Most search engine features - particularly those focused on the user interface - currently being touted as innovative by the big boys of search - Google, Bing - have been available for some time now in NeXplore Search.
A technology truism: Innovation happens at the edge.
NeXplore CTO Dion Hinchcliffe on the future of search:
“Search is no longer about server sprawl, computational brawn and algorithmic complexity. It’s about harnessing the speed and power of Web 2.0, cloud computing and RIA technologies to provide a productive, visually engaging, social and interactive search experience by way of a cost-efficient, highly effective distributed search engine that easily scales to meet volume demands without compromising performance.”
Tags: bing, Google, nexplore, Search Advertising, Search Engine
In his recent article “Visual Search New But Not Unique,” Keith Magee, search industry expert and contributing writer for the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), singles out NeXplore Search (Squared) as having the “best user interface” among all popular search engines, including Bing and Google.
Magee’s article presents an analysis of Bing’s new visual search option and an examination of the promising potential of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and Web 2.0-style interfaces.
In his comparison of NeXplore Search (Squared) to Bing and Google, Magee notes that “the smaller, more nimble and more visionary NeXplore interface is far superior to anything on the Net, offering features that Bing and Google still don’t fathom — like website thumbnails, common and similar phrases to the current search, Wiki-related information, multimedia “hover ads”, live contact connections via voice, email, and web chat, plus a host of other features.”
NBA great George ‘Iceman’ Gervin has joined NeXplore Corporation’s board of advisors and will assist with public relations and business development initiatives in support of NeXplore Search (Squared).
Read B2B Magazine article: “Iceman Cometh”
Read NeXplore press release: NBA great George ‘Iceman’ Gervin Joins NeXplore Advisory Board
Tags: nexplore
“We have removed the beta label because we have achieved our goals for stability, scalability and performance. However, we remain committed to our longstanding practice of introducing user-driven innovations,” said Edward Mandel, CEO of NeXplore Corporation. “We are working to enhance several of NeXplore Search (Squared) popular personalization and socialization features, and we plan to integrate a Web-based operating system and application suite for managing and consolidating email accounts, contacts, calendars, music, projects, and more.”
Read NeXplore press release: NeXplore Search Sheds beta, Rebrands as NeXplore Search (Squared)
Tags: Add new tag, nexplore, nexplore search, Search Advertising, search engines
Amar Nehru, former general manager, emerging markets group for Microsoft Corporation, and Hani Imam, former general manager, finance operations for Microsoft Corporation, will provide strategic guidance to NeXplore’s senior executive team in support of the company’s aggressive business and revenue growth goals.
Read NeXplore press release for more details: Former Microsoft Executives Nehru and Imam Join NeXplore
Tags: Add new tag, bing, Google, Internet Search, nexplore, Search Advertising
In his recent article “Bing vs. Google vs. the Reality of History,” Keith Magee, search industry expert and contributing writer for the Gerson Lehrman Group (GLG), cited NeXplore Search as an example of “true innovation in search” and predicted that in the future consumers “will begin ‘NeXploring’ on a daily basis.”
Magee’s article examines the past, present and future competitive landscape of Internet search.
Read the full text of “Bing vs. Google vs. the Reality of History” on the GLG website.
Tags: bing, Google, internet advertising, Interrnet Search, nexplore, Search Advertising, Search Engine, search engines
Today’s tough economic climate is taking its toll on brand advertisers. A recent survey of marketers conducted by the Association of National Advertisers found that more than 50 percent expect their marketing budget to be reduced within the next six months. The same study revealed that nearly 90 percent of marketers are under pressure to wring cost savings or reductions from their current marketing and advertising initiatives.
Traditional mediums for big-spend brand advertisers — TV, newspapers, magazines, etc. — typically take the brunt of advertising budget cutbacks. Online advertising, while not entirely immune, generally fares better during an economic downturn. In fact, despite today’s trying economy, the vast majority of industry experts predict significant and sustained growth over the next several years for online advertising. The outlook is particularly strong for paid search advertising, which accounts for approximately 41 percent of all Internet advertising.
According to research firm IDC, overall U.S. Internet advertising revenue will double from $25.5 billion in 2007 to $51 billion in 2012, growing about eight times as fast as advertising at large.
Brand advertising is essential to healthy, sustained business growth, and as economic pressure forces a growing number of companies to scale back their expensive brand advertising campaigns, they risk losing valuable market share and hard-earned mind share among consumers.
Paid search can offer the best value to brand advertisers during tough economic times, providing search engines make some dramatic, long-overdue changes to the traditional, text-laden search engine results page (SERP).
A recent PIP study shows that nearly half of all Internet users use search on a daily basis. The study confirms what professional marketers already know – that search is the Internet gateway; search is where the eyeballs are; and search is the inevitable first step in the purchase process. Given this prominence, it only stands to reason that the search-engine results page evolves to better serve the needs of brand advertisers.
Serving up a graphic-rich, visually appealing results page enhances the search experience for consumers and finally gives brand advertisers the online medium they’ve been waiting for to deliver truly meaningful, brand-building impressions.
