Pinterest the next big thing?

There was a time a few years ago when there was a new big social-media thing every day, and everyone in the industry or friendship group pretended they knew what it was about “Yeah i know that site, it’s really cool, i’m on it all the time.” We would all lie.

Last year the real big thing was the photo sharing site and award winning app Instagram, but this year it is Pinterest – Another photo sharing site that is getting rave reviews in the US, and reassuringly it is not owned by Google, yet. Nor does it have a light blue logo – which is nice. 

So What is Pinterest?

Well we all love photos. Words are so boring to look at in our busy lives. Pinterest taps into our creative and visual minds by offering an online notice board to share images. Once you’ve gained access to the site you’ll be able to ‘pin’ photos you’ve found on the internet or uploaded to the board based on categories, keywords and site groupings. These photos can be anything from cute cats, hilarious one-liners, to holiday homes and valentine gift ideas.

It’s semi-controlled anarchy. 

You can search the separate pin boards by category, which are grouped by interest with the usual groupings of technology, travel, humour etc etc. Then as with Facebook you can like a photo or comment on it.

You can also search groupings by sites that have been pinned. For example if you are looking for a holiday cottage, you could search Tripadvisor’s pages or for look at all the Tumblir sites. This brings me on to the benefits of SEO. Users who pin a photo actually get a direct link to the site where they found the photo. This therefore maybe abused by spammers in the future.

There are however Pinterest guidelines of etiquette, if photos are too obviously pushing a product or a service, then they are removed.

Here’s what Pinterest say about themselves:

“Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.”

What are Pinterest’s site stats?

This new photo sharing platform has grown by 4,000% in 6 months and according to Comscore, Pinterest’s unique monthly visitors are already over 11 million, making it the fastest standalone website to surpass the 10 million mark in the US. (This is debated and argued by Formspring over at Techcrunch)

However Pinterest started in 2006 but redesigned and re-launched their offering two years ago, so these stats are slightly debatable, but ether way they have had a massive growth in the last 6 months and have a very engaged and loyal following. This is highlighted in the chart below which was taken from techcrunch and Comscore data. (Nice watermark from Techcrunch)

So Why should I use Pinterest?

It is actually really addictive. New photos are being pinned every second. There is so much on there that it actually hurts the brain a bit. I want to search images, then i want to search the people who put them up and so on. But who knows, this maelstrom of information could be its long term downfall or indeed its success.

The the main issue for me is that it is so massive. Being American there is also an obvious leaning to that country’s culture, for example all the sport photos are predominantly basketball etc. But that’s a minor gripe.

The site is so beautifully and seamless put together that, I may not go there every day, but when I do it is a much more gratifying way to search images than Google images.

I’ve seen previous research done in this area in one instance the searches conducted were for actual Wikipedia page titles, which of course it would do well in. So we searched nouns (Def. A word used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things) from a couple of random noun generators. A full list of the words we searched are below.

The Methodology of Wikipedia Research:

• We used a random noun generator to obtain the keyword
• We then searched that keyword on Google UK (the internet)
• To get around any personalisation issues we used Google Chrome Incognito browser
• The search settings were ten results per page
• There was no other filtering of search results within Google’s settings.
• We did not include shopping or video results within our count (as these were additional to the 10 on a page)
• We searched from Brighton, south England
• We made 1,000 unique searches, any duplicates were removed and re-searched.

The Results:

• Wikipedia is Page One of Google for 99% of searches (of nouns)
• Wikipedia is position one of Google for 56% of searches
• 96% of searches had Wikipedia in position 1-5 on Google

 How the positions were shared (total 1,000 searches)

Position One dominance

As you can see from the charts, 96% of the searches landed in the top 5 positions.

Is Wikipedia’s dominance deserved?

We all love Wikipedia, but should it really be so prominent and all conquering in Google? We know that Wikipedia is a vast site with millions of pages and thousands of editors offering unique vital content on multitudes of subject matters. But should Wikipedia be the de-facto resource for pretty much all subjects? Surely some pages are riding on the back of other quality pages or perhaps lazy references to the site from businesses and bloggers across the internet. Google obviously loves Wikipedia and still ranks it despite there being next to zero content on some of the pages.

General Observations

Unsurprisingly Wikipedia, did extremely well (top two positions generally) for old-school encyclopaedic searches. What I mean by this is searches with any geographical, scientific or natural reference. For example Himalayan, bird and paediatrician. This was expected, but more surprising is that it also did extremely well for food substances and clothing. I’d imagine butter, milk and mayonnaise as well as trousers, underclothes and wallet would be fought over tooth and nail by large corporations within their respective industries.

