If you thought social networks and search engines were only for tweeting buddies and finding product suppliers anywhere in the world . . . guess again. The fact that people search for medical information online, and blog or Twitter about their flu symptoms even before they see a doctor, is now the latest way to track the spread of epidemics. Like H1N1, or swine flu.

Those lab workers at Shanghai Institute of Biological Products in China are developing possible vaccines that may protect people from the swine flu virus. But, before vaccines can be administered to the right people, the pandemic bug must be tracked down. Just like forecasting extreme weather.

Enter: Internet Detectives
Here’s where Internet Flu Watcher Programs come in, including Google’s Public Flu Trends System (see below), HealthMap’s automated hourly web crawler that searches for flu information in seven languages, and Maryland’s Resident Influenza Tracking Survey fed with voluntary weekly health reports sent over the Internet.

It’s official: Bing.com – Microsoft’s new search engine to replace its own 3rd ranked MS Live Search – passed former number 2 major search engine Yahoo! as of June 10.

bing Decision Logo

According to online user tracking by comScore, Hitwise and Stat Counter –

ComScore: With release of Bing.com at the end of May, Microsoft increased its share of the U.S. search market to 15.5% in only one week. That’s up almost 2% from comScore’s tracking data the week of May 26-30.

StatCounter: In classic horse-race lingo, StatCounter reported that Microsoft’s Bing had “overtaken” Yahoo Search for second place, with 16.28% of U.S. searches to Yahoo’s 10.22%.

Back at the horse track – MS Bing is now Place (2nd); Yahoo! Search is Show (3rd place). And, the winner? “Google still dominates the U.S. search market with 71.47% market share.”

Microsoft is now launching an improved search engine that upgrades the old Microsoft Live Search, while it streamlines consumer search into a buyer decision-making tool.

First public demonstration of the new search engine – code named Kumo in development – was at the D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California the last week of May. Kumo SE now travels under the search engine name Bing.

“Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

The old Oscar Wilde quip, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated” — (Hellooooooo. I’m still here and kicking!) — could have come from the corporate mouth of Microsoft Corporation. You can’t pick up trade industry news these days that does not start with:

Microsoft ranks a distant third in Search Engine Wars.

Or: Almost 65% of all searches conducted in April 2009 were on #1 search engine Google (comScore). Yahoo! placed 2nd at 20.4%.

· Conventional merchandise advertising channels, like metro newspapers and broadcast spots, are losing revenue to online marketing channels.

· Economic weakness, job losses and slowdowns in key industries caused disappointing Holiday 2008 sales and caution in consumer spending that ripples up the supply and demand chain.

But, what gets less play in economic bad news cycles is the unconventional results, such as:

· Online retail sales outperformed brick-and-mortar store sales for the 2008 shopping season. According to credit card network data on total sales for November-December, conventional store sales were down as much as 8% compared to 2007 … but online shoppers pulled back only 2% on their shopping.

· Citing Personal Electronics and Discount/Independent Merchandisers in particular, comScore (an online market tracker) concluded:

True Fact: 44-to-50% of small businesses have no web site or online presence.

Reasons for going “web-less” these digital days seem perfectly reasonable:

· Number One: “It costs too much to hire professional web site designers.”
· Number Two: “I’m a local retailer or service provider. Why should I be on the world wide web?”
· Number Three: “I’m too busy running my business. Who has time to keep up a web site and answer emails?”

Not Being Online Costs You Even More. A bigger risk these days to your business survival is being invisible to potential customers who do all their product searches on virtual (online) feet … including the locals. Don’t believe it? Listen to Michael Schultz, who (in the interests of full disclosure) is the marketing director for Microsoft Office Live Small Business unit:

Google Search Engine

The Google upgrade uses “concept technology” acquired from a tech company, Orion, which Google bought two years ago. According to Google’s official Blog: This acquired search technology “… can better understand associations and concepts related to your search …” (not rely just on keywords). Google claims that its new search results will be more focused and provide longer search descriptions … delivering “more useful results.”

This launch of Google search improvements is good news for busy professional searchers, who source products, find vendors or get market and industry information ASAP. This tilts toward …

· More refined search results

Of Spider Bots and Buyers

Online marketing trend trackers and analysts reach the same conclusions: Marketing budgets continue to move from offline media channels (newspapers, print, TV) to online media. The most measurable results come from search-based advertising and marketing, over online display advertising (paying for views or “eyeballs”). And, the best-performing, highest ROI search advertising runs on specialized, business-professional-interest communities called “vertical search engines.”

All built on the right keywords.

Just because you have a brand doesn’t mean
people searching online will find you.
–COO of media company Philippe Guelton
American Magazine Conference

This is part 2 – Marketing Strategies for Wholesale Buyers and Sellers – of our Search Marketing Series.

See part 1 at Search Marketing 1: How Top Sellers Acquire Ready-to-Buy Customers.

Search Marketing 2 > Marketing Strategies for Wholesale Buyers/Sellers: Branding, Product Sourcing, Advertising ROI

Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Distributors and Retailers carve out distinct stages of the buying and selling chain. Simply copying and reformatting marketing strategies that work in the world of direct-to-consumer sales does not meet wholesale industry needs. In fact, marketing activities that focus off-target, on the final retail stages of the merchandise chain, are not cost-effective or performance-based. Not in an economy that demands results from every unit of marketing money invested.

Here are strategies that work taken directly from the experience of wholesale buyers and sellers.

Follow The Money & Results: Ad Channels That Perform

Business owners who source products online and buy B2B from manufacturers, wholesalers and merchandise resellers know exactly what they want from their search efforts:

· The right business-useful information,

· Focused on their own product/industry category,

· That returns leads and resources they can use right now.

In a recent survey of more than 500 professionals (The Vertical Search – B2B – Report 2009 from e-Consultancy and Convera), here’s what business users said:

1. 67% go to vertical search engines to find the information they need quickly;

2. 65% go vertical (industry-focused) sites for their B2B searches because they get more relevant information;

3. 64% find a “significant benefit” — for their workflow and business needs — to searching at vertical sites that focus on their specific business interests.

And here is “where the rubber meets the road” …