Microsoft & Yahoo! Partnership Targets Google
Well even though the ink’s not dry, it’s official!
On June 29th, 2009 Microsoft announced to much fanfare that Microsoft and Yahoo! Have hammered out a deal where Microsoft/Bing will power now power Yahoo’s search, while Yahoo will powering paid ads on Bing.com – which is Microsoft’s new search platform – previously known as MSN).
For more specifics you can read the official announcements here:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-29release.mspx
http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com/thedeal/Default.aspx
The bottom line is that this is a good thing for the marketers using Google Adwords as well as Yahoo! PPC ad campaigns.
Why? It’s simple. With Yahoo and Microsoft now working as a team, Google might actually have to some real competition in the search market.
What all this really means is that:
- Overall, PPC Ad costs may come down across the board.
- Due to increased competition Google may have to start treating their advertisers with more respect.
- Google now faces something they’ve never faced before – a competitor with great technology and a TON of cash. Microsoft is cash rich and it can burn though millions as it gobbles up market share from Google.
- The Obama administration is already looking at Google for anti-trust issues as they maintain that Google has a monopoly on PPC advertising, so it seems likely that the Government would support and even encourage the Microsoft / Yahoo! Partnership.
Now officially the deal doesn’t become final until early 2010 and as such there won’t be any earth shaking changes overnight, but you can bet that Google isn’t happy about it.
Ultimately though it really comes down to usability. Which ever search engine works the best and gives users what they want - faster is the one who’s going to win.
Microsoft’s Bing search engine still hasn’t proven that it’s better then Google and Yahoo! is bleeding users and money.
Additionally, “Google” has become a verb, as in “I googled it”. It’s that kind of market saturation that almost guarantees Google will stay at the top of the search engine heap.
Love to hear your comments. Let me know what you think 
Don Schnure
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