Ask.com has a useful Binoculars feature in its search results that shows a preview of websites as well as some information about them. The preview now adds a tab with statistics from Compete.com, showing a graph of average users over the last 12 months and site rank, with a link to see more detailed stats at Compete.
I think it’s clear that Compete was surpassed Alexa, carrying more believable and trustworthy stats and none of the mismanagement and ill will that has plagued Alexa the last few years. Adding Compete’s stats to search results was a smart move for Ask, and it underscores the gains Compete has been making lately.
February 21st, 2008
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Ask |
no comments
Alexa.com’s rankings of popular websites, never terribly accurate but always debated and used in arguments, have dropped Google from their number 2 spot all the way to #4. Passing Google.com are Google’s own YouTube, now #2, and Microsoft’s Live.com, now #3. Here’s Alexa’s traffic graphs of the top five sites:
Alexa’s data is based on installations of its toolbar, which skews it to a particular and not always representative audience. However, the audience would tend not to use YouTube or Live.com as much as the general population, which makes this graph all the more interesting. While Google isn’t dropping, its competitors are recording significant gains, and Google may need to watch its back (or front, depending on who you believe).
February 21st, 2008
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
YouTube, Services, Microsoft |
2 comments
The Associated Press is reporting that Google is finally (finally!) launching its Google Health service today after literally years of anticipation. The catch is that the initial release of Health will be a pilot program in Cleveland for 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteer to an electronic transfer of their personal medical information to Google. The rest of us won’t be able to get in just yet.
Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that’s also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools.
If Google needs a seperate agreement with every medical provider in the country, boy is it in trouble. More likely, it is just using the Clinic as a way to isolate patients for its beta test. Considering that this sort of thing is nearly impossible to keep secrete, especially with thousands of Cleveland patients, we can assume the 1,500-10,000 window is because Google hasn’t asked any of them yet, and will begin doing so today.
Google’s projection, that at least 1,500 patients will agree, banks on those patients trusting Google with a lot of sensitive personal information. People are naturally worried about who they give their medical info to, and this won’t just be a test of Google’s system, but of Google’s ability to establish that trust.
February 21st, 2008
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Services |
4 comments
The Yahoo Search Blog is proudly touting the results of the latest Keynote Customer Experience study measuring customer satisfaction with search engines. Yahoo is showing off that from May 2007 to November, its satisfaction rating rose from 837 to 878, vaulting it past both Google and Ask.com. Yahoo credits its new Search Assist feature, which walks users through refining a search query, for the boost.
Keynote uses a panel of 2000 representative users to study how the major search engines stack up in terms of performance, relevance and customer satisfaction. The report also looked at how the major engines performed in terms of providing search assistance and suggestions. Keynote found that since launching Search Assist, our ranking jumped by 41 points to 878, taking us from third to first place in this category.
Recent Compete market share numbers show that while all four of Yahoo’s competitors increased their volume of search queries over 30% in the last year (with Google up 51%), Yahoo’s volume was up a practically non-existant 0.3%. Even if Yahoo’s users are more satisfied, Yahoo is failing to attract new users, or at least convince existing ones to search more. Happy customers are nice, but apparently no one is spreading the word.
February 21st, 2008
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Yahoo, Search |
2 comments
