I just had the chance to read through a bunch of comments left on the blog with regards to the last post I did. Thank-you very much for all the feedback, and comments. I’ve also deleted quite a few MSFT bashing posts. For those of you who wrote them, you missed the point – I probably should have pointed you to some of my older comments. I’m not bashing MSN; just reporting on a surprising trend.
I’ve met a quite a few MSFT employees, and a few like Ken Moss and Chris Payne from MSN Search. They get search, and believe that they will build an engine which will beat out Google hands down. I believe that someday, they will. I think MSFT needs to become stronger in the search market, and it will.
I posted about 98052, because that that was the first zip requested. I’ve had quite a few others requested, some through the comments, and some through regular email, and I will post about those zip codes over the next few weeks.
While Microsoft skews the numbers, there’s more to 98052 than just MSFT’s campus. I do find it surprising and disappointing that the data shows that more people who live around Microsoft’s campus don’t use the hometown engine. The data shows that hometown usage is actually a lower percentage than we see for MSN in other areas. I can’t explain it, but I can report it.
On a separate note, I spent part of this week at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in Toronto, where I had the opportunity to participate as a speaker. Lot’s of other people alredy reported on the show, so I won’t repeat what’s already been written. For a review, check out Barry Schwartz’s comments (Rusty Brick) over at Search Engine Watch.
I did want to say that while I was at the conference, I caught MSN’s new AdCenter. The feedback from other speakers and SEO / SEM firm attendees: “It’s cool. It’s a really great product.” That’s the people MSN needs to win over. They are the opinion makers.
Lastly; I’m overwhelmed by the positive feedback – lots more came in via email or phone than came to comments. Thank-you all. I’ve had a few people ask for accounts to start discovering what their own serach metrics data looks like. If you would like an account for your site / blog, please let me know by emailing me directly at zwicky at metamend dot com.
Have a question and need quick answers? 
