Jay Bhatti: Search, Consumer Web, and Marketing

5 Things Microsoft Should Do To Improve Search

Jay Bhatti — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:21:18 +0000

I really want Microsoft to do well in search, because the overall search experience for consumers would be improved if Google had a viable competitor.

(Also, I have friends there, and I want to see them do well.)

Having built Spock.com, a vertical search engine company, and having worked with both Google and Microsoft on various partnerships during that time, I think I can share a few simple things that Microsoft can do to improve search.

None of this is rocket science. It’s computer science. Which is why it’s so surprising to see Bing not pushing harder on these things that would decrease the gap between them and Google.

Improve Bing Crawling for the Long Tail

Image: Wikimedia

Google’s crawlers are impressive to say the least. If you launch a site tomorrow that has over 1,000 pages, within 2 days, Google will discover your site and crawl all those pages. Now, it might not put them in the index if the pages do not meet Google’s quality standards, but at least Google found and crawled your site.

With Bing, I don’t see that same level of execution. Heck, some popular sites that have thousands of pages indexed on Google are not to even be found on Bing (except for the home page). Bing likes to say that they are on par with Google when it comes to search experience. That may be true for the head terms like “credit cards”. But, when you type in long-tail terms like “freehold township credit union” the results from Google and Bing are drastically different. With Google’s being more relevant to the user.

If Microsoft really wants to compete with Google, then it needs to improve long-tail search. The only way to do that is to crawl faster, deeper, and with a lot more scale. Google has over 200,000 servers. I am sure Microsoft can match Google dollar to dollar on spending for servers. But if Steve Ballmer wants to really win, then get the right engineers in the crawling group working on the right set of challenges, like building crawlers that can crawl at least 50% of the web. That would be a good start.

Get AdCenter on Par With Adwords

This one is not hard. Microsoft should just copy what AdWords does and stop confusing advertisers.

Several months ago, I was invited to give the AdCenter team advice on how to improve its experience for advertisers. While I was there, a group of researchers walked us through some advanced thinking on AdCenter. It made no sense to any of the advertisers in the room.

We told Microsoft that they should just work to get AdCenter on par with Adwords from a user experience point of view. We showed them the features that Adwords had for years that AdCenter still lacked. Some of us were surprised when it seemed that we knew more about the feature to feature comparison of AdCenter to Adwords than the AdCenter team.

Stop using AdWords!

The only team that should be using Adwords at Microsoft is the AdCenter team, and that only to learn from it. Why give free revenue to Google?

Google won’t let employees use Windows based computers in the future, which means 20,000 less Windows license fees for Microsoft. If Google wants to do that, maybe Microsoft should stop giving Google so much revenue with all the AdWords accounts that are being used across Microsoft.

Yes, Microsoft marketing teams across the company use AdWords like crazy to market their products. Several people at Microsoft have told me that there are over 50 Adwords accounts at Microsoft. Let’s make that zero.

No more gimmicks

Gimmicks like slideshows and xrank need to go. They are artificial and do not result in real growth, When Google came out in 1999, they focused on core search experience, while other search engines offered prizes to people for using their engines. Guess who won! Microsoft needs to end all gimmicks and only focus on core search and nothing else.

No more MSN.

Microsoft should focus on building utility web products like Bing search, Office Online, and SkyDrive. See what happened to Yahoo when it tried to be both a search company and a content company?

Microsoft should learn from them and cut all content related products. It’ll be a tough pill to swallow. Especially given all the people who work in MSN. But if Microsoft wants to win in search, online documents, and the cloud, then it cannot be spending all those resources on content related activities. Focus on utility products. That is where the money and future reside.

