Lately we’ve been hearing more and more about Real-Time Search but what about Real-Time Inventory or Real-Time Local Shopping?  There is local product search engine called Milo.com that is becoming more prominent in the search space.  This type of search is perfect for those of us that wait until the very last minute to do our shopping, whether it’s for birthdays or anniversaries.  What is excellent about this search engine, is that it not only tells you what stores carry a particular item, but it also tells you if the item is in stock or not.  It doesn’t stop there either. 

When you first enter Milo.com, it looks a lot like any other search engine or shopping site where you have the ability to enter in a query.  It also allows you to enter in a zip code or city to give your search an even better advantage.  What is great about this is the fact that it tells you the current inventory and a listing of store locations nearest to the location you entered in the search box.  It also acts as a personal shopper by providing ideas under “Gifts for Her,” “Gifts for Him,” “Gifts for Family” and “Gifts for Kids.” Near the bottom of the homepage, you can also select popular searches, popular pages, check out the product directory and even shop by state.  You can even shop by category, such as Electronics, or my favorite, Shoes!

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As of late, I’ve been hearing a lot of teams encountering a few road blocks when presenting clients with a search campaign.  Without fail, it seems like there is constant push back on one or all of the following: 

Not running on Branded Keywords in the campaign, while putting the focus more on general keywords.

Run on an extremely limited keyword list.

Sporadic campaign launches.  Only running during specific seasons.

Now, I understand that this seems awfully elementary, but I think it is important to stress a few of the basics when starting to put together a search campaign.  While it makes sense to those of us diving into search campaigns day in and day out, you can’t always assume that the person receiving the search strategy and keyword list understands search completely. 

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Back in July, I wrote a post about a “Visual Search” engine.  Oddly enough, on September 14th, Bing launched their take on Visual Based Search.    Unlike Spezify.com where you actually type in a search query, Bing’s visual search has you go through their available topics by photo galleries.  These photo images help you really define more specifically what it is you are looking for.  Again, since this is in beta, there are currently only 40 galleries offered.  Some topics include cell phones, handbags, film legends, and even a gallery for dog breeds.  Although it is still in beta, it is definitely worth trying it out and looking at the existing galleries.

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Starting my usual morning routine usually consists of a GIANT cup of coffee. As I began getting my coffee buzz, I stumbled on an article discussing a new search engine. In my previous post, I asked the question of what will they think of next? Unbeknownst to me at the time I was writing that post, another new search engine was preparing to launch June 15^th.

It is called Spezify.com and is a VISUAL based search engine. The interesting thing about this search engine is that it pulls data from MSN, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com and Twitter. This engine gives search results in three ways: text, video and images, all with the option of turning off bits and pieces. Whether you want to see text only, images only, or if you only want to pull data from Twitter, Spezify.com will allow you pick and choose how you want to see interesting tidbits.

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Ever wanted to find out what people are talking about…right now? Now you can! Topsy is a new search engine that looks for what people are talking about in various social communities. The search engine is listening to everything posted on Twitter, capturing all your tweets. While Twitter is the only data source at the moment, I find it interesting that it indexes the reviews people write, things posted on Facebook and other social web avenues. 

The company that created the search engine, Topsy Labs Inc., began the developing in 2006. The launch of the new engine happened earlier this week causing a stir in the online world. Now, how does Twitter connect with this? Topsy is using Twitter to gauge relevance and giving the searcher “real-time” data. Research shows that the people that use Twitter tend to tweet about three hours per day. That is a lot of information getting posted everyday!

So how does Topsy look at your conversations? Basically, if you are out on Twitter, and someone else tweets something you posted (essentially repeating the comment), you get the credit for it. It is referred to as a “retweet”. In a nutshell, it looks at the number of retweets that are produced, and it also finds results based on the Twitter users with more influence as well.

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