape, a hand was quickly extended for money. My offering of a euro was treated with disdain (and what I suspect were a few Italian curses). We quickly retreated from the Piazza.

We wandered the streets for a while, gradually making our way up the Via Dante to the Castello Sforzesco, a rather imposing castle. Opposite the castle we grabbed a panini (sandwich) and our first gelatto. Oh my god! This is what ice cream is supposed to be. Do me a favor, go directly to your freezer, take the 45 gallon drum of that crap we call ice cream out, and throw it in the garbage. I’m not sure if you ever saw the episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where they go to Italy and Robert, upon trying gelatto, says ‘It’s like I never tasted a peach before”. I had to try it for myself so I also ordered Pesca (peach) and I can tell you it’s one of the few cases where Hollywood didn’t stretch the truth We walked back to the hotel along the street where the main fashion stores are. My memories of Milan will always include men coming from work in Armani suits, hopping on a Vespa (scooter) and zipping through the streets. It was everything I ever imagined Milan to be.

I’m Back…Finally!

It’s been forever since the last blog post, I know. I have really good excuses. I’m actually on vacation now, going to Europe with my family, so the past month has been a concentrated effort to try to wrap up everything before leaving.

One of the “wrap up” items was to try to finish the first draft of the new eye tracking study. I didn’t quite hit that goal, but it’s well along and I’m hoping I’ll be able to steal the odd hour to keep nudging it along in the next 3 weeks. I’m also hoping to get the odd post in as well. Then, September, its back to a regular posting routine, I promise!

So, to ease back in, some miscellaneous comments about a mixed bag of topics.

A few weeks back, I wrote a column about a theory we had called “Pre-mapping” of search results. Well, we managed to test pre-mapping with a panel of about 80 people. We split the group into two, one with a scenario that would lead to using a search engine to book a hotel room, and one that would lead the group to use the search engine to find out more about the hotel in question. We expected to find the second group much quicker to skip past the top sponsored ads and head for the top organic listings. The idea of pre-mapping is that you have a predetermined concept of where you’ll find the most useful results on the search page and you relocate there quickly. We thought the scenarios we created would lead to distinct pre-mapping activity. But when we looked at the results, we were surprised to find there was very little difference in the scanning activity of the two groups. Both started in top sponsored, and spent some significant time there. In fact, the research group even appeared to linger there a little longer, spending more time reading the listings. More about this as we sort out the data a little more.

If you happen to be in San Jose for Search Engine Strategies, make sure you catch Bill Barnes from Enquiro, pinch hitting for me on the Search Behavior Research Update panel, kicking off the show on Monday morning. He’s got a fascinating time lapse look at side by side heat maps of the two groups. Very cool stuff. He’ll also have some never before seen slides on a fascinating little side by side perceived relevancy test we did. Check it out and say hi to Bill after.

Speaking of SES, for the first time in 5 years, I won’t be at the show at all. Normally I try to balance the show with a summer family camping trip, but this year we opted for Europe instead (more on this on the Thursday Search Insider column). Of course, that means this year I got invites to all the really interesting parties. I’ve had to send my regrets to at least 5 different invitations. It looks like it’s going to be a packed show, with 5 different tracks over 4 days. Danny Sullivan is a mad man! Some day he will explode, driven over the edge by excessive amounts of Diet Coke and one too many donuts.

One monumental regret is that I won’t get a chance to see Matt Cutts. I saw a blog post somewhere (I think it was Barry Schwartz) that pointed to what may be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen…a virtual paper doll of Matt, complete with costumes of Inigo Montoya and Super Spam Cop. And this is legit..it’s not a spoof. Thank god my daughters are past the age of playing with this site. The idea of my little princesses dressing and undressing Matt would send me into psychotherapy for at least 6 months. But unfortunately I won’t have the chance to accost Matt on this. Please do me a favor, if you see Matt at the show, please bring this up and tell him Gord sent you. Thanks.

Well, that’s probably enough for the first catch up post. I’m on a flight right now to New York (105 degrees tomorrow..ouch!) and after a sweat soaked day in the Big Apple (first time for my girls) it’s catching the night flight to Milan tomorrow night from JFK.

