To provide a little background data: comScore statistics indicated in January that Chatroulette received 109,000 unique visitors. By February, the number had jumped to 960,000.

The site also received all sorts of media attention around that time. Still, as with Twitter, there was the problem of monetization. Andres Palmiter, an online video sales specialist at comScore, said in an interview with Abby Johnson that advertisers wondered, “What can I do with content that I have no control over?”

And specifically, sexual content on the site started to cause a lot of concern.

A promise on Chatroulette’s part to cooperate with authorities and a site redesign haven’t done a lot to address these problems. More recent comScore data shows that unique visitors are growing fewer in number, too.

Chatroulette’s definitely hit a bump. It should be interesting to see if the once-hot property can keep from fading away.

When we look at the future of search, we must also look at the history of search. In the early days, the technology did not deliver relevant results for users. But now the technology has caught up. As a result, the user is now doing more specific, longer tail searches and is still getting relevant results.

Moving into the future of search, will the users or technology change? Up to this point, Goodman says that the technology has been changing. In regards to the future, he says, “Technology is going to be driving what are some changes as far as user behavior goes, or where you might go.”

On the searcher side, where users search is another influencing factor in the future of search. Although searches within social media sites are growing, the major search engines are still the biggest drivers of search, since they power most social sites.

So, as search evolves, how will SEO change? Goodman says search engine optimization will always change but will always remain important.

How do you see searchers and technology influencing search in the future and how will SEO evolve?

First of all, there is no question that mobile is currently one of the hottest topics, since it provides users with accessibility anytime and anywhere. On the search side of mobile, Goodman explains that most searches are done at a local level; however, he expects search behavior to extend beyond that trend in the future.

He also points out that, in many cases, mobile is the only way other countries are able to access to the Web. As a result, these countries have produced many innovations. Moving forward, he believes these countries will have a strong influence on the U.S. in the area of mobile.

On the topic of retail, Goodman indicates that it is picking up after the downturn in 2008. Although small-to-medium sized businesses had an especially hard time during the recession, they are rebounding as well.

In order for the SMBs to compete successfully against large retailers, Goodman advises them to establish loyalty, quality service, and personal understanding. He says they can do this by being active in social media.

Lastly, if you haven’t heard about Chatroulette yet, you probably will see it soon, since it is a growing trend. Essentially, it is an online video streaming service that allows users to connect randomly with other users from all over the world. comScore became interested in the service when it grew from 109,000 users in January to 960,000 users in February.

Interestingly enough, males are the largest users of this trend, primarily the 18-24 year-old males. comScore data also indicates that Chatroulette is driven by college students and the unemployed. As for the future of this latest phenomenon, Goodman says, “[the] jury’s still out.”

Keep watching WebProNews for our next segment with comScore’s Eli Goodman in which he talks about the future of search and how personalization and social media will influence it.

First of all, he predicts that a lot of offline branding dollars will shift into online spending. He said, “There is simply too much money being spent offline on branding and too little of that being spent online.”

Secondly, Goodman expects an increased amount of technology opportunities for in-text search advertising. As he explained, it is the idea that relevant terms could be hyperlinked or underlined within a publisher’s content. As a result, if users scrolled over the relevant term, a search results page could pop up or something more specific, such as a recipe.

Thirdly, he sees a rise in social search and opportunities for marketers in social search. Currently, the search engines on social networks like Facebook and MySpace are powered by Bing and Google, respectively. That said, the search results from both the traditional search engines and the social networks are primarily the same. Because the social networks have access to so much personal information, Goodman believes the social sites need to better leverage their data to deliver more relevant results.

In looking beyond 2010, Goodman said search would be integrated into marketing at a much higher level. He even foresees it eventually taking a large share of the overall marketing strategy.

In addition, he anticipates a crossover between screens in regards to television, phones, and computer screens. If the NBC/Comcast deal gets approved, he believes many more similar mergers will come about to allow users to connect their experiences.

What trends do you foresee for 2010 and beyond?

Jenni Tafoya of comScore says the company’s mission is to “measure the digital world.” To execute that mission, the global leader provides research and information in online audience management, e-commerce, advertising, search, video, and mobile endeavors.

Ultimately, comScore allows its clients to understand and achieve success through their own business. If you would like to find out more about what comScore can do for your business, visit their website.

In many cases, traditional media forms such as television are the easiest option for marketers and advertisers, even if it’s not the best choice. Some may argue that the proper measurement tools are not available, but Erin Hunter of comScore says they do exist. comScore even has a media planning suite for marketers and advertisers that goes beyond traditional measures.

One significant problem with choosing that “easy” form of media is the consumers that could be missed. Many consumers are now fully reliant on the Web. If marketers and advertisers aren’t taking this into consideration, a large part of their demographic is probably being neglected.

What challenges have you encountered in your online efforts? Have you discovered that you were missing out on consumers before you integrated online?

To be exact, comScore found total U.S. searches to be at 18.7 billion, which is up 38 percent year-over-year. These numbers are a result of more people (7.1 million specifically) being online, people searching more days out of the month, and people conducting more searches per day.

Consumers are becoming more and more reliant on search. Search engines have seen a 32 percent growth and interestingly enough, non-search engines have also seen tremendous growth. Jenni says this research shows how marketers can expand their campaigns outside of the traditional search engines and into search areas such as video, local, image, and social networking sites.

