search engine

Do You Know Qihoo 360?

It's a Chinese software company specialized in the safety use of the Internet. It is especially known for its antivirus 360 Safeguard (more than 400 millions users) being the leader in China and its web browser 360 Browsers (almost 300 millions users) being second behind Internet Explorer.

Its website hao.360.cn is very AOL-like (meaning a lot of links directing to the main Chinese websites) and has a lot of traffic as it is the default landing page for the browser.

What's New for Qihoo?

Qihoo 360 launched its own search engine in public beta on August 16^th : 360 Search. On so.360.cn, you get pretty much the same features as those on Baidu but you also have access to a software's downloading platform.

Qihoo Search is now the default search engine on its landing page and on its browsers (even on smartphones).

What about Google and Baidu then?

Before it releases its newest software, Qihoo was using another search engine, namely Google! It's a tough decision for the American company who was already having trouble in China as they moved in Hong Kong in 2010 and lost market share.

In a market dominated by Baidu, which holds 78,6% of the Search Engine market shares, Google (15,7%) and Sogou (basically almost the remaining percentage), Qihoo will have to find a spot to settle down. It sure has two major assets : its landing page and its browsers.

What Changes Can One Expect on Search Engine Market?

The Chinese Search Engine market will probably change. Will Qihoo manage to attract enough users and keep those they already own by default?

There will probably be collateral damage on Sogou that has the same business model as Qihoo. It already affected Google - they lost a lot of traffic not being the default search engine on Qihoo landing page already. And Baidu probably won't be as big as before.

The Question is : "how much"? There is already a rumour saying Qihoo 360 Search would hold 10% of the market share. Even if it's highly plausible, we'll have to wait to know the actual figures. There are also experts saying that the non-Qihoo users are very unlikely to switch to 360 Search as Chinese internet users don't like to change their habits.

Anyway, we know for sure it's going to be a major actor on the SEO market anytime soon.

Qihoo Already Playing Tricks?

Apparently, not everybody likes Qihoo 360. A few weeks ago, they were proven overestimating the traffic on their landing page by the well-known hacking activists, Anonymous. That way, they could sell the links on their website a higher price.

Only 8 days after launching its new service, they would be playing tricks to Google...

A few days ago, Google launched a new feature called the "Knowledge Graph". With this new update, Google is getting one step closer to semantic search by attempting to understand the meaning behind the strings of keywords that users search for. Google sums up the Knowledge Graph nicely by saying that it enables users to search for "things", not "strings".

What is Google's Knowledge Graph?

The Knowledge Graph finds relationships between different items including people, places and things. Google has developed a huge library of over 500 million objects and 3.5 billion facts, sourced from Wikipedia and the CIA's World Factbook amongst others.

At present, the feature is only available for the Google.com index but it will soon be rolled out to other countries in the coming weeks.

Below is the official video by Google introducing the new feature:

Benefits for Google's Users

There are three main benefits:

1. Improved relevancy

Google will be able to better determine which item you are specifically searching for. In some instances they will provide users with a box to select the appropriate item which they are looking for. For example, if a user searches for "taj mahal", the user will be able to choose if they want to see results related to the monument in India or to the famous casino in Atlantic City.

2. A quicker search process

Normally, if you searched for "china" in Google, you may have decided to visit the appropriate Wikipedia page which is the second result in the SERPs. However, Google now provides some details within an information box in the SERPs which includes the capital city, dialing code, GDP etc.

3. Suggestions for further research

When searching for "william shakespeare", the information box provided shows a selection of his most notable plays as well as people who are in some way related to or are similar to William Shakespeare. Users can discover Shakespeare plays that they may not have heard of before for example.

SEO Implications : What Changes in the SERPs?

Our opinion is that sites such as Wikipedia may be affected in the long-term as often people are just searching for one fact; providing an entire web page about a certain item means that more information is provided, but this actually makes it less efficient for a user who is just looking for a specific fact.

