According to data and research by Web Side Story, most searchers looking for items on the web enter one- or two-word queries.On average, one- and two-word searched constituted 83 percent of searches; on e-commerce sites, that figure was 91 percent.

Moreover, nearly 12 percent of searches lead to no results – a lost opportunity for marketers; among commerce sites, 8.5 percent of searches led to no results.

The studies examined more than 34 million searches on the sites of 42 Web Side Story customers: 15 e-commerce sites, 13 lead-generation sites and 14 media sites.

So what exactly is Google caffeine?

Google caffeine is Google’s biggest and baddest change in search algorithm. The key to this change is that it is an actual change in the formula and not just minor tweaks. Parts of the entire search infrastructure was, according to Google, completely rewritten. The results? A search engine that will “push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness, and other dimensions.”

Of course with the Bing hype people immediately asked whether Caffeine was Google’s answer to which Matt Cutts promptly said no. As Matt Cutt’s said, “I love competition in search and want lots of it, but this change has been in the works for month.”

For SEOs the even bigger question is how this will affect our SEO strategies. The best way to figure things out is through the same old fashioned method of experimenting and keeping track of how well the websites we maintain are doing in Google Caffeine’s SERPs. Of course it is also essential to keep tabs on how other’s SEO efforts are paying off so make sure you keep track of discussions going on in different forums and groups about Google Caffeine.

To try out Caffeine just go to this link: http://www2.sandbox.google.com/

The International Search Summit will be held on November 19, 2009 at the British Library in London. The last International Search Summit was held only last month with the summit’s focus on social media. The upcoming search summit will be focused this time on “international SEO”.

Confirmed speakers for the upcoming search summit include Bill Hunt of SEMPO, Motoko Hunt of AJPR, Sean Golliher of SEMJ.org, Bas van den Beld of SearchCowboys.com, Gard Jenssen of Seobra.no, and David Sowerby of Straker Software. Other invited speakers should be confirming in the coming months.

I am announcing the summit this early since they have a really great promo discount for super early birds of just £75 per ticket, as opposed to the full ticket price of £495 per ticket. So at least if you change your mind at the last moment it won’t be such a blow to your budget.

Microsoft has unveiled its new “decision engine” Bing. The question now is if it’s any good, and the answer from all over is yes. Compared to LiveSearch, Bing definitely got my attention, and will probably be getting the search industry’s attention for weeks to come. So what does Bing have to offer?

Like any search engine you can look for information you need using Bing but unlike normal search engines it is a specialized engine that automatically collates the data you need and compares them for you to make it easier to come up with a decision. Areas where it really does well includes product reviews, movie listings, weather, travel, stock prices, restaurants, etc. If you look at it Bing is pretty much set to be an online shopper’s heaven. However, since Bing is still pretty much untried for the most part we’ll see in the next months just how good Bing really is at suggesting results that will make online shoppers happy. In the meantime, for SEOs all over, it’s time to start brainstorming on how to rank well with Bing and coming up with strategies to help your clients. This is very important for business websites since Bing’s target users pretty are the ones that might be really interested in buying.

Can’t wait for Bing to actually go live. So irritating to see the coming soon page.

The flip side of the good news though is that those specializing in paid search campaigns will have to up their game or at least focus more on organic SEO methods as well because the budgets of these advertisers are estimated to cut as much as 10 percent compared to last year’s budget for paid search.

According to Razorfish the reasons for this shift in online marketing strategy of companies is due to the fact that “after three years of intense focus on paid search, advertisers are more confident they are covering the relevant ground in that area” so that “they can now shift their attention to how they appear in unpaid listings, using SEO – a tactic many have neglected.” Another reason for this is that “pressure on marketing investments is causing advertisers to get more from less.”

Whatever their reasons may be its time to buckle up and start wooing potential clients.

Mr. Softy and the Beeb signed a memorandum of understanding suggesting technical and content cooperation in the future. The agreement could pave the way for Microsoft aiding in the state-owned British broadcaster’s delivery of Internet-based digital content in the future.

The MOU between the two companies does not commit the BBC to buying any Microsoft technology for future digital services, but a representative from the broadcaster told CNET this was “definitely on the cards.”

The agreement also opens the potential for the BBC to provide content to Microsoft’s services such as MSN, Windows Media Center platform, Windows Live Messenger application and the Xbox console.

Federated Media recently added a new automotive category and some 20 assorted blogs, including Guy Kawasaki’s, boosts the blog network’s monthly impressions to “hundreds of millions,” Federated’s chairman, John Battelle, said. However, the recent batch of acquisitions could be the last for a while as Federated seeks to build the infrastructure needed to support further growth.

Competitor AdBrite is also growing quickly, having recently added the 20,000th site to its network; the company plans to shortly introduce new demographic planning and campaign management tools. Though the network’s roots are in blogs, it has expanded to other publisher sites, and blogs are now only a small part of the network.

Meanwhile, Henry Copeland’s BlogAds network is moving to a more robust platform to accommodate even more sites. Copeland wants to expand the stable of blogs available to advertisers, and also increase the number of “mini-networks,” blog segmented by topic, such as football or politics. He also wants to arrange ad buys on political blogs by state, in time for the 2008 election.

With Google NetPAC, the search giant joins fellow tech heavyweights in an attempt to influence Beltway politics via contributions to political candidates and causes.

Google has been at the forefront of the net neutrality debate in the context of a Senate communications bill. Google and other internet companies maintain that net neutrality is vital for keeping the internet a consumer-friendly, user-driven environment; other tech giants – cable and telecom firms – tend to oppose net neutrality provisions.

Many major corporations – including Microsoft, Intel and Oracle – already resort to PAC donations as part of their political strategy. IBM and Apple have not formed PACs.

Windows Live Search, showing off a spartan but elegant design at Live.com that out-simples Google‘s, will now power MSN Search. Along with Live.com, Live Local Search is also now out of beta (but only in the U.S. and U.K.). Both are part of Microsoft‘s internet-based set of live services and software. Derrick Connell, search business general manager, called the Live Search launch “a watershed moment” for Microsoft.

Live Search allows users to search for news, images, video, blogs and RSS feeds via a single portal. Microsoft claims the new search will return more precise results – and do it faster. The Live.com site has only one “outside” link – to the new service.

Features include a scoping bar on the top of the results page keeps information from a previous search so a subsequent search can be executed in the context of the first. The new “related searches” feature on the right side uses an algorithm that uses the queries and results of others who have performed the same search.

“The launch of Live Search is a significant milestone for our services business, with our core search and monetization platform ready for prime time for MSN and Windows Live as well as for partners through syndication deals,” said Christopher Payne, corporate vice president of Live Search at Microsoft.

Live Local Search will offer increased availability of bird’s-eye imagery, improved mobile integration and functionality, and other user interface improvements and customization tools, Microsoft said.

Yahoo Mail‘s 41.4 percent share of all display ads was more that three times that of closest competitor MySpace‘s 16.1 percent, according to Nielsen/NetRatings AdRelevance data. MSN Hotmail was third, with 7.8 percent of display ads. Yahoo‘s share increased significantly from the previous month’s 32.9 percent and the 7.6 percent in August 2005.

Financial services companies accounted for 28.0 percent of online display ads in August, followed by retail goods and services with 18 percent and web media with 14 percent.

The total number of CPM display ads tracked by Nielsen (not pre-roll, partnerships and sponsorships) totaled 233.5 billion, up from 187.2 in July, 193.6 billion in June, and 197.7 billion in May.