Weekly SEO news: 2 June 2009
Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

This week, we're taking a look at Microsoft's new search engine Bing. Bing promises to be a success and this article reveals everything you need to know about this new search engine.

In the news: 302 redirect hijacks are still possible in Google, Google announces a new service, you can be listed in the local results on Google without having a website and more.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO
1. Microsoft's new search engine Bing - and how to optimize your website for Bing

Microsoft's Bing search engine has just become publicly available, allowing you to decide whether Microsoft's latest effort has the goods to take on Google. Bing is available at www.bing.com and replaces Live Search.

Bing Search

Microsoft is expected to spend $80 million to $100 million on Bing marketing which would be a nice hedge against Yahoo! because Bing will most likely take market share from Yahoo!.

Whether Bing ultimately succeeds or not, it will push Google to keep innovating search, and the new pay per click competition will ensure that Google doesn't get too greedy.

How is Bing different from Google?

Bing is not dramatically different from Google, but some people have found its results stronger. There are some visible changes:

  • Bing shows a preview of the web pages in the search results when you hover your mouse pointer at the right side of the search results.

  • Bing displays fewer results if it is certain that it has understood your intent. The search for "Facebook", for example, brings up just one result linking to the site itself.

  • Some search results are divided into categories. For example, if you search for the popular musician "Justin Timberlake", you'll get results in the categories news, songs, movies, biography, wallpaper and downloads. In addition, the search results show images, videos and the popularity of the musician.

  • Wikipedia searches can be displayed inline in the search results without leaving the Bing site by clicking the "Enhanced view" link.

  • Bing features a different background image every day. The image contains special hidden hotspots that lead you to more information (soon advertising?) about the image.

  • Despite the background image, Bing's homepage loads very quickly in your web browser because the search box and logo load first. You can turn off the background image.

  • Bing's video search lets you watch videos without leaving the search engine.

  • Bing offers specific health, shopping and travel search engines, as well as instant answers to travel searches. For instance, the search "Vegas hotels" displays a selection of hotels in Las Vegas, including hotel stars and prices.

  • Bing's search history lets you return to your most recent searches of the last two days. This feature can be turned off to protect your privacy.

  • Some of Google's features are missing, for example, Bing doesn't seem to recognize misspellings and returns no results in these cases.

How can you get top rankings in Bing?

We have already updated our popular SEO software IBP to support Bing. This means that you can run IBP's Top 10 Optimizer to get specific advice on how to optimize your website to rank on top of Bing's search results.

IBP will tell you in great detail what you have to do to get top 10 rankings on the new Bing search engine. Of course, IBP also works with Google, Yahoo and other major search engines and it also works with the different language and country variations of all major search engines.

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2. Search engine news and articles of the week

Bing Search
The sound of found: Bing!

"Today we're introducing a new kind of search that goes beyond traditional search engines to help you make faster, more informed decisions.

It will do this by combining a great search engine (with powerful new features to improve your results for any query), more organized results, and unique tools to help you make important decisions. We think of Bing as a Decision Engine."

Related: Apparently Bing is something of a hit, Bing will be a success for Microsoft



302 redirect hijacks are still possible on Google

"The top result is now pointing to some proxy redirect page. Our website itself has not been hacked. It is just the Google search results are hijacked! But the damage is done."

Google's John Mueller confirmed the issue: "The team is busy on a solution to this issue, but it might be a few days before it is visible in all data-centers. Hang tight - it'll hopefully be changed soon!"



Google WaveGoogle announces Google Wave

"[Google Wave is] Google's new real-time communication platform that will launch to the public later this year. [...]

Google Wave is a real-time communication platform. It combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client."



 An applicant's guide to becoming [a DMOZ] editor

"We often hear questions from prospective editors who are looking for guidance on how to improve their chances of having their application approved. For this week's post, we've put together a brief tutorial to help applicants tackle the more difficult parts of the application process."



 Businesses without a website can be listed in Google's local results

"That's a search for 'seattle italian restaurant' and, nope, I've never seen a TinyURL link used in a local business listing on Google (or any search engine, for that matter). This isn't Google's doing — the business owner has claimed this listing, added photos and business information, etc. But he doesn't seem to have a web site."



Search engine newslets

  • Google releases a new version of its AdWords editor.
  • Google's top policy executive to join Obama administration.
  • Google may strip 'beta' tag from some apps.
  • Lycos buys its trademarks back from failed Euro arm.
  • You can participate in the Wolfram|Alpha project.

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3. Test-drive the beta version of IBP 11

keyword tool

The beta version of IBP 11 is available. Among many improvements, the new IBP version has a brand new keyword manager:

IBP 11 Beta Version

The new keyword manager uses the unique keyword database of KeywordIndex.com. It helps you to find inexpensive and targeted keywords for Google AdWords and organic search engine optimization.

Note: IBP version 11 will be a free update for you if you have the current version or if you buy it within the next two weeks.

Click here to get the beta version.

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4. Success stories

"Highly recommended."

"Wow, I thought it would never work. With all the search engines automatically crawling your site, I did not see how this would benefit me, my site, or anyone. Boy was I wrong!!

My website has increased on Google, Yahoo, Excite, and tons more of the smaller guys. I stopped using it and following the instructions and started to fall. Once I fired IBP back up again, I was back in the race for number 1! Highly recommended A+."
Stephen Littleton, www.info-nex.com



190,000 readers will see YOUR website

Let us know how IBP has helped you to improve your website and we might publish your success story with a link to your website in this newsletter. The more detailed your story is, the better.

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5. Previous articles

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