The Knowledge Graph is primarily focused on providing facts to users. This means that for the vast majority of business and ecommerce sites, there will be minimal/no impact. It will mostly affect users who are in the research stage of the buying process; not necessarily users that websites should target so early on.

As always we will closely monitor how this new development changes the search landscape.

Google is currently focusing on semantic search in order to deliver more relevant results.

Let’s review what Google’s semantic search is and what it's going to change.

Google to Develop Semantic Search

In the months to come, the US search company will use more and more semantic analysis to understand the real meaning of a keyword and improve the relevancy of its search algorithm by providing users with direct results.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Google’s search engine will therefore undergo a major transformation as this change is expected to impact between 10% and 20% of overall search queries.

To implement semantic search, the search giant will rely on its huge data base of 200 million of entities including places, objects, and people thanks to Metaweb, a company specialized in semantic data that Google acquired in 2010.

What is Semantic Search?

Google will integrate the semantic to its technology of search by keyword in order to better differentiate the value of information in a web page.

For example, semantic analysis allows to differentiate keywords with more than one meaning, such as the country 'China' and the ceramic material ‘china’.

Semantic search can also help associate different words with one another, such as a company (THEM) with its services (Website Development and SEO services).

The search engine will also be able to reply to direct questions.

Semantic Search Isn’t New at Google

Google actually already uses semantic-search elements by displaying answers to direct questions.

For example, a search for “what is the population of China”, results in displaying a graph and the figures from the World bank (1,338,299,512 in 2010).

Google Wants to Keep the Lead in Search

The leading search company has a market share of over 66% (in search queries) and over 75% (in revenue) in the US and isn’t ready to let anyone grab some shares of his cake.

To maintain its leading position against Microsoft Bing, now Apple Siri on mobile, Google has no choice but innovate to stay ahead of the competition.

After introducing the +1 button and social search results, Google clearly wants to stay ahead of Facebook and Twitter's interest graphs, and therefore use other kinds of signals for both search and ad relevance.

More Relevancy and ... More Money

His social network, Google+, will therefore be a key asset for its semantic search since it allows the company to have information on a network of people, companies, places and things, and so build relationships between them to be used in its search algorithm.

Instead of showing users results or ads that just match the terms in their search, Google will have to match ads to their search based on their meaning, as well as their context, location, +1s, relationships, etc.

By providing users with direct results rather than links to other websites containing typed keywords, Google could manage that users would spend more time on its sites, and therefore earn more revenue from advertising that account for more than 90% of its overall revenue.

A study released in September 2011 and led by True Action Network shows Click-Through-Rates (CTR) for every ranking position of Google's Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

From an SEO point of view, what do we learn? 1st ranking position (what I call pole position) isn't as attractive as before!

Everyone agrees to say that having your website ranked on the 1st page of Google search results is extremely important as it gives you visibility, as well as drives traffic to your website.

However, the 1st ranking position is less important today than a few years ago according to the study. Indeed, the 1st ranking position CTR has decreased since 2006 and actually benefited to the 4 following positions.

The study was based on Google Webmaster Tools data from major e-commerce players which are also True Action Network’s clients.

The data enabled the company to compute the number of times when a search result is clicked compared to the number of times it is displayed (CTR), and then compared to AOL data dating back to 2006.

The sum of all CTRs reached 52.5% in 2011 (vs. 49% in 2006) meaning that over 1 out 2 Internet user clicks on organic results on the 1st search results page. 13% click on ads, and the remaining on other links such as Google Images, Videos, Shopping, etc.

The 1st ranking position attracts less Internet users than before: less than 1 out of 6 in 2011 vs. nearly 1 out of 4 in 2006.

On the contrary, CTRs of search results ranked between 2nd and 5th positions dramatically improved (over 50%). 

What does it mean for your SEO?

Findings of the study should help you understand that SEO isn't about the 1st position only. There are great chances that working to rank several keywords on positions 2, 3, 4, and 5 is more effective than focusing on getting  the pole position only.

Related article: CTR comparison between Google and Bing.