From a webmasters perspective this can be a very useful tool in determining the reading level of your own content. You will want to and perhaps expect to have a more basic level for social sites where user/member interaction with the website is encouraged (except perhaps in niche situations).

Take for example Hiking Hong Kong, which reviews hiking trails in Hong Kong for the average outdoor enthusiast. As the webmaster for this site, I would expect to see a basic reading level for a good portion of the website, with some intermediate content for some of the more technical articles. When performing a site search in Google we can see exactly what Google thinks of our content:

Google Reading Level Site Search

Thankfully this is exactly the result that we get in return. As for our website Semtek on the other hand I would expect to see more of an intermediate reading level as we attempt to ‘dumb down’ some of the more technical SEM information so that our clients can actually understand what we are talking about.

Google Site Search Intermediate Reading Level

Which again is exactly what we can see. This information can also be very useful in determining where Google places you against your competitors.

A specific search on “search engine optimisation”, being a technical subject will more than likely return higher reading level results at a higher position in search engine results listings. This would be true for other specific technical subjects.

Doing a search on “search engine optimisation” (or any other subject) in Google will also show reading levels of websites for that query as well as the reading level below each result returned.

Google Search Website Reading Levels

On this specific query, it is not until page two that we see some basic reading level websites appearing in the search results. It must be noted however, that Google being Google, will still return results that it thinks are the most relevant to users overall – that is taking into account many other features of a website to determine it’s relevance in search engine results listings.

As with SEO, there is not one solution to get you ranked in first position on Google, there are literally hundreds that when added together, create that one solution. In this example however we see that Google is becoming more open with the ranking techniques, something which will surely follow in the other top search engines as time passes if they want to have any chance at competing with Google.

That has finally changed back to (and better) the way that it used to be. Now, if any domain shows significant value over other websites, up to four different URL’s will be displayed along with an option to display even more results so that users may get to the exact page that they want in one click.

For example, lets take hiking in Hong Kong. If we search for the term, “Discovery Bay hiking”, we are given three highly relevant results from the website Hiking Hong Kong, with the option to display further results.

Hiking Hong Kong relevant result listings.

Showing more results from this domain, results in another 5 relevant results being displayed, with a further option to show all results from the domain, should you agree with Google’s observation that this domain is the most relevant against all other domains.

Show more results for Hiking Hong Kong.

I have personally felt that the two URL listing was inadequate as it limited relevant results from being displayed for specific queries. If one website, such as Hiking Hong Kong in this example can display up to eight relevant results with the option of displaying all results, then surely this is more user friendly and gets visitors to where they want to be, quicker.

So providing that you can make your domain appear to be (or actually be) the most relevant amongst your competitors, then you have a really good chance at dominating the organic search results and taking in the most referrals from any one relevant search query.

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 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.

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).

HealthBase by NetBase is a health research showcase (read Search Engine) dedicated to medical material. From what I have seen HealthBase appears to be a solid medical search engine and I have already bookmarked it for further use.

On the home page you can immediately search for treatments for a health condition, disease or sign. Lets give it a go.

How about we try “hemorrhoids”. Throw it in the research box and hit enter. Up pops 127 treatments from 307 records. These treatments are listed in three unique categories – Drug and Medications, Treatments, Food and Plants.

Under each category, we are presented with various subcategories. Further clicking on a sub-category will show a list of the top three links with a small but comprehensive summary of what is included on each website. In fact these summaries often appear to be so relevant that one may not even need to follow the link to the website. This makes for a much faster searching (and finding) experience.

Each sub-category can be expanded and collapsed with ease meaning that you can navigate through various options without getting lost in a jumble of links, pages and websites as often happens with a regular search engine such as Google.

The other good (great) thing is that these sources are coming from trusted links. They are not just any old site on the web. They provide valid and up to date information on the topic you have searched for.

At the top of the page, above the research box, are various other tabs which enable you to ‘research’ other areas – specifically causes, complications, and pros & cons. Clicking on each of these tabs will show further information much like the treatments tab, but more specific to your exact need.

I personally think that this search engine is a step forward from other search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN/LIVE/BING.

Search Engines such as HealthBase, Decision Engines such as Hunch, and Knowledge Engines such as Wolfram Alpha are perhaps the wave of the future and the true competitors to Google or Yahoo rather than Binghoo or Microsoft.

This is not good news for Bing, as it will deter people from using their search engine to find information on the web.

You may check out the report on “No Prescription Required: Bing.com Prescription Drug ads” here.

Discover what weather is heading your way:

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You have the ability to view your schedule, add or remove sights and change the dates of your intended stay.

Taking a further look into Google City Tours, the first thing I have noticed is that there is no tour information for Hong Kong, or at least I cannot figure out what to search for. I have tried “Hong Kong” and “Hong Kong, China”, but nothing comes up. Upon typing in “Melbourne, Australia”, at once a 3 day itinerary is displayed for sights across the Melbourne city area.

Melbourne Schedule, Google City Tours

Most sights appear to be Museums, something which doesn’t interest me that much. After removing most museums from my schedule, there is not much left for my 3 day proposed schedule.  Now, you may also add items to your schedule, but the problem is that without knowing where to go, it is very difficult to know what to search for.

In this respect, Google City Tours may still have a long way to go to become more functional and hence the reason for it being in the Labs area of Google – Where new programs are tested and developed before becoming main stream.

I can definitely see a good use for Googly City Tours and look forward to using it in the future when it is fully functional.