Some flawed results from Google

When searching for the word “Air” in Google there are so many results that could have come up in the SERPs: Adobe Air software, Nike Air trainers, the French Band, Apple Air laptop, any Airline, a science page on the make-up of our atmosphere.

But no. In second place is the Wikipedia page, not for any of the above, but a disambiguation page for the term “Air”. How can this page, which is ultimately full of links to other Wikipedia pages, is short of real content, and presumably not linked to by external authoritative sites, the second best possible result for this huge search? This is where there are ultimately flaws in Google’s offering of Wikipedia content.

Google Loves Wikipedia – But Why?

So is Google being lazy? Does it feel that at least one result needs to be there, is that an unwritten law within the algorithm? However, after reading this article about SEO bad for the Internet, it got me thinking, that if there was one place taken up in every search by Wikipedia, then that would mean there is one less place in the Top Ten for possible PPC paying corporations. Just a thought, not a fact.

The ones that got away

There are so few that were not on Page One that I can list them here.

• Mail
• news
• trainers
• national
• sweets
• wardrobe
• phone
• flight

All these words are obviously highly competitive or incorporate the word within major corporations and services (for example National).

Feedback

We will be re-doing this research again soon. We will be using different random noun generators too (maybe even human generated ones). But if anyone has any questions about the methodology or recommendations please leave a comment.

