Forrester told WebProNews that people should be concerned with producing quality content because good content attracts both people and search engines. The people that like this content will amplify it, thus allowing the search engines to give the publisher authority.

Social media comes into the equation because it provides information to the engines, which gives them the ability to return more relevant results. Since most people refer to friends or family for advice before they make a purchase, integrating social into search results helps users make decisions faster.

For 5 years, WebProNews has partnered with BlogWorld and New Media Expo, the world’s first and largest new media conference, in an effort to broadcast how new media can grow your business, brand, and audience. Stay tuned to WebProNews for much more exclusive coverage.

Stefan Weitz, a director with Bing, told us that personalized search and search should not actually be classified separately. He believes that personalized search should be how search is thought of moving forward. He went on to say that Bing thinks this feature will continue to improve the overall user experience.

Adaptive Search is already being rolled out the U.S.

Microsoft and Yahoo partnered in a search alliance 2 years ago in an effort to better compete with Google. However, neither company has shown a tremendous amount of improvement.

Ballard told us that he was pulling for Bing but that it needed to make some changes to better meet advertisers needs.

At SXSW, WebProNews spoke with Stefan Weitz, a director with Bing, about this growth and what the search engine was doing to leverage it. According to him, the search industry is not a “zero-sum game.”

“For us to win, somebody else doesn’t have to lose,” he said.

In other words, he believes that all the search engines can expand on one idea and take it in new, and multiple, directions. Competition is tight, but as a result, it produces more new concepts and experiences. Bing, for example, has recently introduced several new projects. The search engine partnered with DealMap in order to bring great deals from popular sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial to users.

Bing has also launched Project Emporia that puts a new approach on personalization. The project is powered by its Matchbox technology and enables the engine to build profiles that offer better recommendations to users.

Weitz told us that Bing would continue to pursue these areas, along with social search, mobile search, and more, in order to provide a simpler and better user experience.

With all of its developments, do you think Bing will continue to gain Google’s market share?

It all began when Danny Sullivan published an article exposing a Google experiment in which it tested Bing. According to Michael Gray of Atlas Web Service, the test, essentially, showed that Bing used the data from Google’s toolbar to duplicate its search results, a move that Google considers “copying.”

Gray went on to explain to WebProNews that the accusation of click fraud is “a little far-reaching.” Although the technology was the same, it didn’t cost Bing any money since there weren’t any PPC campaigns involved. He said that if Google did suspect that Bing was copying them, this method was the only way it would have found out the truth.

So, who’s right, and who’s wrong? Gray believes that both companies are in the wrong to an extent. Based on his analysis, Microsoft was wrong to take the data from the toolbar and use it in their ranking algorithm without testing it further.

Google’s wrongdoing, on the other hand, stems from past events. As he explains, Ask introduced universal search long before Google did, and Yahoo introduced Yahoo Instant long before Google released its version of it. In addition, Gray points out that Google seems to make product announcements at other people’s press events and play it off as a coincidence. Although Google, typically, says that it has been working on these products for long periods of time, some people interpret their actions in each of these scenarios differently.

The timing of this latest turn of events seemed to be somewhat of a coincidence as well since Sullivan’s article was published just before both companies were set to take the stage at the Farsight Summit.

“Google’s playing hardball and they’re a serious, competitive company; they like to hold onto their market share, and they’re not taking things laying down,” he said.

As for the lesson for marketers in all this, Gray said that marketers need to expand their efforts beyond SEO to include other areas, such as social media.

He also pointed out that this situation is “good news for Bing” because it means that Google considers them as a viable competitor.

How do you think this saga will play out, and how will it impact the search industry?

One of the biggest changes was the Yahoo-Microsoft search partnership. Although Yahoo still claims to be applying a slightly different algorithm to Bing‘s index, Clay believes that there will be a continual shift toward Bing. Google has steadily been a strong a leader in search, but the combined market share of Yahoo and Bing of approximately 30 percent is a powerful number that could cause some competition for the search giant.

