Branding of MSN

[~0]

;-)


Apparently - regardless of their SERPs Relevancy

The "Conditioning"/ Branding factor is another Hurdle for MSN to cross, in it's quest to compete with Google

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/busine...otebook05.html

[Brittany]

Thanks for posting! I've moved your topic to our new MSN Search forum! Now you can discuss MSN in one forum.

Enjoy!

Brittany

[cryptblade]

I majored in marketing and my classic marketing training tells me that at this point, since the major search engine market players are pretty established, MSN should not look at toppling Google, but look at competing with Yahoo! for 2nd place. If Google's brand is that strong, (and let's face it, it IS that strong since so many SEOs try to optimize with Google foremost on their minds) MSN cannot hope to topple Google since it is such a late comer into the game. Yahoo! has been competing with Google for a while now - MSN is just a new player. So new in fact that they can only hope to compete with supercharged new technology that will generate results so stunning, people will have to stop, drop and check out MSN. I dont have any faith they can do that and overcome Google, especially since Google is not sitting on its laurels and not improving its technology. MSN should be satisfied with being #3 - kinda like the cola wars, this will be the search engine wars. This is all branding a la Jack Reis and Al Trout.

But, I am particularly vexed by this hard-drive search capacity thing. What is that supposed to do? How is that supposed to help my searches online? What is the logic in that? Then there is where is the privacy in that?

I dont understand, but right now, I dont particularly like it.

[cryptblade]

Here's another thought - MSN's MSN.com where you can access Hotmail and whatever, is designed like Yahoo! which is kind of like AOL and other ISPs of yore in computer/internet ancient days and yesteryear past....

Who will actually type search.msn.com or will anyone type msn.com to search on msn, if indeed any of you actually searches on msn? I know I wouldnt search msn unless i was accessing a hotmail account. I search yahoo because i have a yahoo email account. I use MSN messenger but I dont use MSN at all.

My point is, why is MSN looking at competing with Google when it can't even compete with Yahoo?

[Jerry]

Originally Posted by cryptblade

Who will actually type search.msn.com or will anyone type msn.com to search on msn, if indeed any of you actually searches on msn? I know I wouldnt search msn unless i was accessing a hotmail account. I search yahoo because i have a yahoo email account. I use MSN messenger but I dont use MSN at all.

I actually DO search using MSN. I have MSN as my start page, I usually search via MSN first, then if the results I recieve aren't working, I'll swithc to google.

I've been woring on optimizing our web sites to show relevant Google Results, and in fact have been getting pretty decent returns from Google on some keywords, but I still just search using "? what do you need" most of the time.

Perhaps it's habit, but it works for me ;)

[~0]

Go Directly to Forums

Wed Jul 28 09:06:54 2004. Click Here




MSN Search
The Branding of MSN

Apparently, regardless of MSN's search engine results page relevancy, the "conditioning" or branding factor is another hurdle for MSN to cross in its quest to compete with Google.

"Tests conducted by Microsoft and others show that the mere presence of the Google logo can boost a user's rating of the search engine's relevance by as much as 10 percent when compared with situations in which the logo isn't visible -- even if the actual results are the same, said Microsoft executive Yusuf Mehdi, an MSN corporate vice president."...

Read Replies



Posted by: ~0

_________________________________

It is interesting how posts can get lost - then become re-discovered - was wondering why there was a "thanks for posting! " reply yesterday?


about three weeks after the posting - it becomes the "Post of The Day" today

____________________________________

Here is some more information on MSN's attempt to become a BRAND in the Media world

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-5286151.html

The bid to recast MSN TV fits in with Microsoft's overall strategy for its MSN online unit. The unit is trying to move beyond its roots as a provider of dial-up Internet access to become a broadband content service, offering video and other premium features to people who already have a high-speed Internet connection.


The original WebTV was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 for several hundred million dollars. Microsoft eventually morphed the product into MSN TV.

________________________________________


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/07...direct_tissot/

Swiss watchmaker Tissot is to offer a timepiece capable of receiving information from Microsoft's MSN Direct service.

The High-T is the sixth watch to support MSN Direct, which broadcasts personalised weather reports, news, sports results, stock prices, horoscopes and so forth on the FM band. The service costs $9.95 a month and is only available in North America, but it's not likely to appear elsewhere before the end of the year, if at all.

[bjbtexas]

Underestimating the power of Microsoft would be wrong. Over estimating future accomplishments entirely based on past performance would be equally as wrong, Google, included. We’ve all seen the missteps and great ideas gone bad in the last five years. Including bad ideas working well… aka AOL. Personally, I plan to develop strategies for MSN just as I do for Google and Yahoo. MS search could call itself BOB and it just might work - lots of money buys lots a lot of blunders.

[~0]

But blogging drew renewed attention after Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in May that Web logs and the way they are distributed could be used as business communication tools, signaling Microsoft's growing awareness of blogging as both a potential threat and a new business opportunity.

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle...3&section=news

http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/04/tech...ft_blogs.reut/

[robinev]

Microsoft seems to be planning to roll out their full search tool in stages.

To begin with, they'll offer little more than a clone of Google or Yahoo using indexes generated from their own spidering, indexed and ordered according to their unique algorithm choices. I think it will be difficult for Microsoft to distinguish itself in this stage of their rollout. They do, however, have the advantage of being ISP to some broadband companies including Qwest and the advantage of a huge user-base of hotmail customers.

The more significant part of the rollout likely to happen only when the new Windows OS is released. With "Longhorn", they will offer personalized searches from a desktop tool. They'll still be using the indexes generated from their spidering, but the desktop tool will give them the ability to give a user highly customized results. That might be enough to move them to the head of pack.

But, of course, Google is rumored to be working on its own personalization strategies.