Is it Finally Time to See the Butterfly Take Off?
As posted November 20, 2008 on SearchFuel.com:
With the unknown future of Yahoo’s stability, the recent grumblings over Google’s advantageous use of their power, and the inefficient technology of Ask, has the search world finally entered the Era of MSN? This is quite the possibility when you give it some thought.
We know this has been a volatile year for the top four search engines. Google, while still mighty, has seen some backlash for some of their recent enhancement choices. While we love Ask and want them to succeed, it seems that their current company model doesn’t support the technological changes they need to make in order to gain a nice chunk of market share. The stability and sureness of Yahoo as a whole is, simply put, not there. All the while MSN’s been plugging away to make their user and advertiser experience better.
If you’ve been in the search space for the last 3 ½ years, you can probably remember the entrance of MSN into the ranks. Everyone was excited, but it didn’t take long for that excitement to change to irritation. Many of us felt adCenter was launched before Microsoft was ready to support it and back it up with the technology it needed to be successful. For example:
•The interface was cumbersome to use
•There were many simple tasks a search manager wasn’t able to do because the system wasn’t intuitive
•The adCenter service reps were unknowledgeable and over booked on accounts
•It was impossible to get one on the phone when you had a problem or needed a campaign uploaded, but it was even more impossible to then speak to someone who could actually help
Over the past year and some change, we’ve seen some smart moves on MSN’s part. They have:
•Continued to make interface and functionality upgrades to adCenter
•Re-structured their service model and added a good number of reliable reps to ensure agencies and advertisers have the help and coverage they need to be successful
•Provided pro-active account deep dives and recommendations
•Purchased Atlas
•Partnered with Facebook
•Created the Excel Ad-In keyword tool
•Created an account management desktop tool so making updates to campaigns are a breeze
•Added and improved their quality-partner content networks
And so the list goes on.
Most clients I’ve dealt with see their greatest search ROI from adCenter. The only reason they don’t put more money towards MSN Search is because the volume they need to spend the budget is not there. To begin solving this problem, MSN has started a public push to gain more searchers on Live.com and MSN.com. It’s already started this year with the introduction to Live Cashback and GetSearchPerks.com.
The service is better, the technology is better, and the user base and awareness are growing. Microsoft has what it takes to really give adCenter and Live.com the push they need to succeed. I’m excited to see that butterfly take off in 2009!
With the unknown future of Yahoo’s stability, the recent grumblings over Google’s advantageous use of their power, and the inefficient technology of Ask, has the search world finally entered the Era of MSN? This is quite the possibility when you give it some thought.
We know this has been a volatile year for the top four search engines. Google, while still mighty, has seen some backlash for some of their recent enhancement choices. While we love Ask and want them to succeed, it seems that their current company model doesn’t support the technological changes they need to make in order to gain a nice chunk of market share. The stability and sureness of Yahoo as a whole is, simply put, not there. All the while MSN’s been plugging away to make their user and advertiser experience better.
If you’ve been in the search space for the last 3 ½ years, you can probably remember the entrance of MSN into the ranks. Everyone was excited, but it didn’t take long for that excitement to change to irritation. Many of us felt adCenter was launched before Microsoft was ready to support it and back it up with the technology it needed to be successful. For example:
•The interface was cumbersome to use
•There were many simple tasks a search manager wasn’t able to do because the system wasn’t intuitive
•The adCenter service reps were unknowledgeable and over booked on accounts
•It was impossible to get one on the phone when you had a problem or needed a campaign uploaded, but it was even more impossible to then speak to someone who could actually help
Over the past year and some change, we’ve seen some smart moves on MSN’s part. They have:
•Continued to make interface and functionality upgrades to adCenter
•Re-structured their service model and added a good number of reliable reps to ensure agencies and advertisers have the help and coverage they need to be successful
•Provided pro-active account deep dives and recommendations
•Purchased Atlas
•Partnered with Facebook
•Created the Excel Ad-In keyword tool
•Created an account management desktop tool so making updates to campaigns are a breeze
•Added and improved their quality-partner content networks
And so the list goes on.
Most clients I’ve dealt with see their greatest search ROI from adCenter. The only reason they don’t put more money towards MSN Search is because the volume they need to spend the budget is not there. To begin solving this problem, MSN has started a public push to gain more searchers on Live.com and MSN.com. It’s already started this year with the introduction to Live Cashback and GetSearchPerks.com.
The service is better, the technology is better, and the user base and awareness are growing. Microsoft has what it takes to really give adCenter and Live.com the push they need to succeed. I’m excited to see that butterfly take off in 2009!
posted by Erika at 11:36 AM
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