Does the iPad deliver?

patrick — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:51:50 +0000

As one of the more anticipated events in the tech community, Apple’s latest invention did not disappoint. In officially unveiling the new iPad, Steve Jobs took on the Amazon Kindle and once again raised the bar for its competitors. While pundits have criticized the iPad for lacking a true identity (and they are certainly right to an extent), similar to the iPhone, the iPad should encourage further innovation and will impact multiple industries. Taking a closer look at the iPad strictly as an e-reader, it is an interesting product that has advantages and disadvantages over the Kindle.

iPad Advantages:

Is a multi media device that can play movies, tv, and games, and allows for color screen web browsing
9.7” touch screen is larger than the Kindle’s 7.5”
Standard 16GB flash storage is larger than the Kindle
iPad is compatible with all iPhone apps
iBooks store and deals with top publishers will ensure content will be available
Excellent for newspapers and text books, the iPad can show high resolution images, video and take notes

Kindle Advantages:

At $259 the Kindle is cheaper than the $499 iPad – which does not include a wireless plan
Free Wifi on the Kindle ensures that you can purchase and download books anywhere
eLink screen is better for reading
Books on the Kindle cost under $10, whereas the iBooks store will have variable pricing
iPad will be using ATT for its wireless service which is notoriously poor in cities such as New York and San Francisco
The Kindle has a significantly better battery life of 1-3 weeks, while the iPad is around 10 hours

For those looking strictly for an e-reader, the Kindle is probably the better choice. With a cheaper price, longer battery life, eLink screen, free wifi, and less expensive books, the Kindle is by far the better option for an avid reader. However for those (and I can imagine this represents the majority) looking for something that services newspapers, magazines, and text books, the iPad represents a significant upgrade. Not only is the color touch screen a substantial improvement, but the option to take notes, and store data, along with the multimedia capability, make the Kindle appear wildly outdated.

While my gut tells me that similar to the iPod, the iPad will win out; its success will be based on the outcome of three different things:

Will the iPad distinguish itself enough from the iPhone/iPod touch – As many critics have pointed out, the iPad is too big to replace your iPhone and not powerful enough to replace your laptop or even Mac Mini. Should an improved version come out with the ability to take pictures, run excel and word, and support Adobe Flash, it could start to take off very quickly. The lack of a USB Port is likely to drive consumers’ nuts as well.
What the Kindle does with its pricing model– Should the Kindle lower its current price to the $100-$200 range, consumers will be more inclined to look past the Kindle’s shortcomings. While the iPad is likely to come down in price as well, the need to purchase a data package and the prevalence of smart phones will drive customers away.
Can the iPad replace text books – While the iPad’s appeal is based on its ability to be more than just an e-reader, if it does a good job at marketing itself as an alternative to text books or work documents, Apple will have created something special. Given how iTunes has put a significant dent in illegally downloaded music, the iBook store could be something publishers aggressively embrace which would in turn help make the iPad a more common alternative.

While Apple has missed on products in the past, the public’s love affair with its products will likely ensure the iPad’s success. Even if pundits who criticized the iPad are correct, at the very least it should encourage the Kindle and the highly anticipated HP Slate to step up their game.

How Bad is Microsoft About Product Quality

Jay Bhatti — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:49:41 +0000

Microsoft recently added Bing Local. A direct competitor to Google Local Business Listings. However, check out the business claiming page on Bing today:

https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx

As a former Microsoft Product Manager, it pains me to no end to see how poor Microsoft performs on delivering quality products.

Spreadsheets won’t change the world but leaders will

Jay Bhatti — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 03:26:23 +0000

Issue date: 12/3/01 – PDF | Link

This article was written by Jay Bhatti on 12/03/2001 for the Wharton School

It was still a few years before World War II. General Douglas MacArthur was a pretty popular man. Given his status, the executives at JP Morgan offered him a very high level position at the bank. One that would have made him very rich and amongst the most high-class people in New York City. His wife at the time (he later divorced her!) was constantly egging him on to take the job. She was, after all, very keen on being associated with the elite and having the best that life had to offer – in short, she was tired of living on a military salary. Yet, in a stunning move, General MacArthur turned down this golden position. When asked why, he simply said, “Bankers don’t make history.” So what happened to General MacArthur after that bad career move? He went on to lead the Pacific Fleet to victory in WWII, and, in short, made history. In October 1944 the world watched as he dramatically liberated the Philippines from Japanese control. On September 2, 1945, he presided over the Japanese surrender on board the U.S.S. Missouri, bringing an end to World War II. In the next five and a half years, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan, MacArthur and his staff helped a devastated Japan rebuild itself, institute a democratic government, and chart a course that has made it one of the world’s leading industrial powers. While his decision to ding JPMorgan may have been surprising at the time, one thing is clear: Douglas MacArthur fulfilled his self-imposed destiny of becoming one of history’s greatest men.