For those interested, on my reading list this trip is Small Pieces Loosely Joined by David Weinberger. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, he’s also one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto. It looks fascinating and was recommended by Mitch Joel of Twist Image. I’ll let you know what I think.

What’s Up with Verticals?

First published July 27, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

You probably haven’t given a lot of thought lately to vertical search results, that thin sliver of search real estate that is sandwiched between the top sponsored ads and the top organic ads, and generally shows a few lines of news results, or local, or products. I have. Don’t panic, there’s really no reason why you should have. It’s really just a sad comment on my day-to-day activities. But I’ve noticed some things, and I think it’s incumbent upon me to share them with you. So let’s get vertical for a few moments, shall we?

In a Location Near You

First, this is prime real estate. When vertical results appear on the major engines, they appear smack in the middle of the hottest part of the page. After a number of eye tracking studies, we can say with a degree of certainty that most searchers (upwards of 80 percent) at least look at the top sponsored ads and the top three or so organic ads. That means that vertical, wedged in between, will be at least grazed over by a lot of eyeballs.

But position is not enough. Working the vertical angle is not just about grabbing some prime real estate. Verticals have to offer information scent. The information, links and visual cues they offer have to align with the user’s intent. In one bizarre example we saw during our latest study, somebody searched on Google for “digital cameras.” For some reason, Google saw fit to return news results for digital cameras. Now, just what percentage of the over two million people who searched for “digital cameras” last month (a quick estimate courtesy of Yahoo) do you guess would be looking for the scoop on how Nikon had to recall 710,000 digital camera batteries? Maybe the ex-product manager from Nikon, in between looking for new jobs on Monster, but that’s about it.

Hopelessly Devoted to OneBox?

While we’re on the subject, what’s the deal with Google and verticals anyway? Search pundit Greg Sterling said in a blog post some time ago that Google had an “almost religious devotion to OneBox,” its vertical label of choice. Could be, but it seems that a few in the temple of Google are questioning their religious affiliations. OneBox results have been a little sketchy of late. The reason this came to light is that I’ve just looked at 100-plus sessions in Google for a recent study, and there were surprisingly few of those sessions with OneBox results showing.

First of all, they hardly ever show for product-based searches. Try it for yourself. I must have tried over a dozen different common product searches before I got one that returned Froogle results via OneBox. Now why would that be? Well, for one thing, OneBox real estate competes with top sponsored ads, and perhaps advertisers are starting to resent the increased competition in their neighborhood for highly commercial searches. If that theory is correct, it flies in the face of Google’s goal to provide the most relevant results for each query, no matter what the source of the results. Another reason might be that Froogle has never really gained traction as a shopping engine. Maybe Google’s quiet dialing down the rate of appearance of Froogle results on the main page is their way of admitting that these results aren’t adding value to the user experience.

Doing Vertical Right

If you’re looking at a good example of Vertical execution, Yahoo seems to be currently leading the pack with its Shortcuts. The display of vertical results is consistent, and they seem to be one step ahead of the competition in aligning results with user intent.

Here are some examples we saw in a recent study:

One of the tasks given was to research the upcoming purchase of a digital camera. This resulted in a number of related queries being used, ranging from very general (“digital cameras”) to very specific (“Canon Powershot A530”). When these queries were thrown at Yahoo, the engine was able to differentiate and return appropriate vertical results. Broad generic phrases returned vertical results that compared known brands or allowed browsing by features. More specific queries returned links that led to reviews and best prices for that model alone. It was a great example of results matching intent, and we saw the interaction with these results go up dramatically as an example.

One very bright thing that Yahoo does consistently in its vertical listings is provide a 5-star rating scale. It appears for products, some local results (restaurants, hotels) and in various other places. When it comes to attracting our eye, nothing does the trick better than a visual cue that promises ratings. We love lists that sort from most popular to least popular. It’s the paradigm of the consumer researcher, and it’s something that reeks of scent. We saw eyeballs attracted to these icons like search marketers to an open bar (come on, I know many of you are already scoping out the cocktail network for San Jose).

