While it remains premature to state victory, Microsoft’s latest attempt at search, Bing, is off to a respectable start.  At a whopping two weeks old, Bing has generated a nice bump in users, possibly thanks to spreading the word about the newly released search engine.

According to comScore.com, Bing’s market share in the U.S. rose from 9.1 to 11.1 percent between June 2nd and June 6th, an impressive figure of its impressions.  It is common for new products and services to see an increase in interest and publicity initially, the trick and goal is to capture that interest and maintain it.  This becomes especially important given the competition for search business between Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, the search business market leaders.  Microsoft has spent much effort and funds promoting Bing on both the internet and television.

Microsoft has succeeded in gaining attention, and is most likely aligning themselves for continued momentum.  Not to mention the fact that Bing must perform on a level to compete with number one search engine, no simple task considering the enormity of Google.  Relayed by Deep Blue Interactive, Florida web design and interactive marketing solutions.

Microsoft recently released Internet Explorer 8, (IE8 RC1) and many have been anticipating the Web Slices feature.  Similar to live bookmarks, which are periodically updated with new information, Web Slices go a step further and offer the option of displaying a preview window when clicked.

The preview fly-out shows the information that was updated on the bookmarked URL, in a convenient quick-glance display. There is no effort required to utilize Web Slices, as they are automatically discovered by IE8 as the user visits a page that contains them.  The special green icon will appear in the toolbar of IE8 to alert the user that Web Slices are on that page. 

It is simple to install Web Slices, you just select the Web Slice to install from the drop-down menu and confirm that you do want to add it to your Favorites.  The Favorites bar in IE8 appears slightly different, and there are also changes to the Compatibility View, IEAAK and AJAX.  Microsoft made it simple to transfer favorites from Safari or Firefox to IE8.  Brought to you by Deep Blue Interactive, your Fort Lauderdale web design and search engine marketing solution.

Xobni is a tool by Microsoft to streamline inbox management-it is actually inbox spelled backwards.  The search tool indexes email in one’s outlook inbox-searching messages for keywords, phone numbers, names and photos and categorizing them.  Xobni announced on Monday that it has closed a $7 million dollar round of financing with Cisco Systems as a new investor in the Microsoft Outlook Search tool.  Cisco Systems is expanding its workplace collaboration tools, and is investing in the Microsoft Outlook plug-in for people with large amounts of email. 

Xobni’s previous investors also participated, including First Round Capital, Khosla Ventures, Atomico and Baseline Ventures.  Xobni is partnered with Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, Yahoo and Hoovers.  Cisco’s interest in e-mail and workplace collaboration tools is an example of how common the internet is becoming to nearly every occupation-and investor’s are taking notice.

Cisco’s vision for investment in the product includes initiative to cement a partnership to assist in integrating Cisco and Xobni, potentially allowing users to access Cisco products through the Outlook plug-in.

Since May, Xobni has been downloaded 1.5 million times and has roughly 400,000 active users each month.  An astonishing 20 percent of Microsoft employees use the plug-in, as it saves time otherwise spent organizing email that they are now able to spend elsewhere.

The plug-in has received high marks from users and investors, as email had become nearly forgotten while remaining an issue in both business and personal lives.  Brought to you by Deep Blue interactive, your Fort Lauderdale interactive marketing and web design solution.

Recently a shareholder with 1.5 percent of Yahoo Inc., Ivory Investment Management LP, has suggested the company sell its search business to Microsoft, suggesting the business venture has the potential to double the value of Yahoo.  Ivory Investment proposed via letter to Yahoo’s board that revising plans to sell the search business to Microsoft. 

Microsoft had offered previously to purchase Yahoo at $33 a share, which Yahoo rejected.  Yahoo shares were trading less than half that recently.  Rumors are circulating on both sides, with some saying Microsoft has no longer has a vested interest in purchasing Yahoo, and some theorizing that a deal of some nature is in the works.

One thing is clear, with 21.4 million shares of Yahoo; Ivory Investments has an interest in the future of Yahoo.  The business plan proposed by Ivory Investments suggests that Yahoo retain 80 percent of the advertising revenue generated through its search business, possibly increasing earnings by more than $500 million per year (pre EBITDA).  Not to mention that both companies stand to save approximately $800 million simply by combining their search operations, therefore cutting duplicate costs.

What will come of the suggestion made by Ivory Investment remains to be seen.  Deep Blue Interactive, your Fort Lauderdale interactive marketing and web design firm will continue to follow the progress of the story.

The attention spans of online video viewers are improving.  Previously viewers were searching for and watching short clips online, and online content was generated based on those findings and habits.  As time goes on and users become more technology savvy, they have begun to utilize the convenience of available network programming online to watch entire episodes on their computers-on their own schedule as well as other online video resources.

Enter Hulu, the NBC-Fox venture that is now one year old.  From its onset, Hulu received ridicule and predictions of failure.  Today Hulu is the sixth-largest video site on the World Wide Web-with an impressive 6.3 million users in September.  Hulu and other online video providers are showing that users are becoming increasingly engaged in watching longer videos, from the Olympic Games to election coverage and everything in between.

In fact, the average length of a video on Blip.TV has increased from 3-5 minutes to 5-7 minutes over the period of one year.  Video sites such as YouTube and others have been presenting a stream of related content to watch after a video ends, and have found it useful. This practice is similar to targeted advertising online and keeps viewers tuned in for longer increments of time.

The internet becomes more a part of our lives each day.  Rather than having no option but to sit through an entire news broadcast to hear the segment you are interested in, or waiting through endless commercials to watch a program, people are turning to the internet for their entertainment and other needs.  It is vital that your business has a compelling and searchable website in order to generate new clients.

Deep Blue Interactive is your integrated marketing source in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Our team of highly skilled professionals can strategically draw your targeted audience to your website through search engine optimization and powerful web design.  Contact Deep Blue today for your free website analysis and consultation!