Welcome to ‘What Happened in Search’.
Packed full of the week’s search marketing news each Friday, this week Pinterest launches ‘buyable’ pins, Android dominates stateside and Yahoo! tests Google results.
KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSE
In a blow to Bing, Yahoo! has confirmed that it is testing the use of Google’s search results.
As part of Yahoo and Microsoft’s latest deal, 49% of Yahoo’s desktop search traffic can carry ads from providers of the search engine’s choice, but the other 51% must carry Bing ads.
Yahoo confirmed the news to Search Engine Land, saying, “As we work to create the absolute best experiences for Yahoo users, from time to time, we run small tests with a variety of partners including search providers. There is nothing further to share at this time”.
SHARING’S CARING
Android has won 64.9% of the US market. A Kantar report showied the operating system has upped its market share by 2.8%.
European figures told a less successful tale. In fact, sales fell by 2.9% YOY in Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
The US growth is mainly attributed to sales success from the Galaxy S6, which is third on the list of best-selling smartphones in the US, as well as LG nearly doubling its market share Stateside.
KEEP ME
Push notifications have been proven to have a significant impact on app retention rates, affecting them by more than double.
180% was the highest increase in retention, with Android users being 32% more likely to opt-in to push notifications than those on iOS.
Data taken from over 39 million app users tested rates over 30, 60 and 90-days. The latter time period saw a jump from 10.1% retention of users without push notifications to 27.6% for those who opted in.
NEXT LEVEL
Following Pinterest’s recent announcement of e-commerce plans, the platform has launched ‘buyable pins’ on iPhones and iPads in the US.
The move sees an overhaul of the site, with the ‘Buy it’ button featuring on home feeds, boards and in search results.
Signed up retailers have kicked off with 300 million buyable pins, which enable iOS device users to make purchases directly from Pinterest.
IN ‘N’ OUT
Microsoft has signed a 10-year deal, which will see AOL use Bing’s ads and listings.
The contract, which will take effect from 2016, sees Google miss out. However, AOL only accounts for 1% of US search traffic (vs 65% from Google), so it’s no great loss in the short term. However, Bing now has over 20% market share in the US, which will only increase as a result of this latest development.