When comparing the search engines to Web browsers, Clay said, “I think things shift, and I think that the leader is subject to change if they do things that the public doesn’t like.”

Another change that recently occurred was Ask’s decision to pull out of the search business. Clay pointed out that because Ask was not able to make an impact on the market, this decision would have a very minimal effect on the industry.

Although Ask is out, there is a new search engine on the scene called Blekko that wants to be part of the game. WebProNews recently spoke with its CEO and Co-founder Rich Skrenta who said that their goal was to the third search engine. While Clay believes Blekko is doing many things right, he doesn’t think that it will be the third search engine.

“You’d be a fool to ignore them. I just don’t know that a person that is a novice searcher is going to particularly know to go there,” he said.

He recommends waiting six months and seeing where it is at that point.

As new search engines emerge and join the battle, who will survive this search engine battle?

To learn more about Bruce Clay’s predictions, watch the full interview.

Earlier this week, the companies also gave advertisers the go ahead to start transitioning from Yahoo search ads to Microsoft Bing search ads. As this transition begins to unfold, we can start to see what some of the changes will be and how they might impact the future of search.

From a visual perspective, Yahoo Search still looks the same but has a small “Powered by Bing” at the bottom of the results page. Another aspect worth noting is that the two companies combined own approximately 28 percent of the search market, according to comScore’s July search report.

Long time search marketing expert Bruce Clay has also noticed some interesting findings regarding SEO and the new Yahoo search. He tells WebProNews that, based upon information from Yahoo’s API team, the company intends to use Bing’s index but apply a slightly different algorithm to it. In other words, the search engines will still produce different search results. From this information, Clay believes that users will still see value in Yahoo search.

The paid search transition, on the other hand, could have a more dramatic impact. Bing has been very effective in pay per click, and as a result, Clays says it offers a high click through rate.

“I would have a tendency to think that Bing advertising will see many, many more people using it,” he points out.

Although the companies would like to have the paid search transition completed by October, they have said it could be delayed if they see a potential interference with this year’s holiday season.

Regardless of what other changes will come as this transition is fully rolled out, there is no doubt that it will be marked as a turning point in the search and advertising industry. Interestingly, Clay calls these latest developments a “resurrection” of the second and third search engines. Do you agree?

On the similarity side, one example is that the same sitemap can work in both Google and Bing. One example of a difference between the two is that with Google Shopping, it’s a free download; Bing Shopping on the other hand, is paid only.

In regards to on-page factors, Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz did an extensive study and found that, ironically, the on-page changes users make really do not boost positions in either Google or Bing. Instead, both engines place more weight on exact match domains and the variety of domains that users have inbound links from.

For Bing specifically, Driscoll Miller says a good rule of thumb is to have many inbound links coming from a variety of domains, as opposed to having lots of links coming from a single domain. Bing’s Webmaster Tools, which we are told will be getting a revamp soon, have a tool that places value on inbound links. This helps SEOs understand what type of links Bing values the most.

Although some people still only concentrate on Google, Driscoll Miller advises people to begin thinking about Bing.

“I think a lot of people have been somewhat ignoring Bing and probably shouldn’t, because it really does have some value, “ she says.

What are your SEO challenges for Google and Bing?

According to Gilmore, the tools are all about design and scale. With the new modern architecture of the tools, Bing wants to give users more data, more relevant information, analytics, and more. Gilmore says the three main areas Bing focused on was crawl, index, and traffic.

In addition, Bing is ensuring a simplified user experience and rich visualizations. Interestingly enough, Gilmore indicates that the feedback from users was very instrumental in the development of the tools. He went on to say that Bing wants to create an “open dialogue” relationship with its users.

“We have a whole bunch of things we want to do, so this is just the beginning,” says Gilmore.

Bing is currently fine-tuning the tools before they are released in the coming weeks. For the latest updates, check out the Webmaster Center blog.

