For months, I have had the suspicion that Bing results were almost too close to those of Google’s. In some cases, they were identical for our web properties. Of course, making such accusations without bulletproof evidence is not such a smart idea. Apparently, Google engineers have realized this too. Google is not too shy about making its take on this known:

As we see it, this experiment confirms our suspicion that Bing is using some combination of:

• Internet Explorer 8, which can send data to Microsoft via its Suggested Sites feature
• the Bing Toolbar, which can send data via Microsoft’s Customer Experience Improvement Program

or possibly some other means to send data to Bing on what people search for on Google and the Google search results they click. Those results from Google are then more likely to show up on Bing. Put another way, some Bing results increasingly look like an incomplete, stale version of Google results—a cheap imitation.

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Google Adwords is a powerful tool if you know how to use it properly. There are a lot of us who use Adwords to gain traffic for our businesses and sell things to other folks. But innovation works in any area of life. That includes online advertising as well. Finding a job with Google Adwords is very much possible if you are creative about it. Alec Brownstein’s story shows that it’s not the tool that matters but how you use it. Google Adwords is a tool. By looking at how people use Google Search, one can formulate a strategy to get the most out of Google Adwords. Here is what Alec did. He started bidding on the name of creative directors on Google. We all have our egos and Google our names from time to time. But those names are not going to be something people bid on (not yet anyway). What better way to gain someone’s attention than actually showing them an ad with their name in it?

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In case you haven’t been paying attention, there have been a lot going on in the search industry. First, we have Facebook pickup Friendfeed, and then change its advertising system to allow you to target others by their birthday or their connection to your pages. And then we have Google showcasing Google Caffeine. You can’t forget about Google Adwords latest changes to include related ads in the sponsored section. So let’s see what has changed in detail:

Facebook:

As you can see, Facebook has added a few new fields to its ad form, making it so easy to target customers by their birth date. So you can essentially give out discount coupons for their birthday. Another interesting Facebook Ads feature is two brand new fields that help you target people who are and are not interacting with your fan and product pages. For those who are not part of your fan club, you can use Facebook Ads to target them and give them some incentive to join your club. And for those who are a part of your fan page community, you can put up ads to make them interact more with your pages. (more…)

I have been taking shots at Google for the past few months now. I find Google to be terrible in applying the same standard to all advertisers. I have seen to many folks get away with spamming their ad system, and top advertisers get preferential treatment or so it seems. But what I haven’t criticized so far is Google’s customer service. These guys take time to answer all our questions and they are the unsung heroes.

Google understands that a good customer service allows you to keep your clients happy. Google understands that clients are always wrong, which means you can send them the same standard reply asking them to take a hike. Now, if you are a big advertiser and spend a lot of money on Google, you can have your complaints heard. But if you are a smaller client, you don’t need to have your issues heard. It’s all probably your fault anyway. That’s why complaining about others cheating the system often goes nowhere.

To be fair to Google, there are folks in its customer service department that actually want to help clients out. But based on my interactions with Google, I have come to conclusion that you’d have to be very persistent to get anything done with these guys. Do I feel bitter about all this? No. I understand Google’s strategy. Google is a great company but I wish they would provide better customer service for its cash cow.

Are you, too, frustrated with Google’s customer service? Please share your stories here.

The economy keeps getting worse, but life keeps getting better for Google. With Microsoft and Yahoo! struggling to making a serious run at Google’s market share in the Search Industry, Google is taking the next steps to become the dominant global force that some of us have been predicting for a few years now. As someone who has been reliant on Google to make a living, I find it hard to imagine life without it. But sometimes you have to express what is right from wrong – Google is not the white knight we have all been waiting for!

Google has been dominating the Internet industry (just to generalize) for quite some time. Many have tried and failed to get anything going against this giant. But cracks have started to appear in Google’s armor. Not that their dominance is in any danger, but Google’s quality of service has deteriorated in the past few months. Google still has the best search engine around, but SE-gamers have taken the fight to Google in recent months. Google Adwords is just a mess, and one has to wonder why Google applies double standards when dealing with its users.

Microsoft was once in Google’s position. A company at the top of the world, putting competitors to sleep, and seemingly impossible to stop. But they have learned that you can’t endure your dominance without becoming agile and providing value to your customers. I have no doubt Google has every intention to bring value to customers. But Google’s obsession to extract money from its users at any cost has simply taken away from the “White Knight” image that Google has been trying to portray. Google’s goal may be to “change the world,” but actions speak louder than words. What kind of change is it that Google aims to bring upon us?!

Rand Fishkin had a great post a few days ago about how Google’s monopoly can hurt us marketers. I thought he was making some valid points, but here is my take on Google’s inevitable journey to world dominance. If you look at the numbers from various sources (including Rand’s), you are going to realize that Google is in such a dominant position that it almost looks helpless for Microsoft and Yahoo!. Google has been having a lot of success as they understand the search business more than their current rivals. Google understands that it’s just not about making more money but also providing value to users in return. So Google has been decent enough to respect its searchers and don’t insult their intelligence as other companies do.

I do agree with Rand that Google can get to a point that it can dictate price. That’s the classic theory of monopolies. You can do almost whatever you want as you are the only game in town. The UFC does it in the fighting world, so it happens even today. But I would argue that the Internet industry is very different from those classic monopolized industries. The industry is just too dynamic for someone to create a long-lasting monopoly.

I also don’t believe a Google run monopoly (however long it lasts) can actually dictate outrageous things. The Congress and the government would love to jump on the Internet folks and put heavier regulations on us all. I doubt Google will risk getting in the regulation game. I do agree with Rand that power corrupts even the best companies. But I don’t believe Google can sustain a monopoly without staying ahead of potential competitors.

We are talking about the Internet industry, and the game is just changing so fast that Google’s search system could become irrelevant in a short period of time (I am not saying it will). Research data has shown that folks are not really loyal to one search engine, and they take their business where they feel they get the biggest bang for their time spent on site. Google can’t keep everyone happy even today. That means, they won’t be able to keep folks happy if they stop innovating.

As someone who has been involved in the SEO and Paid search industry for long, I would love to see a day when folks don’t get paid for just putting keywords in their clients’ title tags. I would love to see Google develop ways to make the SEO industry irrelevant. But we are years away from that. I actually believe that a Google monopoly is not such a bad thing for top SEOs. Having said that, I don’t believe Google can rest any second as the industry is moving fast. You are either on the train or your left behind (just take a look at Microsoft).