Now the point of the story is not to encourage Wharton MBAs to join the Navy, but rather to debate about what our underlying mission is as an institution. Is it to create spreadsheet monkeys and consulting goons? Or is it to help develop the future leaders of society?

I cannot count how many times I have heard the following quote “I don’t want to major in Finance, but I am at Wharton, and it would look bad if I did not have some solid NPV skills!”

If you look at the past 100 years of human history, what have been the attributes that have had the greatest impact on society? I would say that leadership, entrepreneurship, and innovation have by far been the factors that most shaped the world we live in today. Should it not make sense that we as a leading institution of higher education focus our energies on these very things? I am not suggesting that we eliminate all the finance and quant courses at Wharton. What I am suggesting is that we place a greater emphasis on those classes and programs that would best equip students to lead, innovate, and create.

For example, instead of having math camp for two weeks at pre-term, would it not be more valuable to have a week long class that discusses what is meant by Wharton leadership? Maybe we can have discussions/sessions with some of the remarkable leaders that have come from Wharton and how they impacted society?

Hey, I know this sounds fluffy, but if students can more closely align their passions with what they do with most of their time, don’t you think that they will be better leaders? I mean, if you are really passionate about public service, and instead you go and work for an I-bank, would you wake up in the morning excited about going to work? From day one at this school, the focus of the school should be to find out what each student is most passionate about and then work with the student to prepare him/her to become the best they can be in their respective field! Place a stronger emphasis on classes that discuss leadership (with the right professors!), put into place stronger programs that would make more students consider entrepreneurship, and foster a spirit of innovation and risk taking in every class. Have more joint-programs/classes with the engineering school to allow MBA students to find out what is really happening in the world of technology and science. For example, the first computer in the world was made here, but did any Wharton MBA take advantage of this? FYI, the engineering school is doing some really cool research on nanotechnology. Maybe you should pay a visit.

In my “Seminar on Leadership” classes this semester, we had the opportunity to have an hour-long chat session with Dean Harker. In this session, Dean Harker stressed the point of Wharton moving to the next level. He mentioned that since the early 1980’s, Wharton’s mission was to be #1. Having accomplished that, he said the next challenge was to change the culture of the school: to move away from the rankings, to more closely focus on becoming the best learning institution in the world, to make the alumni and students more connected with each other, and to develop leaders who represent the Wharton style of leadership. It is time for the school to go back to what it was created to do: “To help develop leaders in professional, community, and personal character.” Part of this effort requires us to place less of an emphaisis on the calculator and more on the human element of the equation. After all, you manage a calculator, but you lead people.

I am willing to bet my bottom dollar that the people who will have the most impact on this world in the next 100 years will be those that can lead with passion, take huge risks, create new enterprises, and understand that innovation is the engine that moves society. These are the attributes that the school needs to develop in its students. Let’s focus our energies on this and not as much on the quant classes (save them for the undergrads). In short, Wharton should work harder to develop 800-pound gorillas and not spreadsheet monkeys.

FastCompany Articles By Jay Bhatti

Jay Bhatti — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:00:17 +0000

Jay Bhatti is a expert blogger at FastCompany. Please review his articles here

http://www.fastcompany.com/user/jay-bhatti

Entrepreneur Magazine Feature Article About Jay Bhatti

Jay Bhatti — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:46:15 +0000

Start a Search Engine Company

This duo stands apart from the big guys with its people search technology.

