As Google now has become the nation’s most trusted source of information — ahead of news media and social platforms — a new search visibility tool was officially launched today that not only displays how and why search results appear the way they do, but offers analysis and insights as to how to better take control of those results.

After extensive beta testing by agencies, Lightbox Search, the first platform to provide critical and actionable intelligence for monitoring and measuring Google search results, offers professional communicators a quick and easy way to navigate the intricacies of online search. Online search, dominated by Google, has become the homepage for all businesses and organizations: 93 percent of all online experiences, and two-thirds of all website traffic begin with search. Leveraging artificial intelligence, custom-built databases and proprietary algorithms, the tool offers historical tracking that demonstrates how results change — improve or decline — over time.

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“For a communications professional, easily understanding what results appear in search for their company, client or organization is critical,” said Laurence Moskowitz, chief executive of Lightbox Search. “The ability to quickly see those results from a specific location — to see what your audience sees — is vital. And being able to interpret all the likely reasons behind why results appear in which order, is now mandatory. While professional online marketers have been perfecting search analysis and optimization for a decade, corporate communicators and public relations professionals are often lost in the complexity and jargon of search.”

Using IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence capabilities, Lightbox Search clears confusion surrounding search results. The platform instantly identifies results as positive or negative and strong or weak with our proprietary Lightbox Score. The dashboard offers actionable insights on overall online profile improvement including predictive analysis which shows the impact of changes in results. With its custom databases and bold displays, Lightbox Search offers users a fast, simple and an informative review of search results – and even guidance to strengthen or improve them.

“We’ve been able to substantially cut back on our time spent on internal tasks,” said Logan Wells, CEO of communications firm Not Another Agency, based in Houston. “Lightbox Search has allowed us to quickly track data points and be able to visualize how potential efforts may impact our clients’ results and communicate those effectively and consistently.”

Lightbox Search Chief Technology Officer Jesse Jacobs explained: “And while it’s easy to understand how a Google search is the first step audiences take when researching a company, individual or issue in the news, few communications professionals fully understand how to craft content that generates powerful search results,” he said. “Fewer still recognize that search results differ depending upon where the actual search is performed. Location matters, even within a state or city. Opinions and decisions are often formed on page one of Google — whether for an investment, business partnership, search results help drive the next step — or stop it in its tracks.”

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The Lightbox Search platform was born out of necessity. Agencies across the spectrum are responsible for their clients’ online profiles. Lightbox Search was built by reputation management agency, Lumentus, based in New York, to help streamline and improve its search result analysis services for clients.

“We scoured the media and social media monitoring companies and other information providers to the communications industry and could not find a way to either improve or speed up our work for clients,” Moskowitz added. “This led us to build it ourselves, test it on our own clients and elicit critiques and feedback from scores of rival firms and in adjacent industries. It took us three years to go from start to finished service, but, bolstered with two rounds of financing, we believe we now have a powerful, one-of-a-kind platform that can save communications departments and agencies hours of work and provide insights and intelligence they never knew they could even obtain.”

Jacobs added: “We first developed a prototype to determine if the marketplace found the concept valuable. Once we were provided with such positive feedback we went into development, programming, user experience and design. We went on to test a wider swath of the market with about 100 hospital systems, small and large political campaigns, communications agencies, and corporations large and small. We’re now officially launching Lightbox Search.”

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