People are not only trying different search engines, they are also using longer words to find what they need. About 50% of search queries include words or more. If you are not optimizing your website for the long-tail, you are leaving money on the table.

These are not gaming changing numbers by any means. Bing still has ways to go to become a major competitor to Google. Some don’t even believe these results. But Microsoft should be encouraged.

Unless you haven’t paid attention to the world of search engines for months, you have probably heard of Microsoft Bing. Microsoft’s latest attempt to finally challenge Google in the search engine game. And by that, it is destined to complicate the game which we call search engine optimization. When Bing and Yahoo! join in the upcoming months, they are going to become the sole main challenger to Google, and if you are a marketer who makes a living out of search engine optimization, you are going to have to figure out how to show up on the first page of Bing for fairly generic terms. You can still dominate the long-tail market but getting ranked for highly competitive terms can be a challenge.

Danny Sullivan put it best when he talked about the differences between Google’s and Bing’s algorithms:

You’d effectively have two pages, one for Google and one for Bing

You may not see too many differences in results as far as highly competitive terms are concerned, but there are major differences for those keywords in the middle of the spectrum. Google does pay more attention to links whereas Bing pays more attention to content and tags. Both search engines still highly value having the exact keyword in a URL. But that’s never going to change.

Is Bing worth going after? I am not so sure. With the field of social media exploding the way it is, you are better off focusing on a long-term approach than something as fleeting as the Bing’s rankings. The best strategy to have is to figure out the common areas between Bing and Google algorithm and try to optimize in a way that strikes the right balance for both engines. But I have to choose two places to drive traffic to my website, they’d be Twitter and Google. Let’s not forget about Facebook either.

Bing is certainly a capable search engine and a decent move by Microsoft to finally get it right in the world of search engines. But this whole algorithm game is what’s wrong with the search engine industry. As much as I want to believe that companies are trying to offer the best search results to their readers, it seems as though they go out of their way to make their SERPs much different to prove they are superior to others. Judging the quality of websites indexed by Google or Bing is not that easy to do. There is no size fits all when it comes to websites. So this is a never ending game. You may find Bing to be an absolute beast of an engine that provides you with the most relevant results, but someone else may think the same way about Google results. That’s why we need personalized search where we get to choose what’s important to us.

We have made incredible improvements in the field of semantic search. It’s time for an innovative company to stand up and offer a search engine that learns from your searching behavior and optimizes your results based on that. Some folks don’t feel to comfortable with behavioral search, but I personally wouldn’t mind if my search results were more relevant. It’s not to say that Google and Microsoft are not working on these technologies, but the sooner these companies stop the algorithm games, the better off we are. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen. Why would anyone want to provide you with the most relevant results when there is more money to be earned the way the search engines are now. Cynical? Maybe. But we have been here before.

Microsoft and Yahoo! are finally together. But not like many of us believed it would happen a while ago. Jerry Yang may have infuriated Microsoft and his own shareholders by snubbing Microsoft a while ago, but the big plans have not gone as smoothly as Yahoo! wanted them to. So Yahoo! and Microsoft have finally finalized a partnership deal to stop Google on its tracks. Google currently holds 65% of the market share in online search, and neither Microsoft nor Yahoo seems to be capable of mounting a real challenge to Google. So why does this deal matter? It’s all about Bing!

Bing is a very capable search engine but Microsoft still has to find a way to get it in front of as many people possible to let them try it for themselves. By taking over Yahoo! Search, Microsoft gets more eyeballs on Bing and can build momentum for its new product. Here is what Steve Ballmer had to say about the future of search:

Microsoft and Yahoo know there’s so much more that search could be … This agreement gives us the scale and resources to create the future of search.

It’s very interesting to sit back and see whether Microsoft can make a real Google challenger out of Bing. Bing has been decent, but I am not sure you can make people change their behavior and start using a whole new engine with an expensive marketing campaign. The Yahoo! deal is a good move in the right direction, but Microsoft has got to do a better job selling Bing to searchers. As someone who was fixed on Yahoo! search for a while before finally accepting the superiority of Google, I can tell you old habits die hard. Grabbing Yahoo’s audience certainly helps, but I want to see the vision of future that Microsoft talks about by my own eyes and not just hear about it.

Will Google challenge this partnership through legal channels? Will Chrome OS give Google yet another layer of advantage over its rivals? Microsoft and Yahoo! may have made the news today with their partnership but Google has just too many things going on for them to start worrying about their future. As a searcher and a SEO, I do hope that the new partnership brings the best of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on Microsoft beating Google in its own game.

Your turn: can Bing beat Google in online search?

Unless you have gotten rid of your TV and unplugged your computer, chances are you have heard of Microsoft Bing. Microsoft has spent a lot of money getting the word out about Live.com (err… I mean Bing.com). I am not a big Bing fan, but I appreciate the fact that Microsoft is making chances to make things happen in the search engine market. Google has been almost too dominant, so I am pulling for Bing to grow and become a major factor. But as great as Bing is, there is something better than that around: BingTweets. BingTweets is a very cool Twitter + Twitter Trends + Bing mashup that lets you stay on the top of everything going on Twitter and get some search done at the same time.

So here is how Bing Tweets work. At the very top, you are reminded of what’s hot on Twitter. Whatever is trending on Twitter is going to show up in a bigger font. Once you click on a specific keyword, the Bing results are updated automatically to show you what’s already on the Internet about that trend. Your Twitter sidebar is also updated with the latest discussions about your topic.

BingTweets which has come about from a partnership between Microsoft and Federated Media is a great way to stay on the top of things on Twitter and have fun searching online on Bing. There was a time when people did most of their research on search engines. But after being on Twitter for months, I can tell you that there is no better place to get cool research done than Twitter. Whether you are looking for instant feedback, ideas on how to expand your business, or information on a specific topic, there is a good chance you can find what you need on Twitter. And just in case you don’t, BingTweets has your back. Who know Bingtweeting could be this much fun?