By Amanda C. Kooser | Entrepreneur Magazine - October 2008 | PDF Version

Some entrepreneurs may look at an online search market dominated by Google and Yahoo and then look elsewhere on the internet for a startup idea. But other entrepreneurs see opportunity. Spock.com co-founders Jaideep Singh, 40, and Jay Bhatti, 35, are taking on search by intentionally not taking on Google. Their Redwood City, California, startup focuses solely on people search and capturing a share of what eMarketer estimates is an $11 billion market for search advertising in 2008. “The opportunity to develop a compelling experience is there if you focus on the right verticals and create a differentiated enough experience from Google,” says Bhatti.

The first hurdle a search startup needs to clear is finding the right niche. The general search market may be cornered by some big players, but there’s still room for innovative ideas. “We’re not trying to build a fad,” says Bhatti. “We’re trying to build a real technology with a business model behind it. This has the potential to change the way users look for content on the web.” He points to search engines Kayak.com (travel search) and TheFind.com (product search) as examples of other search businesses finding success in specific niches.

Despite being located near Silicon Valley and its savvy Web 2.0 techies, Bhatti never loses sight of Spock.com’s target customers. “You have to make sure you build it for the right audience–and that’s the mass consumer audience–and not for the tech crowd,” he says. That effort shows in Spock.com’s simple user interface and cleanly laid out search results. New search entrepreneurs will have to spend a considerable amount of time and effort on the framework of their search technology, at the same time figuring out the best way to present it to potential users.

Spock.com has invested a lot more of its $7 million in round A funding into engineers, search technology and user interface than it has into marketing. Currently working on round B funding, the company hopes to scale the business up and eventually crack the top five of search engines. “One of the biggest things that you have to understand as an entrepreneur is that anything is possible,” says Bhatti. “Market conditions can change very quickly, [as can] market leaders.” That need for nimbleness in the search market is a good sign for small startups in this space.

entrepreneur-magazine cover sheet.

Age Distribution of People on the Web

Jay Bhatti — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:07:27 +0000

Despite Privacy Concerns, 74% of people openly show their age on the web!

As a people search engine, Spock crawls and indexes millions of web documents and social network profiles everyday.

As a result, we end up gathering interesting demographic data about people. For example, a vast majority of people who have a social networking profile or web document about themselves on the web are 25 or younger. In addition, 74% openly show their age on social networks, blogs, and other social mediums. Even with added privacy controls, a vast majority of Internet users openly show their age.

Age Breakdown of People Who Have a Public Identity on the Web

25 or Younger: 37%

26 to 45: 23%

46 to 65: 8%

66 or older: 6%

No Age Listed: 26%

The above data is based on Spock crawling and analyzing over 600 million social networking profiles and 2 billion web documents that reference people (wikipedia, IMBD, corporate bio pages, etc).

Why are there so many documents and profiles on the web about people under the age of 25? We call this the social network effect. Social networks have a combined 600 million plus profiles, many of which are owned by people in college or high-school.

A common question asked is what happens to the age breakdown if you exclude the impact of social networks. We compiled the table below, which breaks people out by segment. Social Networking profiles are compiled in the “normal people” segment.

Age Breakdown (by Segment) of People who have a public identity or document about them on the web.

Age	Normal People	Famous People	Semi-Famous People	Overall
25 or Younger	38%	3%	1%	37%
26 to 45	23%	16%	2%	23%
46 to 65	7%	13%	3%	8%
66 or Older	5%	38%	6%	6%
No Age Listed	27%	30%	88%	26%

Examples of each segment: Normal People, Famous People, Semi-Famous People.

The data shows that people on social networks are more likely to have an age associated with their webpage then web documents about famous or semi-famous people. In conclusion, it appears that when given the option, people are very likely to display their age on the web.

Men three times more likely to brag about professional accomplishments then women

Jay Bhatti — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:08:03 +0000

In a Spock Research study of 3 million corporate bio pages on the internet, Spock discovered that men were three times more likely to overly boast about their professional accomplishments then their female counterparts.

For example, men were 3.15 times more likely to have the words “accomplished”, “responsible for”, “served as” and “led” in their corporate bio page then women. In our analysis of corporate bio pages of people from similar industries and job titles, it did not appear that women were any less accomplished, just that they were less willing to place subjective terms like “led” or “responsible for” in their bio page then men.

