Google is renowned for its intuitive user interface—but a lot of work goes in to making sure that Google understands exactly how its users interact with its pages, as evidenced in a blog post yesterday. And Google doesn’t just look at the user data they get from clicks or surveys—they use actual field studies.

Are actual field tests, observing users “in the wild,” necessary? Google’s Search Quality Uber Tech Lead, Daniel Russell, explains why:

people are masters of saying one thing and doing another, particularly when it comes to nearly automatic behavior. We find that searchers often turn so quickly to Google that they don’t really think too much about what they’re actually searching for.

It’s surprising, but often we’ll see people trying to find out something about a topic, but then never actually mention the topic itself. That is, there’s often a big discrepancy between what they’ll tell me (the human observer) they’re trying to do, and the search terms they enter into Google. One person I shadowed for the day spent ten minutes trying to find the schedule of the ferry that runs between San Francisco and Larkspur, but somehow only thought of adding the word “ferry” much later in their search. . . .

Memories of your own behavior are also notoriously unreliable. People’s search behavior in the lab is often different than when they’re at home or at work. This is a natural (and expected) side effect of lab studies: people will work especially hard to please a researcher.

If we ask them to search for a pair of brown shoes they’d like to buy for themselves, in the lab they’ll find the first pair that seems reasonable and then stop, satisfied. If it was real, they would go on and spend more time. We still do lab studies, but we know what to watch for, and what to ignore.

Not the most heartening observation of human intelligence I’ve ever heard…

Anyway, Google also uses tools like eyetracking in this example (the red dot indicates the user’s gaze):

Google also puts this data to use, such as in the overhaul of their Advanced Search page.

What do you do to learn more about how your users interact with your site?

Google Understands User Behavior

Woohoo it’s Friday?

Let’s celebrate with today’s Picks:

• A Russian company is suing Google for $3 billion, claiming AdSense infringes on its patent. Whatever.
• The recession is going to reduce the growth rate of local online advertising from 47% growth this year to just 8% next year. Ouch!
• E-consultancy has advice for publishers looking to improve their site search. Noted.
• Live Search Maps has added Photosynth images.
• How cool is the new “Reactions” feature, just added to Blogger?

Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!

Originally posted here:

It appears Jerry Yang’s appeal for Microsoft to buy Yahoo is falling on deaf ears. According to AP, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is just not interested anymore:

“We made an offer, we made another offer, and it was clear that Yahoo didn’t want to sell the business to us and we moved on,” Ballmer said. “We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share.”

I can’t say I blame him. He did leave the door open for a partnership deal–likely similar to that he proposed before Google stepped in–saying:

“I’m sure there are still some opportunities for some kind of partnership around search, but I think acquisition is a thing of the past”

As I look out my window, I can’t help but compare Yahoo to one of the Fall leaves still on the tree. Desperately clinging to life, but ultimately doomed to blow around in the wind: directionless and likely to end up in the gutter.

Original post:

It’s not difficult to see just how important social media was to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. He had a long list of social media touch points, including:

• His official blog.
• His mass of Facebook and MySpace friends.
• Twitter followers.
• His Flickr photos and YouTube videos.
• His excellent online reputation and his attempts to fight vicious rumors.

Now the question being asked is; can, and will, Barack Obama continue with his social media efforts, when he assumes the office of President of the United States? Will the transparency continue?

Early signs suggest that our next Commander-in-Chief will remain entrenched in social media. The launch of Change.gov demonstrates his attempt to bring democracy kicking and screaming into the Web 2.0 age. Not only does the site have a blog–and profiles of Obama and Biden–but you can see Obama’s agenda as President, share your vision for America, and even apply for a job at the White House!

Many elected officials abandoned their campaign initiatives the moment the election is over–when did you last see a TV ad thanking you for your vote?–but Obama appears to at least be making an attempt to continue his effort.

The big question is, can the President of the United States be allowed to be so open and transparent? Is it in our best interests for Obama to share his agenda, thoughts, and even travel plans with the world? How would it look?

That’s where I see there being the biggest stumbling block for President-elect Obama and why I believe we will ultimately see his social media efforts become two, one-way monologs. What do I mean by this? Obama will use social media (selectively) to talk to the people and we will, in turn, use social media to send Obama our thoughts and input. But a true, social media conversation? I wouldn’t hold my breath.

More here:
Just How Much Transparency Should We Expect from President Obama?

Wow, something’s up here—this is the second time this week we’ve written about MySpace. The granddaddy of all social networks is having quite the week for news, with the announcement of their video fingerprinting ad partnership Monday, their Q3 announcement, rumors about the income from their new ad platform and rumors about naming a CEO for their new music division. Whew!

Yesterday, MySpace’s parent (grandparent?) company, News Corp, discussed its Q3 earnings. While many of the conglomerate’s divisions did poorly, MySpace’s unit still posted a 17% increase in revenue YOY. However, they are feeling the hit of the failing economy, as Rupert Murdoch said:

“We are doing slightly better than the marketplace, but it’s clear from everybody else that there’s a lot of softening in the display advertising marketplace, and we are clearly beginning to feel some of that.”

However, their new ad platform, MySpace MyAds, is doing booming business. Michael Arrington’s sources estimate that the three-week-old platform is raking in on average $140,000 to $180,000 a day—making it a $50M a year business in less than a month. These levels may be sustainable long term, too.

Our sources say that a large number of ad arbitragers are trying out the system, as well as many of the millions of music artists that have MySpace pages. Those artist ads are doubly profitable for MySpace, since the ads link back to MySpace web pages, driving up page views and additional advertising impressions.

Outsiders are estimating that MySpace revenues for the fiscal year ending June 2009 will reach $1 billion. It’s clear that MyAds will be a significant driver of revenue growth. 2008 revenue was estimated to $750 million.

Finally, MySpace Music, which launched in September, is shopping for a CEO. AllThingD’s Peter Kafka notes, however, that the job doesn’t carry as much prestige as the title normally would, since it’s only a divisional CEO position. He says Courtney Holt, head of Viacom & MTV’s digital music, will be announced as the MySpace Music CEO tonight or tomorrow.

In the tech blogosphere, MySpace is often treat as if it’s “so yesterday”—now even its biggest challenger has lost its media darling status. But MySpace continues to innovate for users and advertisers—which probably has a lot to do with why they’re still the most popular social network online.

View original here:
MySpace Revenue Up, New Ads Up Even More