Forum Moderators: mack
Results look very good so far, Look out Google!
AND THERE WAS THREE
The Dr
Traffic: 2x normal
Pageviews: 3x normal. (People are actually reading through the site instead of just hit and walk traffic).
ADsense: 1.5x normal. Not much extra money.
Too soon to say if it's a trend. I've had similar spikes from G and Y on occassion.
I too have found that Yahoo (or old MSN) search produces the most useful results.
Here are some phrases that must be behind MSN's thinking in creating their own search engine:
"Why keep something that works, when something that does not work will do?"
"When users search for an actress name, they are really thinking about cigars and tobacco, so make a tobacco company the top search result and completely remove 95% of sites about the actress from all the SERPs."
"When typing a zip code and the phrase hardware store, never confuse the user by making the #1 result be a link to a list of local hardware stores located in or near that zip code complete with maps and driving directions. The user is obviously searching for manufacturer's sites that include the zip code number somewhere in their site."
"When a user types more than 1 word, unless they use quotes, make sure to exclude any page from the SERPs that contains the exact phrase entered. Other SEs that give weight in the rankings to exact phrase matches are just spoiling the lazy users. It's high time users are forced to do things the right way. Unless quotes are used, the new MSN SERPs must show only sites that pepper their sites with the individual words. Our algos MUST seek out and remove ANY page that uses the exact phrase. It is the only responsible thing to do for our users."
And when you go to any of the directory sites, they mostly cross link with each other, so you can spend all day surfing in circles around directory sites.
Is MSN perfect? No. Is it good? No. It has about the same level of crapulousness as the other engines. But it's a different type of crap, so between Yahoo, Google, and MSN, I can find what I want about half the time.
Or I could use one of the half dozen niche engines I have loaded into FF search, and usually find what I want first time.
For the big three, at the moment, MSN is my favorite because it sends my site the most traffic.
As a searcher... Well, I mostly moved on from the big engines about a year ago.
Dead on post grelmar.
try to search the very common word fu*k and see the results
Much better if it was for f*cker though ;)
Results I am seeing so far are an improvement over last fall, but still not up to quality of Google and Yahoo. They don't have to give the same result, but they can't give crappy results for common searches. And that is what I am still seeing in some of the searches I ran.
I like having 3 competitors, as it diversifies the risks. But MSN still has a way to go here with this.
It has probably helped keep us as the #1 search result for a 2 keyword actress name search for 2 years on Yahoo, Google, Teoma, Ask, and Mama.
However, our site and many other sites in the same genre are listed nowhere in any MSN beta search.
This is black listing and censorship at its worst.
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We have been a DMOZ directory site for along time, as well as a Yahoo Directory site.It has probably helped keep us as the #1 search result for a 2 keyword actress name search for 2 years on Yahoo, Google, Teoma, Ask, and Mama.
However, our site and many other sites in the same genre are listed nowhere in any MSN beta search.
This is black listing and censorship at its worst.
Do I understand you correctly - you are using complete duplicate content and complaining that MSN Beta won't rank your duplicate content? And that's a problem with MSN beta? ...hehe ....if that's correct, now I've heard everything...
Maybe? hhhmmn..how about disorganization or pushing too fast. I've worked for brick and mortar business that put the cart before the horse than tried to catch up or do damage control.
I've done a number of searches on MSN beta and it's pretty literal as you've seen, grabbing at words to search and to heck with the order. I use to have sites rank well(on MSN) pertaining to the area I live in and now the results QUICKLY run out picking up similarly named areas here on earth. This thing doesn't need just one tweak to make it good!
What do you suppose the regular surfer thinks? I propose we ask people who aren't involved with I.T., design, mastering etc what they think of it.
If I were Yahoo right now, I'd have a tv ad blaring it's easier to find the things your looking for with yahoo.com (I'm not a big yahoo user either, well didn't use to be ;o)
No, you certainly do not understand correctly. I have nothing to do with the other sites. Some are commercial photo sites, some are movie/TV database sites, some are fan sites, some are message board sites. There is a lot going on that is completely missed on MSN search that the major SEs find with no problem.
That is exactly the opportunity that going live with this beta in this condition will provide to the other SEs.