The Full List of 1,000 searches and their positions in Google

Word	Position	Word	Position	Word	Position	Word	Position
Aries	1	Illegal	1	Tiger	1	Result	2
Aardvark	1	Insect	1	Timbale	1	review	2
abigail	1	Instrument	1	Timpani	1	Rhinoceros	2
Acrylic	1	Interest	1	Tire	1	Ricardo	2
Actor	1	Invention	1	Titanium	1	Ring	2
Adapter	1	Island	1	Toe	1	Rowboat	2
Addition	1	Israel	1	Toenail	1	Sagittarius	2
Agave	1	Jacket	1	Tortoise	1	Salesman	2
Agreement	1	Jam	1	Town	1	scarf	2
Alley	1	James	1	Tray	1	Second	2
Alloy	1	Japanese	1	Treatment	1	Secure	2
Almanac	1	Jaw	1	Trial	1	Seed	2
almond	1	Jewel	1	Trombone	1	Session	2
aluminium	1	Join	1	trousers	1	Shade	2
Amy	1	jug	1	Trowel	1	Sidewalk	2
Andy	1	June	1	Trumpet	1	Signature	2
Anger	1	Jute	1	Tuba	1	Sister	2
Angora	1	Kamikaze	1	Turkey	1	Snowflake	2
Ankle	1	Kenya	1	Twine	1	Snowstorm	2
Antarctica	1	Kevin	1	Ukrainian	1	Soccer	2
Anteater	1	Kilometer	1	Underclothes	1	soda	2
Apology	1	Kite	1	Unshielded	1	Sort	2
Argument	1	Knife	1	Uzbekistan	1	spray	2
Ashtray	1	Knot	1	Vacation	1	Square	2
Asia	1	Kohlrabi	1	Valley	1	Step-grandmother	2
Asparagus	1	Ladybug	1	Value	1	Step-sister	2
Asphalt	1	larger	1	Van	1	Stinger	2
Attention	1	Laundry	1	Venezuelan	1	Stocking	2
Author	1	Lead	1	Verse	1	store	2
Authority	1	Leather	1	Vicki	1	Suede	2
Baboon	1	Legal	1	Viola	1	Suit	2
Back	1	Limit	1	Vise	1	Swimming	2
bacon	1	Liquid	1	Volcano	1	Swiss	2
Badge	1	Literature	1	Waiter	1	Swordfish	2
Bagel	1	Locust	1	Wallet	1	T-shirt	2
Balance	1	Love	1	wand	1	Tabletop	2
Ball	1	Luis	1	Watchmaker	1	Thailand	2
Bankbook	1	Lumber	1	Weasel	1	Thursday	2
Barge	1	Lunch	1	Weed	1	Triangle	2
Baritone	1	Lute	1	Wheel	1	Truck	2
Battery	1	Lyocell	1	Whiskey	1	video	2
Bee	1	lyra	1	White	1	Vision	2
beer	1	Maid	1	Winter	1	wales	2
Beetle	1	Male	1	Withdrawal	1	Wash	2
Begonia	1	Manager	1	Woman	1	Weight	2
Bengal	1	Maraca	1	Wood	1	Whistle	2
Berry	1	Marble	1	wooden	1	Window	2
Bibliography	1	Marimba	1	Worm	1	Window	2
Bird	1	Mass	1	Wound	1	Wing	2
Birth	1	Mattock	1	Wrench	1	wipe	2
biscuit	1	Mayonnaise	1	Wrinkle	1	zebra	2
blimp	1	Meal	1	Xylophone	1	Acoustic	3
blouse	1	Meeting	1	Yacht	1	Alibi	3
Blowgun	1	Melody	1	Yak	1	Apparel	3
Bomber	1	Mercury	1	Year	1	Apple	3
Bonsai	1	Message	1	yoga	1	Bag	3
border	1	Metal	1	yogurt	1	Bakery	3
Bottle	1	Methane	1	Yoke	1	Bank	3
bottle	1	Mexican	1	Zoology	1	Bath	3
Bread	1	Mexico	1	Account	2	bench	3
Breath	1	Michael	1	Air	2	Burn	3
bridge	1	michelle	1	Airplane	2	Century	3
Broccoli	1	Middle	1	Alcohol	2	Chain	3
Broker	1	milk	1	Animal	2	Channel	3
Bronze	1	Millimeter	1	Ant	2	Chill	3
Buffet	1	Millisecond	1	Appliance	2	Cord	3
Bugle	1	Mini-skirt	1	Approval	2	Dan	3
Bulb	1	Minister	1	Aquarius	2	debt	3
Burma	1	Missile	1	Arch	2	Direction	3
Butcher	1	Monday	1	Area	2	Discovery	3
Butter	1	moon	1	Armadillo	2	Dish	3
C-clamp	1	Morning	1	Army	2	Downtown	3
Cabbage	1	Morocco	1	Arrow	2	draw	3
Calf	1	Mosque	1	Athlete	2	Dugout	3
Can	1	mountain	1	Atm	2	Equipment	3
Canadian	1	muffin	1	Attic	2	event	3
can	1	nelson	1	australia	2	Find	3
candle	1	Neon	1	Australian	2	Fireman	3
canoe	1	Niece	1	Avenue	2	Fireplace	3
Cardboard	1	Nitrogen	1	Banker	2	Freeze	3
carrot	1	North america	1	Bar	2	Game	3
