Although the majority of experienced AdWords advertisers have now realised the problem and found ways to work around it, Google have announced plans to implement technology which will be able to see through a variety of search engine errors.

As the situation currently stands, keyword lists have to be manually set to allow for errors in spelling, grammar, plurals as well as variations on a keyword or phrase. Without doing this, they could risk their customers, i.e. the owners of the website, losing out on business when the search engine directs the customer away from them.

The new technology means that rather than the advertisers having to spend time and effort developing these lists, Google will now perform the task automatically, just as it does with organic results, although it should be noted that users will have the chance of opting out.

“Often Requested”

Unveiling Google’s newest plans, Jen Huang, the AdWords product manager, said this had been an often-requested feature, and stated the company’s belief that the move would benefit both advertisers and consumers.

The new functionality has already performed well in tests with advertisers and Google state that it has seen an average of a 3% rise in search clicks, at comparable CPC’s, although there have been variations from advertiser to advertiser.

Five Variations

It is known that the new functionality will be able to spot and account for five variations in language. Firstly, it will be able to see through spelling errors and will automatically correct these, (“waterproof sunblock” instead of “waterproof sunblock”), secondly they will correct singular to plural and vice versa, after this, the programme will correct stemming and change phrases such as “single serve” to “single serving”, next the function has the capability of adding accents where these have been missed out (“hotel” and “hôtel”), will be able to correct abbreviations such as Dr. to Doctor and acronyms back to their entirety.

The reason for this change in policy claim Google is that up to 7% of searches include spelling errors and this can have a negative effect on both the searcher and the website in question.

The new technology is likely to be available from mid-May.

After three years of waiting for the technology to make its way across the Pond, UK, Irish and French Yahoo users are finally due to see the results of the Yahoo and Microsoft AdCenter deal this week.

The initial and most noticeable of the changes will see ads from Microsoft’s AdCenter form part of Yahoo search results, although it goes without saying that there is a lot more to the merger than this one element.

In The Beginning

The alliance between the two companies has been in operation since 2009 and is already in force in the USA and Canada.

The transition is expected to begin on 18 April and, according to sources will be completed by the end of the month. Microsoft suggest that during the transition, users should remain on their existing forum but after this point they will need to move over to AdCenter because Yahoo will remain in a read only status.

Discussing the expected changes over the coming weeks, Microsoft advised users on their official blog “As Yahoo! ad serving moves to adCenter, and your clicks and impressions in that account begin to increase, you’ll see a corresponding decrease in clicks and impressions in your Yahoo! Search Marketing account. It is thus important to continue managing your campaigns across both platforms throughout this transition phase, in order to avoid missing out on any potential clicks.”

What it Means…

When the search alliance was first mooted in July 2009, the opportunity to combine Bing and Yahoo search audiences on a single global platform was welcomed as an opportunity to take some of the control away from Google who were at the time and continue to monopolise search engine activity.

Although the success of the move remains to be seen, there are heartening figures from the United States where according to ComScore figues, Microsoft and Yahoo together deliver 6 billion monthly searches and have a 30% search share, combined.

However the changes and the results might play out, it is almost certain that the eyes of the technology world as well as rivals Google will be watching Yahoo most closely over the coming months.