A Vertical Future

I still believe that verticals mark a path into search’s future, but until the engines do better at disambiguating intent, either through personalization, behavioral tracking or just really smart key phrase parsing, they will be relegated to the thin sliver of real estate they currently occupy. Their success in luring users into what Sterling called a “Page 2” vertical experience will lie solely in how well they deliver on intent.

The Rule of Three in Search

First published July 20, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

Once again, I find myself up to my earlobes in eye-tracking data. I have no one to blame, as I got myself into this mess when I made the well-intentioned but poorly thought out promise to have the first draft of a study done by the time I head out on vacation at the end of the month.

In wading through the sessions (about 420 of them) sometimes new insights rise to the top–and sometimes my eyeballs just roll back in my head as my hands jerk spasmodically on my keyboard and drool runs down my cheek. Luckily, this week it was the former.

In this study, we are looking at interactions with Google, compared to MSN and Yahoo. Recently, one finding in particular seemed to be screaming out to be noticed. Being a compassionate sort of researcher, I listened.

When we looked at interactions with the top sponsored ads, there was a notable difference between MSN, Yahoo and Google. On MSN and Google, the percentage of clicks happening on these top ads seemed to be in line with previous studies done both by us and by others. But the amount of activity on the Yahoo ads seemed to be substantially higher. We started out by looking at first fixations, or the first place people looked on the page, even for a split second. Here, the engines were all in the same ball park, with 83.7 percent of first fixations in top sponsored ads for Yahoo, compared to 86.7 percent for MSN and 80.6 percent for Google.

Then, we looked at where the first activity on listing happened; where on the page did people start actually scanning listings? Google held a good percentage of eyeballs, keeping 12.4 percent of the users, while MSN had a significant defection issue, losing 36.6 percent of the people who first fixated in the top sponsored ads. But Yahoo lost the fewest, with only 5.5 percent choosing to look elsewhere. And finally, Google had 25.8 percent click-throughs on these ads, and MSN had 16.7 percent (yes, this is low, but MSN was dealing with a number of issues at the time of the study). Yahoo led the pack with a 30.2 percent click-through rate. In fact, for the first time ever in our research, a sponsored link (the number one top sponsored) out-pulled the No. 1 organic link, at click-through rates of 25.6 percent vs. 14 percent. This was a complete reversal of the click-through ratios we saw on the other two engines.

For whatever reason, Yahoo’s top sponsored ads seemed to be locking searchers into their part of the results page to a much greater extent than Google and MSN.

Why? What the heck was going on? Better ads? Not really. If anything, Google’s ads seemed a touch more relevant.

Location, Location, Location

Part of it was real estate. Another interesting comparison we did was to look at the percentages of screen real estate devoted to various sections of the page. Yahoo has gone out of its way to make the top sponsored ads the dominant feature on a results page at 1024 by 768 screen resolution. At this size, the ads take up 23 percent of the real estate, compared to approximately 16 percent for Google and Yahoo. This pushes organic listings on Yahoo perilously close to the fold.

And there, as I stared at the screen shots of fully loaded (maximum ads and vertical results showing) Google, MSN and Yahoo results at standard resolution, a possible answer revealed itself. On Google, three top sponsored ads, three OneBox results, and three visible organic listings. On MSN, the same three:three:three presentation. But on Yahoo, there were four top sponsored ads, three vertical results, and just one and a half organic listings were visible.

The Rule of Three

Hmmm, three, three and three. There was something there, niggling in the back of my mind. Quickly, I did a search for the “Rule of Three” and sure enough, there it was. We humans tend to think in triplets. Three is a good number to wrap our mind around, and we see it in all kinds of instances. We tend to remember points best when given in groups of three, we scan visual elements best when they come in threes, and we like to have three options to consider. Think how often three comes up in our society: three little pigs, three strikes, three doors on “Let’s Make a Deal,” three competitive quotes. It’s a triordered world out there.

So is it coincidence that search results tend to be presented to us, neatly ordered in groups of three? I think not. It strikes me that this engrained human behavior would probably translate to the search engine results page as well.

The Ruler-breaker

MSN and Google tend to adhere to the rule of three in their layouts (depending on whether or not Google serves three top sponsored ads). Our choices are conveniently presented in neat trios, with logical divides between each.

