Two Ways Approach Hype Worst Situation

Irresponsibly:

1. Optimizing for Bing at the potential expense of other engines that have long-term records of market share is foolhardy. At the end of the day, Bing may be new and exciting, but it still possesses a tiny amount of market share in comparison. A prudent search engine optimization company will likely recommend waiting until the numbers stabilize before charting a course of action.

2. Compromising for Bing at the expense of Google and Yahoo! is not wise. A search engine optimization company can certainly optimize for Bing, but hopefully not at the sacrifice of current rankings on more popular engines.

3. Assuming that Bing will have a static algorithm is foolhardy; if Bing does indeed gain market share in the coming weeks and months, black hat practitioners will try to "game" the system, meaning that we can expect the algorithm to change and evolve rapidly. What works on Bing right now may not work in a matter of weeks.

Hype Response

Responsibly:

1. However, a forward-thinking search engine optimization company can be prepared by creating test sites that are optimized specifically for Bing and learning as much as they can about the algorithm.

2. If ideal rankings are achieved, then your search engine optimization company can determine how these rankings translate to Google and Yahoo!. Obviously, it will be important to follow these statistics closely to see if Bing can gain and maintain ratings or if it will mimic Microsoft's history of poor engine performance.

3. Your search engine optimization company should also locate specific pieces of the Bing algorithm that do not compromise rankings in Google and Yahoo!, but that may help rankings in Bing. Finding attributes of the Bing algorithm that can be applied to your website that will garner higher Bing ratings is obviously in the best interest of the site; we just want to make sure that existing rankings aren't compromised on the road to success.

HYPE Another Iteration

But there are a few reasons not to get so excited. Number one – we have no idea where the market will settle and if the market share for Bing will continue to grow. Without this data, there's no way to say if tailoring a website specifically for Bing is worthwhile, especially if it negatively impacts existing Google and Yahoo! rankings. Number two - no matter which stat you look at, Google still owns the lion's share of the search market; add Yahoo! to the mix and Bing is dwarfed. Number three - Microsoft has no track record of success in the search world; its developers and visionaries have tried many different search iterations, so far to no avail. The company is banking on two things: the quality of the engine and a willingness to spend money to promote it.

And, finally, number four is a byproduct of MSN's past explorations into search engines; the brand name is construed by many as a liability that carries a somewhat negative connotation

Possibly, a good option would be to take the MySpace/NewsCorp route. When MySpace was bought by NewsCorp in 2005, business went on as usual; MySpace was just MySpace. NewsCorp understood what made MySpace 'cool' was its reputation of independence. Yes, it was crushed by Facebook down the road, but that's a different story. Microsoft chooses to end every Bing commercial with blatant 'by Microsoft' wording and logos as if this is a positive - I'm not sure that it's necessary or even wise.

In light of this information, what's a search engine optimization company do?