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Semantic Search Engine Polaris uses Pinterest Data

A semantic search engine named “Polaris” powers Walmart.com, as well as the company’s mobile web and mobile apps, and it has a 10%-15% increased likelihood that a customer will complete their purchase.

Walmart has struggled in the past to compete against Amazon.com when it comes to Internet sales. But this giant is serious about e-commerce and m-commerce.

The semantic search engine was built by a small team of fifteen engineers within Walmart’s @WalmartLabs division, an internal group of technologists which grew through the acquisition of startups like KosmixOneRiotGrabbleSmall Society, and others.

Social Genome Semantic Search Engine Technology

Polaris takes advantage of Kosmix’s semantic technology, which includes something it once called the “Social Genome” – a way of enabling discovery using algorithms that rank results via social signals from around the web.

Kosmix’s Social Genome technology was used in an earlier @WalmartLabs creation known as “Shopycat,” a social-gifting platform that debuted just before the 2011 holiday season as a Facebook application. With Polaris, that same technology has been expanded upon in order to help return better search results on Walmart.com’s e-commerce and m-commerce destinations. Algorithms take into consideration the number of “Likes” a Walmart product it has on Facebook, and at the number of pins it has on Pinterest, as well as user ratings and reviews when ranking results. Reviews are sourced from Walmart itself, but further down the road, Polaris may pull in reviews from external properties through partnerships with review providers.

It’s a notable development for Walmart to consider using the “signals” from Pinterest which was young and  often seen to drive traffic, but, at the same time, increasingly questioned on its ability to convert clicks to sales back in 2011. Making this Semantic Search Engine and Walmart pretty much visionaries in the field at a time where even Zappos failed at increasing revenues with its Pinpointing tool, a website feature which suggested products based on Pinterest Board Pinned content.

Social Genome Semantic Search Engine Technology - Image Credit: TechCrunch

Social Genome Semantic Search Engine Technology – Image Credit: TechCrunch

In addition to social signals, Polaris focused on the semantic technology Kosmix had developed as a part of the Social Genome. This allows Polaris to understand and analyze the relationship between people, events, places, and products.

This means that when a user searches for “garden furniture” on Walmart.com, the semantic search engine knows the search is for the category “patio furniture,” and displays results from that product group. It also helps to categorize product descriptions in order to extract more meaning out of the text provided. For example, it can pull out “14 Karat”  into an attribute from a description of a gold necklace, and then that attribute becomes searchable.

14 karat search on Walmart with Polaris the Semantic Search Engine Technology - Image Credit: TechCrunch

14 karat search on Walmart with Polaris the Semantic Search Engine Technology – Image Credit: TechCrunch

 

Walmart Engagement Scoring

The third key piece to Polaris is what Walmart calls “engagement scoring.” This was designed in-house using Walmart’s own internal metrics. The scoring uses and measures Walmart shoppers actually do following a search: what they click on, add to cart, and what they purchase. This trains the system to know that a customer searching for “house” is more likely looking for something related to the TV show “House,” as opposed to “dog house” or “doll house,” for example, or that the word “flats” shouldn’t have the “s” removed in order to return results about “flat screen TVs” but should rather present a selection of shoes.

Brazil, the first country in the international roll-out

The rollout of the semantic search engine originally began with a small bucket test where small portions (5%-10%) of Walmart.com traffic was directed over to the next engine. Now the engine is live on all Walmart’s e-commerce and m-commerce offerings in the U.S. The metric related to the increased purchase likelihood (the 10%-15% increase reported above) was made after rollout was at 100%.

i stopped fighting my inner demons - yeah!

i stopped fighting my inner demons – yeah!

 

August 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings

It is really perplexing that with the evident number of online searches, added to the fact that people themselves perform these searches in order to find what they need, are curious about or want to investigate, compare or purchase, that due importance is not placed on Search Engine Optimization. Remember it’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.

Target Latino

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Google Sites led the explicit core search market in August with 65.4 percent of searches conducted.