Yahoo breaks the rule by tipping the balance in favor of the top sponsored ads. First, it provides four results, not three. Does this mean we need to spend a little more time up in these results, trying to fit one extra one into our limited memory slots? That appears to be the case, with people spending an average of 4.6 seconds in the Yahoo top sponsored results in our study, compared to 2.4 seconds for Google and 1.73 seconds for MSN.

Second, it only gives us one visible organic listing to consider. It breaks our natural desire to have three alternatives, thereby reducing the Promise of Interest for the organic listings. In effect, on the screen of results most people would see on Yahoo, we only have one alternative, the top sponsored ads.

An earth-shaking discovery? Perhaps not. But cut me some slack. I’ve been looking at eye-tracking data daily for three months now, spending about three hours each day looking at interactions with the three engines. I think it’s time I took the three other members of my family on a three-week vacation, during which we’ll be visiting three countries. Wait a minute! Do I sense a pattern developing?

Dear Google Search History

First published July 13, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

In the 1600s, Samuel Pepys became history’s most famous diarist. From 1660 to 1669, this English Member of Parliament kept a detailed diary, which was published posthumously. In it, we gain a fascinating eyewitness account of the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. Most passages were not so monumental, however. Here’s one example from July of 1663:

Up betimes to my office, and there all the morning doing business, at noon to the Change, and there met with several people, among others Captain Cox, and with him to a Coffee [House], and drank with him and some other merchants. Good discourse. Thence home and to dinner, and, after a little alone at my viol, to the office, where we sat all the afternoon, and so rose at the evening, and then home to supper and to bed, after a little musique.

Sounds like Sam pretty much polished work off by noon and spent the rest of the time drinking, gossiping, playing the ol’ viol and listening to some tunes. All in all, not a bad life! No wonder he had the free time to write about it.

The Diary I Didn’t Know Existed…

I never considered myself a diarist. I’m much too busy actually trying to get through my life to spend time writing about it. I suppose the odd blog post would be autobiographical, but other than that, I didn’t think I was leaving an account of my day-to-day thoughts. I was wrong.

Some time ago, I signed up for a Google Analytics account for my blog and at the time, I somehow activated Google’s Personal Search History function. Because I have a laptop, and tend to use the same computer at work and at home, I was unknowingly capturing a pretty complete snapshot of all my search activity. Just a few days ago, I realized I was still logged in. Today, I took a look back at two months of search activity.

…A Day-by-Day, Search-by-Search History…

First of all, in the past two months, I’ve searched 540 times. That’s an average of 9 searches a day. In looking at the log of day-to-day activity, I can pretty much tell exactly what I was doing, and what thoughts preoccupied me, on any given day from May 11 to today. The topics are a little scattered. In a one-hour period on June 5, I went from looking for what an average winning percentage was on Freecell (don’t ask), to looking up the details on a new business contact, to looking for a new design template for my blog, to looking for GPS software for an upcoming trip to Europe. Can you say attention deficit?

In a quick analysis of my activity, it seems that 59 percent of my search activity is work-related, and 41 percent is personal. Twenty-eight percent of my searches were navigational (I knew what site I wanted to end up on, and was using the search engine to get there) and 71 percent were what I call “mapping” searches (where I was looking for the search engine to suggest sites I was previously unaware of). And in 34 percent of my searches, I never actually clicked on a result.

…And That Was Just Mine…

The point is not to go on about how I search. You could care less. The point is that search history gave me a snapshot of just what I was thinking about, at an average of about nine times a day. In looking back, I could remember what I was working on, what products I suddenly thought I needed, how much planning I was doing for an upcoming vacation, what new acquaintances I suddenly decided to Google to find out more about, and what arguments needed to be settled. I’d see queries come up, disappear for a few days, then suddenly re-emerge later, either in the same or modified form. It made me realize how integral online is to my life, and how much I depend on search to connect me to the vast and diverse content that sits out there. It mirrored my thoughts about upcoming purchases, life events, things that were bothering me, issues at work and just plain old time-wasters.