Cart	1	North korea	1	Beat	2	Garage	3
Cat	1	Nose	1	Beauty	2	Gate	3
Cattle	1	November	1	Bench	2	Government	3
Cauliflower	1	Numeric	1	Birthday	2	Grenade	3
Ceiling	1	Oboe	1	Blizzard	2	Hammer	3
Celery	1	Observation	1	blog	2	Hockey	3
Celsius	1	Odometer	1	Blow	2	Innocent	3
Ceramic	1	Offer	1	Bobcat	2	Interactive	3
Cereal	1	Operation	1	Bongo	2	Jennifer	3
ceylon	1	Organic	1	Boy	2	Joseph	3
chalk	1	Organisation	1	Britney	2	Knickers	3
Chauffeur	1	Ounce	1	Cabinet	2	Look	3
Cheetah	1	Output	1	Cactus	2	magnet	3
Cherry	1	Oven	1	Call	2	Maple	3
Chicken	1	Oxygen	1	Capricorn	2	microwave	3
Chef	1	Package	1	career	2	Motion	3
Child	1	Pancake	1	Carnation	2	Nerve	3
chilli	1	Pansy	1	Carol	2	Norwegian	3
Chin	1	Parallelogram	1	Caspar	2	orange	3
China	1	Parent	1	Cast	2	Pair	3
Christmas	1	Parentheses	1	Cathedral	2	Parrot	3
Cicada	1	paris	1	Caution	2	Peak	3
client	1	Part	1	Celeste	2	perfume	3
Cockroach	1	Particle	1	Chance	2	Polo	3
coffee	1	Passbook	1	Character	2	Powder	3
Coil	1	pastor	1	Chard	2	queen	3
coil	1	Patch	1	Charles	2	Quill	3
Cold	1	Pediatrician	1	Chive	2	Raft	3
College	1	Peen	1	Chocolate	2	Railway	3
Colombia	1	Period	1	Circle	2	Ryan	3
Colon	1	Peru	1	Cod	2	Science	3
colour	1	photographer	1	Colony	2	Screen	3
Comb	1	pipe	1	Color	2	Shell	3
Committee	1	Pisces	1	Cook	2	Shoe	3
Competition	1	Plant	1	Cost	2	Shorts	3
Composition	1	Plantation	1	Couch	2	Show	3
Computer	1	Plastic	1	cream	2	Sparrow	3
Congo	1	Plot	1	cream	2	Spoon	3
Consonant	1	Poison	1	Creek	2	Spot	3
copper	1	Poland	1	Crocus	2	Spring	3
copier	1	Policeman	1	cromwell	2	Stage	3
Copyright	1	Polish	1	Cuban	2	Stem	3
Cough	1	Polyester	1	Current	2	Taxi	3
Crab	1	Porch	1	curry	2	Team	3
Crack	1	Porcupine	1	Curve	2	Test	3
Cristiano	1	Porter	1	daimond	2	Thistle	3
cupboard	1	Potato	1	David	2	Tile	3
Curler	1	Pound	1	Department	2	tripod	3
Cushion	1	Power	1	Deposit	2	Velvet	3
Custard	1	Prepared	1	Destruction	2	walker	3
Cymbal	1	Print	1	Detail	2	western	3
Dancer	1	Prison	1	Development	2	whisky	3
Dead	1	Produce	1	Diamond	2	Wilderness	3
Death	1	project	1	Diaphragm	2	Wish	3
Deborah	1	Propane	1	Difference	2	Witness	3
December	1	Pumpkin	1	Digger	2	Wonder	3
Decimal	1	Pvc	1	Digital	2	Word	3
Deodorant	1	Pyjama	1	Dinner	2	Advice	4
Description	1	Quart	1	Doubt	2	base	4
Desert	1	Quarter	1	Dream	2	Beam	4
Dessert	1	Quartz	1	Drop	2	Bedroom	4
device	1	Quicksand	1	Dungeon	2	Ben	4
Dimple	1	Rabbi	1	East	2	Bite	4
Distributor	1	Rabbi	1	Education	2	boots	4
dog	1	Rabbit	1	Elbow	2	bus	4
Dolphin	1	Radish	1	Elephant	2	Cap	4
Donald	1	Rain	1	Elizabeth	2	Car	4
Double	1	Rainbow	1	End	2	channel	4
dragon	1	Rat	1	Engine	2	Close	4
Drake	1	ratchet	1	Environment	2	core	4
Drawbridge	1	Ravioli	1	Ex-husband	2	Cover	4
drawer	1	Receipt	1	Farmer	2	Creator	4
Dredger	1	Rectangle	1	Feast	2	Cycle	4
Dressing	1	Regret	1	Feeling	2	Dad	4
Drink	1	Report	1	festival	2	Ease	4
Driver	1	Rest	1	Flame	2	Fact	4
Drug	1	Retailer	1	Flock	2	Forest	4
Ear	1	Reward	1	Flower	2	Ghost	4
economy	1	Rhythm	1	Fly	2	Hallway	4
Eel	1	Rice	1	Fold	2	hammer	4
eight	1	road	1	food	2	Health	4
Ellipse	1	Robyn	1	Footnote	2	Icon	4
Employer	1	Rocket	1	Freckle	2	kestrel	4
Engineer	1	Rod	1	Freya	2	laptop	4