 

U.S. Explicit Core Search

Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in August with 65.4 percent market share, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 17.4 percent (up 0.3 percentage points) and Microsoft sites with 11.1 percent (up 0.1 percentage points). Ask Network captured 3.8 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL LLC with 2.3 percent.

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comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report*

August 2010 vs. July 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore qSearch              ________________________                          .

Core Search Entity            Explicit Core Search        Share (%) Jul-10    Aug-10        Point Change

Total Explicit Core Search         100.0%    100.0%               N/A

Google Sites                                      65.8%     65.4%                 -0.4

Yahoo! Sites                                     17.1%     17.4%                    0.3

Microsoft Sites                                 11.0%     11.1%                    0.1

Ask Network                                      3.8%      3.8%                    0.0

AOL LLC Network                           2.3%      2.3%                     0.0

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*“Explicit Core Search” excludes contextually driven searches that do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.

Nearly 15.7 billion explicit core searches were conducted in August. Google Sites ranked first with 10.3 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites in second with 2.7 billion (up 3 percent) and Microsoft Sites in third with 1.7 billion (up 2 percent). Ask Network accounted for 598 million explicit core searches (up 2 percent) followed by AOL LLC Network with 366 million.

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comScore Explicit Core Search Query Report

August 2010 vs. July 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore qSearch                            __________________________             .

Core Search Entity            Explicit Core Search                Queries (MM)

Jul-10    Aug-10                Percent Change

Total Explicit Core Search             15,589    15,695                              1%

Google Sites                                        10,263    10,259                             0%

Yahoo! Sites                                           2,661     2,728                              3%

Microsoft Sites                                       1,712     1,744                              2%

Ask Network                                              588       598                              2%

AOL LLC Network                                   365       366                              0%

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U.S. Total Core Search

Google Sites accounted for 60.5 percent of total core search queries conducted, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 21.0 percent and Microsoft Sites with 12.8 percent. Ask Network captured 3.5 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL LLC with 2.2 percent.

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comScore Total Core Search Share Report*

August 2010 vs. July 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore qSearch                    ________________________           .

Core Search Entity    Total Core Search                   Share (%)

Jul-10    Aug-10                 Point Change

Total Core Search              100.0%    100.0%                          N/A

Google Sites                              61.6%     60.5%                          -1.1

Yahoo! Sites                             20.1%     21.0%                             0.9

Microsoft Sites                         12.6%     12.8%                             0.2

Ask Network                                3.5%      3.5%                             0.0

AOL LLC Network                    2.2%      2.2%                              0.0

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* “Total Core Search” is based on the five major search engines, including partner searches, cross-channel searches and contextual searches. Searches for mapping, local directory, and
user-generated video sites that are not on the core domain of the five search engines are not included in these numbers.

Americans conducted more than 16.9 billion total core search queries in August with Google Sites leading with 10.3 billion searches, followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.6 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.2 billion.

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comScore Total Core Search Query Report

August 2010 vs. July 2010 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations

Source: comScore qSearch                           _______________________      .

Core Search Entity    Total Core Search             Queries (MM)

Jul-10    Aug-10               Percent Change

Total Core Search                  16,673    16,950                          2%

Google Sites                             10,263    10,259                          0%

Yahoo! Sites                                 3,351     3,562                         6%

Microsoft Sites                            2,106     2,166                         3%

Ask Network                                   588       598                         2%

AOL LLC Network                         365       366                         0%

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A Note about September 2010 Search Reporting

comScore’s ability to report qSearch data for September 2010 will not be impacted by recent changes in the search landscape, including the introduction of Google Instant Search and Microsoft’s powering of specific channels of search activity within Yahoo! Google’s introduction of Instant Search does not disrupt comScore’s ability to measure search activity consistently, but does introduce a new dynamic that will be addressed in our data collection methodology.

Source comScore

the rat race Lily Tomlin #quotes

the rat race Lily Tomlin #quotes