Back to Search Engine Marketing
Yahoo vs. Google Showdown
For many, every time they feel they have the search engine marketing game conquered, it seems the rules change. The recent breakup of Google and Yahoo is no exception.
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, has been licensing results from Google's search engine since June of 2000. This benefit helped to catapult Google to the prestigious position of being the leader in the online search market. Google's search engine now reaches over 4 billion Web pages. (Yes, billion! No wonder it's so hard to get your listing to #1!)
This irony was not lost on Yahoo, who, seeing the Mountain View, California based Google as a mounting competitive threat, decided to cut ties and develop their own search engine technology. In fact, last year Yahoo spent more than $2 billion in order to do so. It's clear that Yahoo intends to give Google a serious run for their money.
Why now, you might ask? The King of the Hill will always be in threat of toppling. The emergence of pay-per-click advertising Internet marketing is now one of the most profitable channels for search engines. Google won't be allowed to monopolize this new business model now that the profits have become so lucrative.
This business battle cry now leaves Google in direct competition with Yahoo and MSN. Google cried "Touché!" and added an additional one billion pages to its web index, increasing its breadth by about one-third as it braces for the increased competition. "Whats next" will be a direct result of how comprehensive Yahoo's pricey new search engine will be, and who captures the most consumer loyalty. It's a classic Business 101 competitive model lesson occurring in real time.
So, how does this effect you? First, you can relax. The re-emergence of Yahoo and MSN as serious players in the search industry is beneficial to both advertisers and webmasters. Competition and the corresponding increase in consumer choices tend to produce better products and services in the long run.
Second, the shift away from Google may not be readily apparent to many Yahoo users, as the presentation of the results are the same, so if you currently have listings in Yahoo, don't panic. Judging from a random sample of searches by the Mercury News, many queries produce results that are similar to Google's, so your clients and prospects probably won't know the difference. At least not initially.
Back to Search Engine Marketing