envelope	1	Romania	1	Friction	2	leon	4
Error	1	Rose	1	Friday	2	Mailbox	4
Ethiopia	1	Rule	1	Frog	2	Name	4
Exclamation	1	Russia	1	Frost	2	Open	4
Existence	1	Sail	1	Gander	2	Phil	4
extension	1	Sailor	1	Gazelle	2	Plasterboard	4
Eyelash	1	Salary	1	Gearshift	2	Police	4
Fahrenheit	1	Sampan	1	Giraffe	2	Postbox	4
Fairies	1	Sand	1	glass	2	Quit	4
Fang	1	sandwich	1	globe	2	Reading	4
Father-in-law	1	sauce	1	Glue	2	record	4
Feather	1	sausage	1	Goggles	2	Request	4
February	1	Saxophone	1	Gong	2	School	4
Felony	1	Scale	1	Good-bye	2	Seashore	4
Female	1	Scarecrow	1	Gore-tex	2	Street	4
Fertilizer	1	Scent	1	Grade	2	string	4
Fiber	1	Scorpio	1	Graphic	2	Theory	4
Fiberglass	1	scotch	1	greek	2	Transport	4
Fiction	1	Screwdriver	1	Grey	2	Walk	4
Fir	1	Seagull	1	Gum	2	Warm	4
fish	1	Seal	1	Handle	2	Watch	4
Fisherman	1	Servant	1	Hardhat	2	wine	4
Flesh	1	Shadow	1	Hayley	2	wire	4
flip-flop	1	Shark	1	Head	2	Act	5
Flute	1	sheep	1	Heart	2	Answer	5
Force	1	Shoemaker	1	Helicopter	2	Baker	5
Forgery	1	Shoulder	1	Hip	2	Card	5
Fork	1	Shrine	1	History	2	case	5
Fortnight	1	Siamese	1	Hobbies	2	Caterpillar	5
Fowl	1	Side	1	Hood	2	Decrease	5
Foxglove	1	Skin	1	Hovercraft	2	Driving	5
Freighter	1	Slipper	1	Hydrant	2	Exchange	5
fruit	1	slipper	1	Icicle	2	Exhaust	5
garlic	1	Slope	1	Index	2	Font	5
garnish	1	Smell	1	Inventory	2	frame	5
Gasoline	1	Snowboarding	1	Jason	2	Gym	5
gastronomy	1	socket	1	Joke	2	Jet	5
Gauge	1	Soil	1	Judo	2	Jonny	5
Geology	1	Soprano	1	Jumbo	2	Map	5
Geranium	1	South africa	1	jumper	2	monitor	5
German	1	Soybean	1	Key	2	Passenger	5
Girdle	1	spaghetti	1	Kick	2	tube	5
Gladiolus	1	Spain	1	klaxon	2	Cinema	6
glaze	1	Spear	1	ladel	2	Dryer	6
gloves	1	Sphere	1	Lan	2	football	6
Goal	1	Sphynx	1	Link	2	Fragrance	6
Goa	1	Spruce	1	Lion	2	hills	6
goat	1	Squirrel	1	Lipstick	2	jeans	6
Goose	1	state	1	Lisa	2	Loan	6
grape	1	Statement	1	Loss	2	Matt	6
Grass	1	Step-daughter	1	Margin	2	Music	6
Grasshopper	1	Step-mother	1	Mark	2	Paint	6
Gray	1	Stew	1	Market	2	Poppy	6
greek	1	Stock	1	Mechanic	2	Radiator	6
Group	1	Stomach	1	meteor	2	radiator	6
Guilty	1	Stopsign	1	Milkshake	2	station	6
Guitar	1	stream	1	Mind	2	tap	6
Gun	1	Sudan	1	Minibus	2	Tights	6
Gymnast	1	Summer	1	Moat	2	View	6
Hair	1	Sundial	1	Mother	2	zoo	6
Haircut	1	Sunflower	1	Nail	2	Babies	7
Half-sister	1	Support	1	Node	2	Bed	7
Hall	1	Surfboard	1	Octave	2	Burst	7
ham	1	Surname	1	Octopus	2	Calendar	7
Hamburger	1	Sushi	1	Olive	2	Delivery	7
Hard hat	1	Sweater	1	Outrigger	2	Frame	7
harp	1	Swing	1	Owner	2	Freezer	7
Harry	1	Sycamore	1	Ox	2	Insulation	7
Hawk	1	Syrup	1	page	2	Rail	7
Helen	1	Syrup	1	Pail	2	tablecloth	7
Helium	1	System	1	Panda	2	Tent	7
Helmet	1	Tachometer	1	Paperback	2	Baby	9
Hemp	1	Tail	1	Parade	2	coach	9
Heron	1	Tailor	1	Pear	2	hamper	9
Herring	1	Tandoori	1	pencil	2	Replace	9
Himalayan	1	Tank	1	Peony	2	sideboard	9
Hole	1	Taurus	1	Person	2	timer	9
Holly	1	Tea	1	Person	2	Mail	11
Horse	1	Television	1	Ping	2	News	13
Hose	1	temperature	1	Popcorn	2	trainers	13
Humidity	1	Tempo	1	Pot	2	National	14
Hyacinth	1	thigh	1	Printer	2	Sweets	14
Hygienic	1	Thing	1	Puma	2	wardrobe	14
ice-age	1	Thumb	1	Question	2	Phone	18
Ikebana	1	Thunderstorm	1	Quotation	2	Flight	22