Search advertising is a proven, recession-proof medium for executing measurable, performance-based ad campaigns, but plain text search results do little-to-nothing in terms of brand building. When the economy stumbles and marketing budgets shrink, brand advertisers are the hardest hit.
Moving brand advertising dollars online makes sense from a cost perspective, but unfortunately the current model for Internet display advertising, particularly intrusive banner ads that consumers have conditioned themselves to ignore, falls far short of meeting the needs of brand advertisers.
The most viable solution is a radical re-thinking and redesign of the search engine results page. Serving up a graphic-rich, visually appealing results page enhances the search experience for consumers and finally gives brand advertisers the online medium they’ve been waiting for to deliver truly meaningful, brand-building impressions.
In addition to delivering the proven advertising value of paid search, rich use of graphics and rich-media delivers quality impressions that move the needle on brand awareness, brand favorability, message association and purchase intent — all of the essential elements of successful brand advertising.
NeXplore Corporation recently announced the public beta launch of NeXplore Ads™ version 2.0, a full lifecycle search advertising platform that enables marketers to easily create and manage paid search ad campaigns that can include a blend of text ads, branded images, video commercials and other rich-media ad formats featuring built-in, real-time consumer-interaction capabilities, including video chat, call scheduling, email, instant messaging and more.
With a simple click consumers can watch a brief video commercial and can click again to initiate a real-time video chat with a call center representative of the advertiser. With NeXplore Ads, targeted consumers are engaged, relationships forged and transactions consummated within seconds, with absolute privacy and without leaving the search results page, according to Scott Grizzle, chief marketing officer for NeXplore Corporation
According to Rowland Hanson, strategic advisor to NeXplore Corporation and former VP of corporate communications for Microsoft, where he developed and executed the branding strategy for the hugely successful Windows operating system, “NeXplore Ads marks a paradigm shift in search marketing. No other system combines the proven value of direct-response search ads with a mechanism for delivering brand-building impressions and truly meaningful consumer interaction. Add to this the viral potential of NeXplore Search’s social-sharing feature, and the full marketing value of interactive, rich-media NeXplore Ads goes off the charts.”
NeXplore Search, in public beta since January 2008 and averaging more than 3.5 million unique monthly visitors, is a Web 2.0 search engine optimized for ease-of-use, personalization, social network integration, rich-media display, and highly targeted, multi-modal, interactive advertising.
Read NeXplore Press Release: NeXplore Ads Brings Interactive Video Commercials to Search Advertising
Tags: interactive online commercials, Internet Search, nexplore, online video, paid search advertising, Search Advertising
According to a poll cited by Walt Mossberg during the D7: All Things Digital Conference, ‘force of habit’ drives search-engine choice for 38 percent of consumers. Commenting on the much-ballyhooed June 3rd launch of Bing, dubbed ‘the decision engine’ by Microsoft marketers, Edward Mandel, CEO of NeXplore Corporation (OTC: NXPC.PK) said, “Anything that calls attention to the question of choice when it comes to Internet search is good for consumers and good for NeXplore.”
Launched in January 2008, NeXplore Search (www.NeXplore.com), currently in public beta, is an interactive and visually engaging Web 2.0 search engine optimized for a superior end-user experience, multi-media display and social-sharing integration.
Mandel added, “Ubiquitous broadband, explosive online video consumption, the rapid adoption of Web-based interaction, personalization and socialization tools, and the mounting dissatisfaction with the traditional search experience are strong indications that the same dull, boring 10 blue links will no longer pass muster with today’s increasingly search-savvy consumers. There’s simply too much exciting innovation happening in the world of search for habit to hold sway much longer.”
For its part, NeXplore Search surpassed 5.6 million unique monthly visitors this year and currently ranks in the top 3,000 Web destinations worldwide, according to Web-analytics company Compete.com and Alexa traffic rankings.
“Bing is purported to have some pretty interesting features that make search more efficient such as a website preview pane, video preview, and helpful groupings of search-results by category,” said Scott Grizzle, chief marketing officer for NeXplore Corporation. “We’ll definitely be among the first to check out Bing when it debuts on June 3rd, but anyone interested in seeing similar features plus a whole lot more can check out NeXplore.com today.”
Tags: bing, nexplore, nexplore search, search engines
A recent survey conducted by PEW Internet & American Life Project (PIP) reveals that “almost half of all Internet users now use search engines on a typical day,” an increase of 69% from 2002 when Pew Internet & American Life Project first tracked search activity. The PIP survey also finds that those who use broadband connections at home are “significantly more likely” to use search than those with a dialup connection.
Search’s growing popularity and the proliferation of broadband will drive dramatic changes in the Internet search experience, particularly in how consumers interact with search engine results pages (SERPs).
Ubiquitous broadband has conditioned consumers to expect a more dynamic and engaging Internet experience. The search experience, for the most part, has not kept pace with the rest of the Internet. The days of serving up line after line of static text results are coming to an end. As popularity, familiarity and proficiency with Internet search grows, consumers will demand that search results pages have more video presentation and rich-media interaction, less drill down and deeper personalization. There’s no question, Internet search is long overdue for a facelift.
Tags: internet advertising, Internet Search, nexplore, Search Advertising, search engines