In a move to take some of the momentum away from Google, Microsoft has re-entered their negations with Yahoo. It could potentially “give Microsoft roughly 30 percent share of the online search market.” (AdAge, http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=138138). For those of us in the search industry, this is some very significant news. What does this mean to internet marketing? and Will we have to make added effort in diversifying our PPC accounts? More importantly, will we no longer only worry about how visible we are in the eyes of Google?
So how does this event benefit both Yahoo and Microsoft? Well Yahoo gets to cut down their cost while improving their search capabilities. Microsoft finally gets to be taken seriously as a credible search engine. Is this enough to bring down the unstoppable giant that is Google? Many doubt it, but it could lead to a few things. For example, if they adjust their PPC services to a more affordable rate than Google’s, people will have the capability of being visible on two major search engines, for the price of one search engine (depending on how they adjust their pricing).
This may not bring down Google, but it could be a start to some formidable competition. Google is already a household name, and a big brand, even though they really don’t invest in advertising themselves (they don’t need to). So they will continue to be the frontrunner in this industry for a while. If the use of IE8 continues to grow (which is contingent upon many factors), then the Yahoo/Bing search volume will grow conjunctionally; seeing that the default search engine in IE8 is currently Yahoo.
Personally, I liked Bing when it came out, it caused a lot of stir; and I haven’t really used Yahoo (besides measuring backlinks) since 1999. But, despite the great marketing and unveiling of Bing as a new and more relevant search engine, Google still dominates my search life. I have a Gmail account, use Google Docs, Google Maps, the Google iPhone App, and even have Google as my homepage. All of these things aren’t very uncommon, so it is hard for me to see anyone, merger or not, taking Google down. It’s a classic struggle of David vs. Goliath, but this time, Goliath is ready.
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One Comment
Joelle,
I'm not sure if I'd call it a struggle between David and Goliath; this is more like three Goliaths in combat. But as you said Google is ready! I'm one of those people that has come to trust Google over the years, simply because of the merit of their services. Though I've used Microsoft products for twice the amount of calendar-time, I can't unfortunately say the same of them.
Google's incessant focus on search throughout their history is IMHO the sole reason why they continue to be the best search engine out there. Sure they have done tons of other stuff like Apps, Gmail, Android, Wave etc, but all of it is related to improving search. Here's a clue for Microsoft to stick to core-competences, instead of madly obsessing about domination in every new market that develops in course of industry evolution. If Microsoft should take cues from the best ever Internet company there was, it should be to improve their core-competences, namely Office Apps and consumer Operating Systems. That will for sure make us customers happy (coz we can stop wasting money on failed products like Vista), maybe even some day love M$ products (which honestly very few of us currently do), and help gain market-respect.
Thanks
Ashant Chalasani