Tues News: 6/9 (Brady Bunch Edition)

Michael Block | June 9th, 2009

If search marketing were the Brady Bunch, Google would be Marcia.

If the three major search engines were represented by the girls from the Brady Bunch, Google would most certainly be Marcia. Always the center of attention, considered by most to be the most elegant and amazing system, Marcia and Google are cut from the same cloth. Can’t you just picture Yahoo as Jan Brady saying, “All I hear all day long at school is how great Google is at this or how wonderful Google is at that. Google, Google, Google!” It’s true that Google is the dominant player in the search game, but perhaps we should focus our attention on some of the other news in the search marketing arena for a change. Today will be a Google-free Tues News. You’re welcome, everyone-other-than-Google.

Bing.com, MSN’s new search project, is the hottest topic in search as it’s the first major innovation from one of the big three in quite some time. It may be the first complete overhaul of a major search system since the launch of MSN’s Live project. Well, apparently, all the hype isn’t overblown. TechCrunch reports that Bing.com is off to a terrific start according to preliminary data available to the the public. Watch out, Jan; it looks like Cindy is making a run at number two. [TechCrunch]
MSN is getting more compliments and attention on Bing than the new mother of a particularly cute baby. Meanwhile, poor Yahoo has been dealing with obstacle after obstacle and has made the transition for new CEO, Carol Bartz, very difficult. This is not to say that Bartz hasn’t made things more confusing for herself. To wit, Bartz has recently been declaring that Yahoo is not a search engine but “more than a search engine.” What does that mean? You’ve got me, but we’re all hoping that Yahoo doesn’t fail at going the route of “universal online portal” that led to its fall from grace at the beginning of this decade. [SearchEngineLand]
If Google is Marcia, Yahoo is Jan and MSN is Cindy, then what would Apple be? Maybe Alice? Apple isn’t a member of the search family, but it sure hangs around them a lot. And where would mobile search be without Apple thrusting it to the forefront of discussion? Yes, I like that. Much as Alice tidies up situations for the Brady’s, Apple makes things nice and easy for search, especially in the mobile arena. So, what’s new with Apple? Well, we all heard about the launch of the new iPhone 3GS but what may be more interesting was the absence of Steve Jobs from all the proceedings and the apparent acceptance of this by the public. After all, if Apple can eventually deliver such innovations as copy and paste (ooooh!) and MMS support (aaaah!), maybe the company will be alright without its mock turtlenecked empresario. Oh, who are we kidding? We miss you, Steve! I want an iPhone that can make me coffee and we’re still months away from that! [Valleywag]

There you have it! A Google-less edition of the Tues News with some Brady Bunch sweetener to boot. Where else are you going to find that? By the way, if you were curious, I think that Ask.com would be Cousin Oliver if it came down to it. Nobody pays attention to it and it was a poorly thought out idea from the start. Thanks for stopping by. Read up on and keep up with the online world; keep reading Tues News! Catch ya later!

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