A Picture of Search: AOL's White Paper Raises Search Marketing Questions
I hadn't realized, until reading AOL search data paper, that AOL published a white paper along with privacy-trampling user data (presumably what they used for their paper).

A Picture of Search investigates search usage patterns and makes extensive use of graphs and charts to illustrate its findings.

Some AOL search findings really stood out to me:

28% of all queries are reformulations of a previous query. In such cases, the average query is reformulated 2.6 times.

Questions:
Are you optimizing key pages... or paid search campaigns... along the query reformulation cycle?

Is this cycle similar in any way to the "buy cycle?"

If you start with a searcher's TASK in mind, how would that change how you optimize specific pages? (Read more about task-based relevance.)

What are common query reformulation strategies (in addition to those mentioned in the white paper)?

What percentage of search share is actually reformulation queries?

An estimated 12% to 28% of queries include a local aspect. ...the 12% estimate is drawn from prior work [16], while the 28% estimate is based upon an AOL internal study.

Questions:
What are these local searches? Are they basically yellow pages searches?

To reframe based on previous questions - do local tasks differ at all from whole-web tasks?

Are there different query reformulation strategies emerging for local searches?

Of an estimated 50 million web domains, less than 1% account for half of all user clicks via search results (6.1).

Questions:
What other sites besides MySpace, YouTube and Google?

Your Job Now:
Read A Picture of Search - it's pretty accessible. Write a post, comment, or email me about what stands out to you - I'm curious what people find there.
Garrett French - MarketSmart Interactive | permalink | +marktd |