Well done Bing! Before long Bing will be the second most popular search engine behind Google, however use is sure to drop off once the excitement has dissipated.

I could see Bing getting up to a potential 20% (blatant guess) market share, perhaps until dropping down and settling at around 16-18%. Current Bing just passes 10% market share.

Bing, Microsofts new search platform, with is visually appealing home page has some hope to give in competing with Google, however with Google’s advances and investment in search it is unlikely that Bing will make that much of a dent, considering Microsoft’s previous search efforts.

Google Fast Flip is a Google Labs application/style of search that is currently in testing mode. Read more about Google Fast Flip in this article by Greg Sterling.

Google Fast Flip lets you browse news articles and the like as if you are browsing through a newspaper. This visual representation makes it quick and easy to look over different articles, without actually having to check out each one until you find what you really want.

It adds a new dimension to search that is very welcome.

With mobile communications advancing at the rate they are, it is likely that we will see more and more websites adapting to mobile formats as well as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising catering for this market also.

Mobile advertising is poised to grow 74 percent this year to $913.5 million. It’s then predicted to accelerate in 2011 and then reach $13 billion in 2013.

Mobile Search 101 by Ron Jones at Search Engine Watch explains where we are with mobile phone technology and where we are likely to go in the future.

Linda Evans from Search Engine Watch explains the important link between search and social media and why you should not be afraid of social media – particularly of social media being beyond your control.

Social media is becoming the corner stone of the web, evolving every day and challenging the search engines at their own game.

People no longer only use search engines to find products and services. They listen to Twitter, browse Facebook, check out online reviews and surf on their mobile phones.

Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz explains how the long tail works and why it is so important to target the long tail in this video below:

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Ignore the Tail at Your Peril! from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

The long tail can be applied to both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) management alike.

I have seen many clients and SEO/PPC agencies alike who target the “fat head” and/or “chunky middle” (see the video for an explanation), even sometimes just the “fat head” – but they do not consider or even recognize the long tail.

As Rand explains, up to 75% of all traffic can come from the long tail. Therefore if you are only targeting the “fat head” and/or “chunky middle”, you are missing out on most of the traffic that could be coming to your website, and the most relevant traffic at that!

Hitwise data for January 2009 shows that Google continue their upwards trend to grab most of the searches carried out in the US. Google are now grabbing 72.09% of all searches in the US which is up 9% over the previous year.

Yahoo have lost 15%, MSN have lost 21% and Ask has also lost 21% over last year.

Searchers are also now using longer search queries when searching for what they want on the web. What does this mean? This means that the average searcher now knows (better) how to use a search engine to find the results that he/she is searching for.

Longer search queries are becoming more popular as year over year increases (and decreases) show just that.

• 1 word search queries have dropped by 3%
• 2 word search queries have dropped by 5%
• 3 word search queries have remained stable
• 4 word search queries have increased by 2%
• 5 word search queries have increased by 6%
• 6 word search queries have increased by 8%
• 7 word search queries have increased by 12%
• 8 word search queries have increased by 22%

This means that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC) management have become a lot more difficult as search queries become longer and therefore more varied.

Paid advertising using keyword targeting will become more difficult as accounts become larger due to increased keyword numbers. As keyword phrases become more targeted, so too must paid advertising campaigns such as Google AdWords, in order to maximise quality score, reduce Cost Per Click (CPC), and thereby increase Return On Investment (ROI).

It looks like Google may be introducing paid search without using keywords to target clicks in sponsored results on Google. This would be done by way of choosing categories that your business is related to. Read more on Paid Search Without Keywords here.

What effect this will have on Google’s ranking system (quality score) may be questionable as Google may not be able to determine which advertisers are keeping their AdWords campaigns targeted and therefore relevant to users’ queries. This is something that Google will have to think about before implementing this feature.

However, it is most likely that paid search without keywords won’t be happening for a while yet as the current system is working very well and currently there is no need for change. Change now may upset the apple cart and Google wouldn’t want that considering that 99% of their revenue comes from paid advertising.

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Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz talks about email Marketing (and a little SEO) in this Video below. Although this content is a little more technical, the general gist of it is easily understood.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Email Marketing and SEO from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Hal Varian, the Chief Economist at Google explains in a most excellent way, the way that Google AdWords determines ranking factors when you are bidding on keywords.

Hal explains that advertisers want to show relevant ads (most of the time), users want to see relevant ads, and Google wants the best for both advertisers and users.

Hal explains how the maximum Cost Per Click (CPC) is not necessarily what the advertiser will pay.

Hal continues to explain quality score. The most important factor is Click Through Rate (CTR), followed by relevancy (how well ads relate to keywords bid upon), and last, the landing page quality in relation to both ads and keywords bid upon.

Quality score ensures that the most relevant advertiser is ranked first and therefore gets the most visibility. Quality Score also ensures that the price paid per click is reduced for the most relevant advertiser.

Watch the video below for a clear, precise explanation: