Every PPC Manager faces the dilemma of whether or not to bid on your own brand and trademarked terms. Many presume that a searcher will simply click on the natural listing so there is no point in spending money on a PPC listing. But there is more to it…
Posts Tagged ‘branding’
Yahoo! Upgrades with a new look
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 by Rachel KneenOver the past few weeks (and even months) we have heard an awful lot about Google and Microsoft’s Bing! Some may argue that we have in fact neglected the familiar Yahoo! Today though Yahoo! made their own announcement that they are having a re-design of their home page. The page is now to have 3rd party links – what this means to you and me is that we will be able to customise the panel down the left hand side of the pages and we can visit these sites without leaving the Yahoo! homepage.
You can also customise the news section for stories that will be more relevant to your interests. You may also chose to have search queries filtered and only display results from limited sites such as Wikipedia or Amazon. Yahoo! have promised fewer of their own products will be displayed.
The changes were rolled out yesterday in the US and throughout the rest of the international sites during the coming week. The launch has been brought forward some months as it was initially scheduled for later in the year. Could this be the result of the ongoing negotiations between Yahoo and Microsoft over integrating their services?
I doubt very much it will be such a dramatic change as we saw with Bing but I may be pleasantly surprised.
Microsoft Tops UK Superbrands List
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 by Rachel KneenOn Monday Google’s co-founders were crowned the most powerful people in today’s media according to the Media Guardian’s 100 2009 list with Microsoft’s Chief Executive at a respectable, yet unremarkable, number 5. Superbrands UK have since published their list of the top 500 Superbrands which shows a triumph for software giant, Microsoft reclaiming its number 1 spot of two years ago as the top consumer brand. Yet Google, last year’s number 1, slips down to number 3.
The Center for Brand Analysis who conducted the research for Superbrands UK were given the following definition of a Superbrand:
"A Superbrand has established the finest reputation in its field. It offers customers significant emotional and/ or tangible advantages over its competitors, which (consciously or sub-consciously) customers want and recognise."
The selected brands were then being judged on quality, reliability and distinction. The poll was made up of a list of 1400 brands with over 2000 people voting. Microsoft, along with Apple (number 9) were the only brands classified under Technology – Computer Hardware and Software to make the top 100!
Google was classified under Internet – Superbrands UK have also highlighted Bebo.com, Confused.com and Moneysupermarket.com as brands to watch in this area.
Whilst this gives Microsoft the upper hand in this battle it certainly does not constitute winning the war. There is also ongoing dispute within search engine market share between Google and Bing, Microsoft’s new decision engine. With Bing still in Beta in the UK it is surely going to take some time before we see any kind of victor.