Does Yahoo! have multiple personality disorder?
Since 2000, when I entered the search engine marketing business, Yahoo! has changed organic and paid search results providers more often than most people change their mind.
Who is Yahoo! anyway? I guess that depends when you ask the question. Yahoo! has switched paid and non-paid search results provider/technology numerous times in the past decade.
Yahoo! started out as a human edited directory and added algorithmic search when it couldn’t keep up with the explosive expansion of Internet content. Over the years, Inktomi, Google, and its own search engine (based largely on Inktomi, which Yahoo! bought in 2002) have all provided organic search results to Yahoo!. Now with this latest deal, Yahoo! will receive its organic search results from bing.
On the pay per click front, Yahoo! first partnered with Overture (formally goto.com) and bought the service in 2003. After a little tweaking and rebranding, Yahoo! Search Marketing was born. In 2007, Yahoo! introduced its Panama upgrade which added a quality scoring system to its pay per click ranking algorithm. This change mimicked Google’s approach and supported a better user experience. The Microsoft-Yahoo! deal requires that Yahoo! abandon all this work and serve up Microsoft’s adCenter ads.
The Microsoft-Yahoo! deal.
On Thursday, the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal was given the green light. See “US and European regulators have cleared the way for Microsoft and Yahoo! to blaze on with a planned tie-up aimed at taking on Internet search king Google.” Yahoo!’s switch to bing and adCenter will likely occur in late 2010 or early 2011, with care taken not to disrupt the lucrative holiday advertising season.
So what’s next?
All of this turmoil was caused by Yahoo!’s and Microsoft’s inability to compete effectively with Google. In fact, it is Yahoo!’s decade long hemorrhaging of search market share that has placed its head on the chopping block. As for me, while I’m a big Google fan, I can’t help but pull for the underdogs – Yahoo! and Microsoft. In any case, the face of search is changing and we at Site-Seeker will react accordingly.
Brian Bluff
Brian Bluff is the President and Co-Founder of Site-Seeker, Inc., a Central New York based Internet Marketing Firm that has been recognized as being one of New York’s fastest growing small businesses. Together with his brother and Co-Founder Eddie Bluff - Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Brian has grown the company into a successful source of Internet Marketing Solutions, with offices and employees in three states.
Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Brian studied Micro-Electric Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology. After earning his Bachelor’s degree and spending several years in the United States Navy; Brian went on to work for some of the countries most successful companies including; Pfizer, M&T Bank, and PAR Technology - where he held several Vice President positions, including Vice President of Marketing at Rome Research Corporation and Vice President/General Manager of PAR Logistics Management Systems – the company that pioneered the asset tracking industry. In 2000, Brian went on to start his first business, TCO Inc. As a provider of Internet marketing solutions, TCO, Inc. became one of the first of its kind in Central New York, offering clients a competitive advantage online through the use of consulting, online marketing, and the Thomas Industrial Network.
Today, Brian shares the secrets of Internet marketing on the national stage, traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada to speak at trade shows, seminars, and association meetings. Brian is also a speaker in Site-Seeker Inc.'s webinar series including Jolt & Bolt and Lunch & Learn.
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