It's not a smart move at all on Microsoft's part to release this just because the calendar says "Yep, we're past mid-January".
There is a lot going on that is completely missed on MSN search that the major SEs find with no problem.
Wonder why MSN is getting this flak when the same could be said for Yahoo or Google? Just go to the appropriate forum and look through all the threads on "Why am I not in Google" and "Why am I not in Yahoo".
It's called "Beta" and if MS wants to go public with a beta they will do so. I know many serps that could be called "beta" in both Yahoo and Google. At least MS is crawling like crazy building an index. Take a look at Teoma or Yahoo and tell me how many sites aren't even in there? I personally know of close to 100 sites that have never received a hit from Teoma/ASK in a couple years. I'm not trying to stick up for MS although it may sound that way. People are panicking and that's all there is to it. I certainly wouldn't want to be using Yahoo's serps on a site of mine :)
And if hundreds of thousands of people see the crummy results and don't want to come back they won't.
MSN's finding it but it's not showing up in the serps. MSN shows a better representation of indexed files than G & Y! for my largest DB site (ASP), but it takes a quoted query with exact title tag words to bring up a dynamic product detail page.
At last we are seeing results based on content in relation to the keywords requested rather than a pile of junk from the likes of Google and Yahoo that has been festering with the same dire results for years based on the principle that links are God.
Its also fantastic that MSN spider and update rather than the biased cr'p that google updates once in a blue moon.
Sorry but some posters in this forum are of the opinion that because they featured well in Google that they should feature well in MSN. Well wake up guys....MSN is not Google, thank God.
If you want to list well in MSN build your content up rather than building a link farm! Ive lost count of the number of sites that list high in Google that are just full of links and no dam relevant content.
Oh and one last point, hopefully following MSNs entry into the search engine lets just hope that Google and Yahoo at least try to get their act together and start working on providing some quality. Going back to the basics of matching a search term with content rather than links would be a start!
I'm of that opinion and it works with some massaging. But a close look at the logs as usual generally show Google pulling obscure, deep terms that make you double-take; yahoo runs a distant second; and MSN phrases resemble "See Jane Run".
And if hundreds of thousands of people see the crummy results and don't want to come back they won't.
That's very true... just ask Yahoo how they lost and continue to lose users of their search - they had the entire market basically and blew it. I think Yahoo is more into marketing their properties than yours at this point and search results are becoming less important to them.
I don't think MSN is going to lose much in the way of users because they are switching to their own results instead of staying aboard a sinking ship...
The sites I am talking about are loaded with content. Our site has dozens of video clips, hundreds of images, current news about the actress, and yes, links to other sites with additional content that we feel would interest our visitors.
MSN beta gives them a site that was last updated more than 2 years ago, a site that was last updated 1 year ago, and a tobacco company page promoting cigar and cigarette smoking. Nowhere does MSN give users ANY of the sites I am talking about that have active content about the actress.
Your assertions about content making a difference are simply wrong when it comes to the pop culture genre and MSN beta.
Our "sin" as far as MSN beta is concerned appears to be that we have links to these other independent sites that might interest our visitors. Heaven forbid that a user find a site using a web page rather than find a site through the official distorted lens of a high handed black listing censoring search engine like MSN beta.
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I have sites I'm involved with or have been that are not indexed or ranking at this time in MSN Beta, but I'm not going to call them crooked or censoring because they are not.
I see nothing wrong with criticizing a SE, and anyone who has complaints about the way the other SEs work should say so.
The reason I post here is to counter balance statements like "The MSN beta results are excellent", as if MSN beta is good enough for general release now.
I argue that releasing MSN beta now is doing MSN more harm than good and I agree with those that say it is opening the door to more market share for the other SEs. If you are concerned about making the other SEs better, I think you would want MSN to increase market share through excellence in the SERPs, not lose market share due to disappointing SERPs.
You are optimistic that MSN is working out the bugs and will get better results as time passes. After seeing the progression of SERPs over the past several months, I do not share your optimism.
It is incomprehensible how you look at crappy results and leap to "crooked" rather than "lame". You appear to need to get your nose out of your own site, but more to the point, it is not a sensible idea to think someone is rigging a beta product that has only even partially earned any revenue for less than a week!
Wait at least until the game starts before you start saying it is rigged.