However, when we looked at bio pages for educational information, women did equally if not better then men for terms like “graduated with honors”, “doctorate”, “certified”, or “graduated magna cum laude”.

What does this tell us? One hypothesis is that men seem to be more aggressive in marketing and promoting themselves online as opposed to women.

Spock mentioned along with Facebook and Google in ZDNet

Jay Bhatti — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:03:40 +0000

Spock was mentioned as one of the leading compaines alongside Facebook and Google in ZDNet. Click here to see the article.

PDF of ZDNET Article

On-Site Optimization for SEO

Jay Bhatti — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 21:11:21 +0000

Create a site with unique, rich content.
Ensure that both content and page markup are well-formatted and have no errors.
Google will naturally favor bigger brands, and push them to the top of search results.
- This means that site branding is more important than ever.
The ‘keywords’ meta tag is never used by Google for determining search ranking.

Keywords

Have 5-10 specific keywords or keyword phrases been identified to increase targeted traffic?
Have Keywords been analyzed for search popularity?
Have selected keywords been associated with specific pages on the site?
Have selected keywords been inserted in content with 7% keyword density?
Are keywords leveraged in URL folders and file names, including image files?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in URL?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in Domain Name?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in Title Tag?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in Meta Description Tag?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in Meta Keyword Tag?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in H1, H2 and H3 Tags?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in Bold and Strong Tags?
Is there use of a Keyword / Key phrase in content?
Is there prominence of Keyword / Key phrase in webpage code?
Is there a Keyword / Key phrase in Alt text for images?
Is there use of Keyword / Key phrase in Anchor text?
Are we using hyphens to separate keywords in URL’s?
Are Keyword Density and Keyword Prominence employed?

Technical Considerations

Does the site properly use a robots.txt file?
Does the site have an XML-based Sitemap deployed?
Does the site have a text-based, standard sitemap?
Does the site avoid serving duplicate content on multiple URLs?
Are 301 redirects in place for content residing in alternate URL domains?
Does the site limit user input forms required to access content?
Are Query-string URLs avoided throughout the site?
Does the site consist of 5 or fewer subdirectory levels?
Do site URLs generally avoid parameter strings in excess of 4 variables?
Is JavaScript / CSS generally avoided or referenced external to source code?
Is Flash-only content avoided?
Is there a good Internal Navigation tree like structure?
Does HTML Sitemap link to all pages?
Are there any RSS Feeds?
Have we validated coding of webpage’s as per W3 standards?
Are we compressing the file size of web page?
Do we avoid excess use of Java Script?
Are we promoting use of CSS for coding?
Are we using off page CSS and Java Scripts?
Are we avoiding long URL’s?

Off-Page Ranking Factors

What’s the age of page from were back link is coming?
Is there frequent change in Anchor Text?
Popularity of referring page
What’s the position of the link?
Is site listed in Dmoz.org?
Is site in Yahoo Directory
Is site listed in Wikipedia
Is site listed in other reputed directories
Have we submited site to classified directories?
Are we getting back links from Social Media sites?
Have we submited frequent articles to article directories?
Have we submited press release frequently?
Increase site and web page traffic
Do we have a method for increasing CTR?
Do we have a method for decreasing bounce rates of site?
Do we have a method for increase time spent on page and site?

Destination Site

Because Google penalizes sites for being low-content gateway or thin referral sites (see the -30 penalty below) every site must be a destination site that retains users for as long as possible. There are a number of common strategies for adding value to a site and preventing it from being marked as a gateway or referral site, though the most important thing is always to add content to a site and retain users for longer. Some common strategies include:

Adding a blog to the site. Rumor has it that Google loves blogs, but the blog must have regular content updates – just its presence won’t help!
Writing content for humans, not search engines.

There are a number of additional theories circulating that have not been verified. These are nothing more than ideas, but they may be valuable.

Every page should be content-rich, and that any pages that are not will only detract from a site’s PageRank.
Each page should have a single focus. If a page has multiple targets or foci, it should be split into separate, more focused pages.