Bing/Yahoo! may take up minimal market share in the UK compared with Google, however these results are not going to help improve the current percentage stake. If we look at (what is quite a popular search term due to the longest grand slam final ever contested) ‘Australian Open 2012′ – you can see completely irrelevant results for the tournament itself, focusing more so on the location ‘Australia’:

So we have an Australian Rugby website, the National Library of Australia website and Google Australia – hardly relevant useful results to find out information on the final between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. But if we take a look at the results on Yahoo! (which uses Bing’s search technology) you’ll see a very different set of results:

If we take a closer look at the fluctuation in results for say ‘Tennis News’, it is apparent there is something major going on behind the scenes:

Authoritative websites like ESPN.go.com and sports.yahoo.com are dropping from the top ten for no apparent reason (along with a whole host of other websites). So, to conclude, why is Bing now returning irrelevant results to the search query and why is there so much emphasis on the location (if present) in the query?

As more shoppers do their Christmas shopping paradoxically after Christmas, a 19.5% increase from last year’s figures saw Boxing Day 2011 break online retail records; As UK shoppers spent over 13 million hours shopping on Boxing Day in the UK.

Online Retail Sales Record Highs

Online retail sales as a whole increased by 14% last year to more than £50bn, with predictions that the growth will continue to hit high streets, according to a new report. James Murray, Marketing Research Analyst commented: “Boxing Day is traditionally the biggest retail day of the year, but this year it was massive with over 15 million more visits going to retail website than last year. A lot of this is down to smart multi-channel marketing by the big retailers using TV, radio and the web to drive transaction volumes. The convenience of the web combined with massive discounts, free postage and packing and next day delivery is incredibly tempting for people that want to avoid the hurly burly of high street sales.”

What were people searching for most on Boxing Day?

According to Experian Hitwise, the 10 most searched products on the day were comprised mainly of Gadgets and remarkably walking boots.

The Amazon Kindle won the race to become number one by beating arch rival The iPad and other Apple products. Surprise entries into the Top Ten came from Hunters Wellies and Ugg Boots, presumably with thoughts of a cold wet winter on the way. Lego also made a pleasing entry as perhaps Dads and Mums realised they hadn’t bought enough for Christmas.

Kindle the Most Searched for Item Boxing Day 2011

In the run up to Christmas Google was definitely the search engine of choice in the UK. The December 2011 rankings from Experian Hitwise’s Search Engine and Social Analysis saw Google triumph once again, by vastly increasing its market share of online searches. Google accounted for 91.75% of all searches made in the UK in December 2011, an increase of 0.67% in a month.

Socially speaking, YouTube also had a cracker of a month, being responsible for over a quarter of visits to social networks.

Online Retail sales up 14% Dec 2011

Online retail sales were also buoyed by visitor figures with an increase by 14% last year to more than £50bn, with predictions that the growth will continue to hit high streets, according to a new report.

Yahoo Market share down

A heavy contrast has also seen the decline in market share for all other search sites, including Yahoo and Microsoft. Over the past year, Google, Microsoft and Ask have managed to maintain a positive yearly change in market share, with competitors Yahoo dropping by (in comparison) a whopping 0.88%.

search engine traffic stats dec 2011

James Murray, Market Research Analyst at Experian Hitwise commented: “Retailers were relying more on search traffic in 2011, with 43 per cent of all visits coming from a search engine, and for every ten visits to retailers from search, nine were from Google during this critical period. Getting the right blend of traffic from search, social, affiliates and other traffic sources is essential, but with search being so dominant at these key times, it is more important than ever for marketers to optimise paid and organic search campaigns.”

There are currently 22 generic top level domains (including .com, .co.uk and .gov) as well as 250 country-specific ones. The new regulations, however, will allow companies to use branded suffixes, for example Pepsi are rumoured to be applying for the rights to .pepsi, with the prospect of new sites called drink.pepsi, taste.pepsi, football.pepsi, beckham.pepsi etc. 

Although this new TLD sale does allow companies that have previously been unable to purchase the web address of their choice, a second chance to reclaim their brand, the proposal is likely to benefit larger companies, those that can afford to pay large sums of money to increase their SEO.

Is the new TLD sale just going to create one big mess?

