Google barely flinch as Microsoft announce Bing

June 12, 2009
by Duncan Fisher

Whilst Microsoft released the name of their new search engine, Google barely flinched as it continued to make improvements for its users and advertisers. Below are some examples of releases Google has made throughout May, which come on top of the releases at the recent Google Searchology event:

For the user

Google Suggest updates: As you may have experienced already, Google has introduced Google Suggest, which automatically suggests search results for users when typing in the search suggestion box. This month they introduced more features around this function to improve the suggested searches displayed to the user (ie, relevancy), making the experience faster.

It is touching on semantic search in some instances, understanding the language of the user and what their intent is, before displaying relevant results. One could argue that this approach is an attempt to counter MSN’s new approach with Bing, which they claim provides users with what they are looking for at the first attempt. The new Google Suggest features are out in the US and have yet to hit the UK market.

For the advertiser

Google Ad Planner: This tool was released in June last year to give advertisers more control in selecting sites to target throughout Google’s content network. This month they launched the “Google Ad Planner Publisher Center” which improves the accuracy of the site data seen within the Ad Planner tool.

Enhanced Search Query Performance Reports: A frustration with the search query report has often been the number of “other unique queries”, limiting the number of visible keywords that your ad campaign triggered. This month Google have expanded the functionally of the report to open up these previously unseen keywords which will allow for better keyword optimisation.

Updates to Display Ad builder: Google developed this tool to allow advertisers to create professional-looking display ads in Adwords. It was released to the US market in October last year and is now available globally with over 90 customisable templates. Google is evidently keen to assist advertisers in pushing more volume through their content network.

New Adwords UI: The release of the new Adwords interface is another evolution to make advertisers more efficient. Tools such as the display ad builder and the search query report are easily accessible from the new dashboard. Google know that by continuing to develop their suite of advertising tools and the UI, they will be ensuring advertisers spend more time optimising accounts through their traffic channels and less time using the competition.

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