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So I was doing some research yesterday, and was noticing a drastic difference in the quality of the Live search results.
I decided to do comparative analysis, and was stunned to begin finding that Live’s results were actually trumping Google’s in terms of relevance.
Here are some examples I took screenshots of this morning:
Query: Chevy
Although the searchers intent could be questionable most would say this searcher is looking for the brand of car.
Google’s Top 5
Note the inclusion of Chevy Chase, who hasn’t been relevant since early SNL, and a TexMex restaurant.
Live’s Top 5:
Based on my user intent these are a much more useful top five. As you go down the MSN page you get the TexMex restaurant mixed in with the info, but the overall page is much more focused on what would seem to be the intent for this search.
Let’s take it another route with a very focused term
Query:Nanotechnology
This is an interesting case
Google’s Top 5
That last result is an error page showing up in the results. The page auto-forwards you to a new page once you are on the site. Pages ranking, and then redirecting to new content sounds kind of spammy to me.
Live’s Top 5
So what is the point here?
Despite gaining some traction in relevance Live doesn’t seem to be gaining traction in the market. But the reality is that webmasters, and Internet marketers are growing tired of the big G, and the table is set for a competitor to capture some market share if they can embrace this population.
MSoft/ Live seems to be reaching out to this market lately, through the active outreach via blogging, the creation of Webmaster Tools, and through an update in algorithm that is not only more relevant but also seems to be penalizing over-optimization less.
I really want to see where Live takes these positive moves in the next 6 months. I think it benefits everyone in the search community to have a worthy foe for the Big G.
10 responses so far ↓
1 jennstafford // Sep 18, 2008 at 11:14 am
Interesting comparison Dave. Will be watching for a follow up in a few months. It will be tough for Live to gain substantial traction quickly, but better quality will definitely help.
2 kelliswift // Sep 18, 2008 at 11:35 am
One thing I’m learning in SEO is to improve a site not only just for big G but all the SE’s available.
But how can we get the search community to understand some of the other SE’s are more relevant to a search, as you have clearly shown above!?
3 Dana Lookadoo // Sep 18, 2008 at 11:49 am
Excellent non-blind study!
Nanotechnology? Reminds me of SES in 2005 when someone mentioned Search was the fastest growing industry only 2nd to Nanotechnology.
Begs the question - which search engine is growing in relevancy faster? Your findings help provide an answer.
4 Kate Morris // Sep 18, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I have seen some great strides from MSFT recently in the SE space. As much as I hate to admit it (sorry Jeremiah and Mel, I love you guys, but historically I dislike MSFT), they are making real progress and changing my mind about Live. While I don’t think they are there yet, I am seeing them in a better light everyday.
5 Larry Chasse // Sep 18, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Thanks, that was very interesting and I am actually looking forward to seeing if Microsoft can be more competitive.
6 Jeremiah Andrick // Sep 18, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Thanks @dave for the article and @katemorris for the nice comments. We don’t do much in the way of comments on shifting results, but we are working hard everyday to improve relevance. I am glad you all are noticing the changes.
Cheers
Jeremiah
7 Frank Reads, 18 Sep 2008, It’s A Harvest Day! | Gadgets, Games and SEO // Sep 19, 2008 at 7:18 am
[…] Snydeysense puzzled if Live Results Becoming More Relevant Than Google. […]
8 Dave Shapiro // Sep 20, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Couldn’t agree more, Dave. It seems like this most recent update did a lot of good. I used to see plenty of international sites appearing for queries where they had no business showing up, but thankfully they’re no longer there.
9 Sphinn Weekly - Week 10 | The Sphinn Blog // Sep 23, 2008 at 9:14 am
[…] 18th September - Live Results Becoming More Relevant Than Google? (martinbowling) Dave Snyder asks whether Live.com results are able to challenge Google on relevance, using a generic car query for his example. I personally haven’t run a human query on Live for many months, mostly because Google hasn’t really screw up when I’m looking for things. Mel Carson challenged me on my prejudices towards Live in Ireland many months ago, and my only reasoning for not using it was relevance and spam. I’ve joked during a few conference presentations that Google could use Live results as its spam filter, results used to really be that bad. Maybe it’s time to try Live for a week though? Direct Link: Snydey Sense […]
10 Christopher Ross // Oct 14, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Great way to compare! Thanks.
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