As he tells WebProNews, one challenge is the fact that there are multiple ways for users to determine what businesses are available. To make matters worse, many times those ways conflict with each other. To help overcome this challenge, Ollila advises businesses to take ownership of their local business listing in Bing Local. By doing this, businesses can make sure all their information is correct.

In addition, Bing is trying to create a “natural” local experience that builds upon what other local search engines have already done. Ollila says that Bing wants to help users make fast decisions.

The search engines also face the challenge of finding the right balance. If the engines allow local search to be open, there are some businesses that could do a lot of harm to their rivals.

As Ollila points out, Bing is aware of all these challenges and is doing everything it can to make its local search as relevant as possible.

Weitz, first of all, points out that the new features are simply an “evolution of our strategy.” Bing’s strategy is about connecting users with knowledge based on their intent. The engine is really trying to break down the queries just as humans do.

One of the ways Bing is trying to do this is with the left hand column on the search results page, which provides numerous categories related to the query. The engine has begun to refine the query across the top as well by including a number of tasks. For example, if the query is “Ford Focus,” the tasks might be Specs, Safety, Reliability, and Reviews.

On the mobile front, Weitz discusses the Windows Phone 7 Series and how the searcher’s intent is easier to determine on mobile devices. He also talks about the newly announced Foursquare application that really showcases the power of Bing’s Maps platform. The app essentially allows users to check-in with physical locations, zoom into the area and see specific tips that friends have left, and also see who else has checked-in and where.

Weitz advises marketers to take these new developments and understand that there are many more opportunities in search today that go beyond being the #1 algorithm link in search results. He said Bing is providing many ways that help users think beyond the current model and said it will continue to do so.

The Bing Cashback program was built as an incentive for online shoppers to use Bing. As a result, Microsoft hopes searchers enjoy their experience and decide to use Bing all the time. Van Wagner says Microsoft believes in this program and wants it to work.

He went on to say, “Bing is here to stay” and calls it “well-positioned.” He also points out that Microsoft is serious about mobile.

In addition, Google made its way into the conversation with Van Wagner bringing up an interesting irony. In the past, Microsoft was known as the evil empire. He believes that Microsoft wants to convince users that Google is the new Microsoft. Now that the roles are reversed, he says it will be interesting to see how everything plays out.

Just for a recap, Microsoft will power Yahoo Search and Yahoo will become the exclusive search advertising provider for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. Recently, WebProNews had the opportunity to sit down with Shashi Seth, the Senior Vice President of Yahoo Search Products, to learn more about how the alliance between the two companies would be integrated.

First of all, Seth points out that the full integration will take between 18-24 months. As it takes place, he is quick to say that users will continue to receive a compelling search experience from Yahoo that goes beyond the traditional search page.

In spite of the partnership, each engine will maintain its individual areas of focus. For Yahoo specifically, Seth says, “…What our users will continue to find is that not only can they find that great content that resides on [the] Yahoo network on Yahoo Search, but also that we can take people from Yahoo Search to the appropriate properties etc., in the right context…”

According to Seth, users will likely see slight modifications to Yahoo Search over the next several months as the Microsoft integration is completed. However, the companies have not yet decided if they will do a major launch with new features and functionalities.

There are still many questions regarding Yahoo such as the company’s level of commitment to search, implications on advertisers, future innovations, and more.  Keep watching WebProNews for more information on these very issues directly from Yahoo.

Bing sees blogs, forums, and social media/user generated content as the most problematic areas online. Parthasarathy says these areas have to be monitored closely. To secure your site, he suggests:

1.    Keeping all software up-to-date
2.    Maintaining strong passwords
3.    Checking plugins

He also recommends scanning your site with anti-malware tools or Spyware to further secure it.

Keeping your site protected is very important since it not only affects you and your business, but it also affects your customers. If you would like more information on security, check out this post from Bing’s Webmaster team for a more detailed explanation.