One of the main issues is how complex searching for specific websites will become. For example, we currently have the following websites:

• bigbrandname.com
• bigbrandname.co.uk
• bigbrandnameuk.com
• big-brandname.com
• bigbrandname.fr

The introduction of new suffixes could lead to:

• uk.bigbrandname
• name.bigbrand
• home.bigbrandname
• try.bigbrandname etc.

This is surely making the issue far more complex than it needs to be.

New TLD sale too expensive, little benefit

The move follows last year’s change concerning adult websites which were given a .xxx suffix. This controversial decision took six years to take action and there are many concerns for the new proposals. Many businesses see the new TLD sale as highly expensive with very little benefit. After the change, businesses will almost certainly experience a decrease in the number of online visitors as consumers get used to the new web address. Many companies may feel the need to purchase a specific suffix in order to ensure nobody else can purchase it. A high price for something they don’t really want or need.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the body appointed by the US government to oversee internet addresses, claim that the application process will include a fifty question form designed to deter potential fraudsters and ensure companies with copyright win the right to branded domains. The US Federal Trade Commission, however, argue that there are many opportunities for consumer harm including taking advantage of misspellings (Amazon.comm).

After the deadline for applications in April, the process will be closed for three years, meaning companies have a limited time to make a very big decision about the future of their website.

Less than a week has passed since Aaron Wall highlighted the fact that Google was buying links to pass PageRank to their Google.com Chrome landing page (directly or indirectly). I saw a tweet from Rishi Lakhani that Google.co.uk was now ranking for the search term ‘Google Chrome’, when it hadn’t been last week (Google.com was).

So what has changed? Should this page be ranking for ‘Google Chrome’ following the controversial purchasing of links? Worse still – it returns a 404 error page…well it did….

Last Update: 09/01/2012 at 17:15
As I’ve been writing this post, the page has been updated to actually include content rather than return a 404 error page. Here is a picture of the cache I’ve just taken (didn’t grab the actual 404 live version):

As google.com/chrome was penalised for buying links, could it be that the Google team thought it would be useful to populate the previously redundant Google.co.uk page with some useful content for UK visitors, something Google hasn’t really done in the past?

Looking at the following chart in isolation shows that since the Google penalty (on Google.com) www.google.co.uk has risen over eight pages to feature as the number one entry for ‘Google Chrome’:

But when we look back over the past few months, it is clear that this was always the case, until the week before Christmas:

The drop occurred on the 19th of December as highlighted in the table and chart below:

If we take an even closer look on the 19th, it is clear that other Google pages are being promoted ahead of the .co.uk version (possibly because the content had been taken down? – I’m unsure of that):

Its unclear as to why the content on Google.co.uk/Chrome was removed and also the exact date of when it was removed, however our data clearly shows that the domain had no problem ranking pre-Christmas for the keyword term. I’ve been critical in the past of Google towards the way it handled the June 2009 algorithm change where Matt Cutts said that we were more likely to see “.coms in the UK” – regardless of relevance, which many webmasters and SEOs pointed out, but it fell on deaf ears.

Ironic that given the embarrassing state the Google webspam (and Chrome) team find themselves in, a .co.uk website remerges from the ashes to help all of those UK visitors looking for their browser. Still, shame about all those UK visitors looking for a nice meal along the Southbank (in London!) hey?

Edit: Since publishing this blog, Google have been playing around with a 302 redirect on .co.uk to a .com page:

As of 17:13 UK time – the URL is now returning a 200 again.

Ironic isn’t it? A company that preaches the purchasing of paid links is forbidden only gets caught doing it itself! Yes, the utterly embarrassing and humiliating hypocrisy of Google was on full show two days ago, when Aaron Wall’s blog post gave evidence of a paid link campaign – setup by the big G itself. What could Google and the web spam team do in response? There was nothing much more they could do really…

Matt Cutts spoke on his Google+ account of the action Google had taken against itself (also, excuse the cringe-worthy comments from some SEOs to Mr Cutts). A minimum of a 60 day penalty, drop in PageRank and ultimately a drop in rankings has been enforced:

The chart above shows the position of the Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) landing page in Google UK (the web) for three search terms a) Internet Browser b) Web Browser and c) Google Chrome. Google.com has maintained a top ranking position for “Google Chrome”, however the support subdomain (support.google.com) now occupies top spot, ahead of the main landing page – as highlighted in the screenshot below:

We will of course be monitoring the ‘recovery’ of the page/subfolder, which I presume will be around 60 days – no more – and create a new blog highlighting the recovery of the page/subfolder. In the aftermath of the JC Penny fiasco (which I’m sure will have a few directors sniggering) it is humiliating for Google to be caught purchasing links, despite Mr Cutts appearing to try and play down the offense.

