The deal struck between Microsoft and Yahoo! Last week, which sees Yahoo!’s search facility being powered by Microsoft’s technology for the next ten years, could have big implications for the future of search.
Yahoo!’s website will use Microsoft’s Bing search engine as Microsoft endeavours to take a larger share of the search market from the über-search giant Google. In return, Yahoo! will manage Microsoft’s search advertising business. Yahoo! will receive 88 per cent for ad sales accompanying search results on its site.
Rather than stepping out of the search market, as some rivals have suggested, Yahoo!’s Yoelle Maarek told the Daily Telegraph that the deal was actually “liberating” Yahoo!, enabling its team to focus their energy on front-end search innovations instead of making back-end tweaks.
This is an exciting time for Yahoo!, who also recently announced a partnership with Twitter that enables users to access personal real-time Twitter feeds from their Yahoo! homepage. These deals are both parts of Yahoo!’s goals of becoming more social and increasing its advertising strength.
But what does this mean for the future of search? Could the Google Giant really be under threat?
In three words: We doubt it.
Google has been getting some bad press recently, and is currently subject to European Union antitrust investigations. The online community wasn’t exactly “buzzing” about Google’s entry to the social media market, and in Italy Google executives were jailed after a video of a boy being bullied was posted on the site.
The thing about Google, though, is that it is constantly innovating while competitors chase to keep up. It has recently announced that it will be buying Picknik, an online photo editing service, while the latest beta of browser Chrome includes automatic translation options and enhanced privacy. And among the flurry of bad news last week, Google also launched a new advertising service, DoubleClick for Publishers, which combines AdManager with the DoubleClick DART platform – giving batter ad placement algorithms and enhancements to tracking and reporting of ads.
I think the Yahoo!-Microsoft partnership is an interesting move and ensures that energy and innovation continue to be injected into the world of search at some pace – which can only be a positive thing for everyone.
Read the full Daily Telegraph interview with Yahoo!’s Yoelle Maarek.
Marketing General, Search Engine Optimisation
Google, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Yahoo!
There aren’t many businesses nowadays who would argue that having good rankings on Google and the other leading search engines isn’t of value. However, there are only ten first page positions available in the natural listings for each search phrase and obtaining one of these top spots can take a lot of time and effort. Despite the obvious benefit of high rankings for relevant key phrases, quite a few businesses we come across still question whether going for the top search engine rankings is worth it.