Now consider the implications of this. I’m one person, who actually lived the life in question, and I was amazed by the insight gained by looking back. Consider this data in aggregate form. No wonder John Battelle was blown away by what he called the “database of intentions,” this gargantuan deposit of data that is owned by the search engines, providing intimate glimpses into individuals at the micro level, and incredibly granular macro mosaics as we step back. Based on the search trail and clickstream I looked at, Google, if it chooses to, would know more about me than my wife (keep the snarky comments to yourself). And remember, search history is just the data Google chooses to make public. Through the tool bar, it’s capturing a lot more clickstream data on you.

…What About Yours?

The whole “Big Brother” aspect of this has been commented on numerous times in the past. Sure, it’s frightening, but I think it’s tied up in the new reality of our online world. Is the fact that it sits in the hands of a private corporation any more troubling than the huge amount of personal information that sits in government files? Theoretically, we have democratic recourse with the government, but we all know how much weight that holds. Take some comfort in the fact that Google, with all its billions and resources, has exactly 1.5 people working in its sales and market research department (although I’m hearing rumors of a new addition). For the foreseeable future, Google might have a frightening amount of data, but it doesn’t have anyone with the time to look at it.
Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/45508/dear-google-search-history.html#ixzz2ZoaFoUTS

Branded Terms in Search Results: Pre-Mapping in Action

First published July 6, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

Two separate occurrences in the last little while have lent credence to a behavioral occurrence we’ve seen in many of our studies.

First, I was sitting in on a meeting where an agency (not ours) was reporting on the performance of its sponsored search campaigns and was ecstatic with the performance of its branded term phrases, which were outperforming every other keyword bucket both in terms of click-throughs and conversions. While giddy with delight, company executives were at a bit of a loss to explain why.

On a similar track, a search marketing firm has recently released some results that looked at cannibalization of search campaigns when you are buying terms where you also hold top organic position. Again, they found this is most likely to happen when you’re buying branded terms.

While neither of these examples should be surprising to a seasoned search marketer, we’re all interested to know the reasons behind this interplay between organic and sponsored, particularly on branded terms. The answer, as it so often does, lies in looking more closely at what the search user is doing.

Pre-Mapping: A Theory

After looking at thousands of search sessions in detail, one thing is becoming clear. Searchers are incredibly adept at focusing in on just the portion of the results page that interests them. The time required to relocate to the prime real estate is literally a fraction of a second. Yet that real estate isn’t always the same spot. It varies depending on query and intent. It also varies by user, but even the same users will navigate the real estate of the listings in very different ways, depending on what they’re looking for.

Pre-Mapping supposes that we’ve interacted with search results pages enough to know the sections of real estate we typically deal with. We know where the top sponsored ads are and what they are. We know about where the top organic listings start. And in our minds, we already have a good idea of the type of site we’re looking for and approximately where we expect it to appear. Before the page ever loads, we’ve already mapped out the sections that would appear to hold the greatest promise to deliver on our intent. As the page loads, we do a split-second scan to get our bearings (orient in the top left corner, see how many top ads there are, see where organic starts) and then we go to the part of the map we’ve predetermined to be our best starting point.

Theory in Practice

Let’s run through a few examples. Imagine you’re looking for the possible side effects of a medication. The types of sites you would be looking for would be authoritative information sites, either the official site for the medication, a recognized health portal or possibly a government information site. In this case, you may be leaning more towards objective sites, rather than the pharmaceutical company’s own site. After launching the search (the name of the drug) you’ll quickly filter out, or thin slice, any commercially oriented sites. In this type of interaction, you’ve determined through pre-mapping that your area of greatest promise is not likely to be in the sponsored ads. You also expect the official site to rank No. 1 organically, so your area of greatest promise is probably in the No. 2 to 5 organic rankings, where you expect the types of sites you’re looking for to sit. In a split second, you’ve narrowed the real estate where you’ll start your active scanning to about 10 percent of the total real estate.

Now, let’s say you’re looking to renew your auto insurance. You’ve already checked out a few quotes online, but before you commit to any, you want to see how your current carrier compares. You’ve also pre-mapped the page in this case. Here, you expect your company to be bidding for the term ( “Brand Name auto insurance”) and because it’s a commercially oriented query, you assume that the sponsored listing would take you to a page where you could get a quote. Your area of greatest promise is the top sponsored ads. Again, you do your orientation scan to find your bearings in the upper left, but in this case, you would start right at the top sponsored link and work your way down the page until you find a link to the carrier in question that offers the promise of giving you a quote.