Buying links can get you in trouble, however, if Aaron Wall hadn’t released his blog when he did – how much longer would the ‘offense’ gone on for? Likewise with JC Penny and the NY Times – would Google’s algorithm, sophisticated as it is, been able to detect these paid for links? It seems to me that 2012 could be the year that paid for links are targeted (in 2011 it was content farms) without the over reliance on manual intervention. We will have to wait and see.

Hitwise has reported in a Tweet that Google+ gained 49m US users in traffic last month (December 2011) which equates to a 55% increase from traffic to the social network site in November where it achieved 30m which was up 20% on the previous month of October 2011.

Hitwise also linked to this pretty grainy chart in their Twitter post, showing the rise in Google+ traffic since its launch.

Should Google be Happy with these traffic figures?

We’d imagine Google will be pretty pleased with these figures. 49 million US visitors would, since the naysayers (such as us) turned their noses up at the site on launch. Yes Facebook gets this traffic before breakfast on any given morning, but Google+ is a spring chicken compared to Facebook. Plus if you regard Google+ as a bookmarking site of sorts, then 50million is more than Digg was getting in its prime.

However, this isn’t just some start-up launching a new site. This is Google. There is Google+ icon on every Chrome browser and search result in their search engines. The site was launched with massive fanfare with great expense. Webmasters everywhere have been led to believe that their sites need to have a Google+ icon if it is to succeed in SEO. 50million visitors by month 6, may in fact therefore be far less than Google had hoped.

But we will wait and see if there is a decline in how much traffic Google+ gets in the coming months when the honeymoon period wears off.

The Power of Google and Panda

For the UK as well as many countries outside the US, SEO may as well mean Google Optimisation rather than Search Engine Optimisation. There are very few markets where there is such a monopoly.

This was emphasised last month when the latest UK search engine stats were released. The report showed Google has grown its year-on-year market share to 91.07% of all UK searches in November, up from 90.39% last year.

Google is the behemoth, whether we like it or not. And so everything they do, change or introduce, the search market must stop and take note.

Andy Francos IP’s lead Search Engineer took us through the impact in April of the Google Panda Update in the US. Everyone got ready for a seismic shift of their website’s performance and the real possibility of losing a reported 90% of traffic.

Panda was an algorithmic update by Google, which brought in new parameters in judging websites and reducing organic visibility for what it deemed was “low quality content”. The effect of this saw websites that were sitting pretty on pages one, two and three then being dispatched to outside page 10.

Flaws in Google’s algorithm

Despite Google’s obvious power, and its ability to change algorithms and thus change the offerings of business websites, there are still flaws. The search engine still allows sites with hefty links and poor content to continue to thrive. This can be most noticeable in Google giving over-weighted precedence to websites with keyword rich domains, meaning sites with the actual keyword in their URL – such as www.download-free-movies.fr or whatever.

In May we looked into how rife this is in the Google Serps. The problem is that those businesses who bought a keyword rich domain seem to have some advantage over other sites, despite the amount of content. This was something that was prevalent in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Also this was something that was key for good positioning in MSN back in the day, part of the reason why Google took the march on the search market. Unfortunately, for some searches, this whole issue doesn’t look like it’s about to shift anytime soon, despite Panda and other changes.

What is positive is how referral traffic can benefit your site and thus your positions. Here Andy looks into a study he did on the subject highlighting the benefits of obtaining links that provide a high volume of referrals and that click through data influences rankings within Google.

The Changing Face of Search

So what’s next for SEO and Google in 2012? Hopefully issues with keyword rich domains will fall away, plus the mounting visibility of US sites appearing for UK local searches needs to be dealt with by Google.

However, as Jon Earnshaw our Head of Search outlines, two major changes will be evident in search over the coming year. The first is the well established activity of paid linking. This has risen its head again and Jon outlines how Google is trying to deter sites from pushing paid links to their pages.

The second and perhaps biggest change to how we all interact with search engines and thus company websites is that search results are going to be so much more personalised in the future. The changing face of search and personalisation is already with us.

This means that if you search for the same keyword as me, then we could get totally different results. How will companies and SEO agencies deal with that? Don’t worry we’ve got it all in hand.

Have a very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.