Business and Marketing

If you think Microsoft's search engine is a nonentity, think again. It delivers higher revenue per visit to retailers than Google, or anyone else for that matter.

Google dominates headlines and mind share in the marketing space with a seemingly endless parade of new services, and Microsoft's Yahoo/Bing alternative gets little respect as a result. Perhaps it's deserving of more, according to the Adobe Digital Index's Q3 Digital Advertising Report.

Adobe decided to add search to what used to be its quarterly social media report and uncovered a revelation. Among all-important retail advertisers on the Web, Bing delivered by far the highest revenue per visit in the third quarter of a little more than $3. Google, by comparison, returned around $2.50 and Facebook less than $1.50. It's not a new phenomenon, either. Bing delivered retailers a buck more per click-through than Google last year, as well.

“Bing does have a lot of cool widgets, like its airfare price hook-up tool. They've done some interesting things,” says Adobe Senior Analyst Joe Martin. “We're telling marketers in search to look to maximize their Bing spend first, especially if they're getting high quality traffic there. By looking at the revenue per visit, focus on the clientele giving you a better conversion rate.”

Martin points out that the search business, while seemingly mature, is still growing and evolving. Global ad spend in search was up 22% for the quarter, and while Google claimed most of that cash with a 70% share, that was a 1% dip from last year. Bing's total ad revenue, meanwhile, increased by 39%. In the U.S., Google was up 3% while Bing rose 28%.

Bing exhibited a steeper climb in cost per click than Google, too, rising 12% to the search leader's 4%. “It could be because of a little more competition for keywords in Bing due to the quality of its traffic,” Martin observes.

Bing commands a 30% share of search engine ad spend to Google's 70%.

Business Breaking News: Money Isn't the Only Reason Many Parents Work

While many parents feel as though they need to work, most actually want to work for reasons other than income, new research finds.

A recent survey from online job service FlexJobs found that 89 percent of parents report needing to work, but 64 percent of those parents said they also want to work because their careers contribute positively to their overall life satisfaction.

And an overwhelming majority of parents expressed optimism about balancing work and parenting. Ninety-two percent of parents said they could simultaneously be both great employees and great parents, and 6 percent said they were hopeful it could be done. Only 2 percent of respondents said they didn't think itwas possible.

Commodity Online News: Go short on MCX Crude Oil on pullbacks: Karvy