YouTube has shown 100 percent growth, which is massive. Local has grown 38 percent, and image has grown 32 percent. Social networks driven primarily by MySpace and Facebook show 49 percent year-over-year growth.

Even with those statistics, Jenni still encourages marketers to continue their campaigns with traditional search engines. She advises marketers to utilize both search areas. Video search, local search, image search, and social networks will only continue to grow, but traditional search engines are also holding their own especially with the increasing growth of universal and blended results.

As search engines become more sophisticated, so do the searchers. In the above video from SES Chicago, Eli Goodman, Search Evangelist for ComScore, says 73 percent of searchers are  now becoming more specific with their search queries and are looking for information and help. Although these observations strengthen a paid strategy, ComScore is seeing a shift in traffic to social media enhancers such as Yahoo! Answers, Google Blogger, and About.com.

To make the search experience more sophisticated for the user, the CPG sites need to cater to those early on in the purchase process instead of only focusing on product details and where to buy. Users want and need the opportunity to ask questions and have those questions answered.

If searchers have a positive user experience, then they will become repeat customers. Another perk with a producing a positive user experience is getting effective word-of-mouth promotion in return.

In an interview with Web Pro News, Rebecca Kelly of seomoz.org spoke how businesses are even using blogs to as an outreach for their businesses.
“It does kinda give a human voice and human representation to their company.”

The catch is that most blogs do not get very many hits. There are some that receive great feedback such as Engadget -which has more readers than most print newspapers and magazines. But aside from a significant few, the numbers aren’t as impressive. According to web-traffic measurement from ComScore, the top 25 blogs only account for a mere 10 percent of blog readership. CEO Eric Schmidt told United Kingdom politicians that the average blog has only 1 reader. If numbers aren’t the key to bloggingwhat is?

As Rebecca Kelly recountsthe point of blogging is the fact that there is a connection between the writer and the reader.
“A good business blog kind of gets your readers to think that you’re getting kind of a honest peek into the business, you know it’s good reputation management for the company.”

Warner Music Group Corp and other music giants sue Yahoo China for an alleged copyright breach. Trade organization the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s, also known as IFPI, said Yahoo China has given links to unlicensed music. Beijing’s number two Intermediate Court filed the case in early January.

Eleven music companies seek damages of 5.5 million yaun (YEN), or more than 710 thousand American dollars. Music publishers lost a similar case last November against search leader Baidu.com for “sites offering illegal music downloads.” The Beijing court ruling said that officials should hold third party web sites liable for content posted, not search engines. The IFPI approximates listeners pirate around 85 percent of all consumed music in China.

The Bavarian State Library has decided to partake in Google’s project to scan books from the world’s great collections. As one of the largest libraries in the German-speaking world, the library has around nine million volumes and will make around one million books available to Google search. A library spokesman said Google would scan many books in German, but some may include Italian, French, Spanish, Latin and English. Other library participants consist of the Complutense University of Madrid, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, The National Library of Catalonia, several U-S universities and the New York Public Library.

Microsoft has critiqued the Google Book Search and various authors and publishers sued Google in 2005 to block scanning copyrighted books for fear of consumers no longer purchasing the printed version.

A recent ComScore study established that the global Internet audience has grown by ten percent. The study showed that 747 million people over the age of 15 used the Internet in January 2007.

The US leads the global Internet with over 153 million users, but only grew two percent. China has the second-largest Internet audience with over 86 million users, and increased by 20 percent. India ranked in the top 15 countries and grew the most by 33 percent.

ComScore also ranked the top ten countries for the average time spent online in January 2007. Canada dominated with the average user consuming 39.6 hours online during one month. The average Israel user spent around 37.4 hours online, followed by South Korea with 34 hours online. The US came in fourth with 31.6 and the UK finished fifth with 31.2 hours online.

ComScore measures the click-through rates based on the total clicks on sponsored search advertisements divided by the total number of searches. ComScore’s statistics show Yahoo saw a five percent increase in click-through rates in the first week, and an increase of nine percent over the second week. Federated Media publisher John Battelle seems excited for Yahoo.

“While still in its early stages, any good news for Panama is good news for Yahoo!… and this early study shows plenty of good news.”

ComScore Senior Vice-President James Lamberti sees a growth in search advertising.
“ComScore data show that the recent introduction of Yahoo!’s new search marketing ranking model is already having a positive impact on the click-through rates for Yahoo’s search advertising”, Lamberti says ComScore will keep an eye on the new ranking model.

Yahoo held on to second place but lost some share, dropping to 28.1 percent, while Microsoft moved up a little to 10.6 percent. Ask.com saw its share drift down to 5.2 percent. Overall, people have been doing a lot more searching. January’s number of searches was up 26 percent over the same month in 2006.

Google gives consumers three choices for local business ads. Customers can utilize text advertisements on maps, window bubbles on maps, and text only on search related to regional targeting. Touch Local’s product development director Grant Muckle talked about local search marketing tactics. Muckle said that 40 percent of users in the UK search locally online. ComScore reported 64 percent of purchases start online, but end up bought offline.

Muckle advised tracking web site hits, events on your site, and giving special offers to find where customers found you. Muckle recommends four things to do to increase local search: investing in search marketing, understanding what your customers look for, adding content to your site, and understanding how visitors convert will make search marketing and optimization efforts more important.