Theory Applied

Considering these two examples of user behavior, you can easily see what was happening in the two anecdotes I cited at the beginning of this piece. Brand terms will convert like gangbusters in the top sponsored location, because when a brand term is used, it’s very likely that the user has pre-mapped and is expecting to find that site in those top sponsored spots.

Similarly, you will find significant cannibalization because when users have pre-mapped, they start at the top and work down. They’ll hit the sponsored result before they hit any organic result that might appear. They’re looking for the quickest route, and in this case, the sponsored listing is giving it to them.

The likelihood to pre-map, and what this means for interaction for the page, lies in that deep dark place where all the answers to search engine success lie, the mind of your target prospect. Spend some time exploring it.

Wise Words about Branding from the Usability Sage

First published June 29, 2006 in Mediapost’s Search Insider

Jakob Nielsen knows a lot about usability. He’s perhaps the world’s foremost expert on how people use Web sites. I finally had the chance to meet Jakob face to face last week (we’ve been trading e-mails for some time) in San Francisco at his Usability Week Summit. I was down there to sit in on his one-day session on eyetracking.

No Graphics for Nielsen

Jakob takes a pretty austere view of the user experience. One can tell this from his own website, useit.com. Perhaps his most famous quote is “Flash: 99% bad.” He takes a similarly dim view of animations and large graphics, which lead to “banner blindness,” he says. In fact, other than the obligatory head and shoulder shot on his bio page and a small arrow glyph used to indicate hierarchy in his breadcrumb navigation bar, there are no graphics on useit.com. He goes on at some length about this. Why no graphics? He’s pretty adamant that they add nothing to the user experience. We’re not in complete agreement about this, but I get his point.

Jakob’s Nielsen Norman group has recently added eyetracking to its usability arsenal. If ever you’re looking for justification for not using large graphics on a site, look (sorry, no pun intended) no further than eyetracking heatmaps. In session after session, users skirt around large graphic blocks, focusing their interaction on text and navigation. It can be a rude slap in the face for most graphic designers (there’s a rather amusing anecdote about one such encounter that happened at the session, and an example of the phenomenon I’m talking about, on my blog).

Experience, Not Exposure

In the session, Jakob tossed out a line, the import of which I’m not sure was fully appreciated by the audience. When responding to a question from the audience about the seeming contradiction between the need for building of brand exposure and best practices for usability, Jakob said that online, brand value is built through experience, not exposure.

Whoa! There’s a world of wisdom in those eight little words! Beneath them lies a whole different way of looking at online engagement. It sums up something I’ve been hammering away at for years now. A successful user experience builds brand equity in a way that hammering visitors over the head with Flash or streaming video never could. Every single thing on a Web site should have one purpose, to make that user experience more successful. If it’s there solely for the gratification of the designer, or the CEO, or the CMO, it’s there for the wrong reason. And before you dismiss this thought, saying it doesn’t apply to you, take a look at your home page and ask yourself, why are the elements that are on the page actually there? Think through the decision process that placed each element on the page. How present were users in the process? Who was asking them for their opinion?

User Success In Search

This is a best practice in any Web site’s design, but it becomes particularly true when looking at search-generated leads. Search visitors reek with intent. They are incredibly single-minded in their purpose. They’re looking for a clear path ahead to their intent, and they’ve cast the first few steps down that path through their search query. They’ve come to the site not because they’re engaged with your brand, although that may have helped sway them in your direction, but because they’re engaged with a task. Get between them and the successful completion of that task at your peril. Every time you throw something at them that’s not aligned to that intent, you decrease their chances for success, eroding the value of your brand in their eyes. If you make them wait 20 seconds for a Flash file to load, that’s 20 seconds of ticking on a time bomb that could blow your brand to smithereens. If you throw in a large stock photo with the typical generic smiling face that takes up 70 percent of your home page, you’re wasting prime real estate. But don’t feel bad, it happens to the best of us. At least Jakob practices what he preaches on his site. What would you see if you went to the home page of Enquiro? A generic smiling face. But I’m working on it!