Get Ready for Bing, the new Microsoft-Yahoo Search Engine!
It’s been a long time in the making, but the recent announcement by Microsoft that it has signed a cooperative agreement with Yahoo enabling Yahoo to use the former’s search engine platform is quite a watershed in the online information world.
There was a point in time several years back when Yahoo was the well known leader in the Internet search world, when Google was likely perceived as an upstart with one of those rather strange dot com era titles. A rather long drawn out latency period combined with a few seemingly questionable business decisions led to a virtual standstill for Yahoo, at a time when Google grabbed the reigns and began its rapid expansion towards complete dominance in the market.
These days, the vast majority of online information searchers usually choose to use the popular Google platform to find what they’re looking for. Microsoft and Yahoo have been runner-up in the second and third places respectively – for quite some time now. They have both been at the negotiating table for years and an attempt by Microsoft to buy the other company out failed a little over a year ago.
Under the terms of this new deal, Microsoft receives an exclusive 10 year license with full access to Yahoo’s search technologies, and if required, they may also integrate these technologies into their existing platforms. Yahoo may now utilize Microsoft’s new Bing search platform. Indeed, Bing has recently been rolled out in an aggressive marketing campaign and it is thought that this fresh face in the marketplace may have given Yahoo additional incentive to actually ink the deal.
Many analysts, including leading blogger Vincent Fernando, question the viability of the deal from Yahoo’s point of view. He estimates that Yahoo is moving down the value chain and if the company decides to completely adopt Bing as their own search, will be left with little of any tangibility to mark them as a viable ongoing concern.
The deal must pass regulatory approval before it can go forward. Microsoft appears particularly buoyant about the idea, with CEO Steve Ballmer stating that “it will enable us to innovate in search and provide consumers and advertisers with better transparency and choice.” As the deal will take up to two years to fully roll out, Google will have plenty of time to call on its own mighty resources to answer back any perceived challenge.
It is difficult to imagine even the combined “might” of Microsoft and Yahoo bringing a real fight to Google, given not only the latter’s dominance in the search world, but also increasingly stiff competition from the Mountain View-based company in the software and operating system environments, an area previously dominated by Microsoft.
As the deal is rolled out, expect to see innovations within Internet search technology and also see more competition in the world of search engine advertising and pay per click.
Adam Toren, Co-Founder of Young Entrepreneur, specializes in improving the profitability of under-performing businesses with a unique and ‘bottom line’ program. Adam, along with his brother, have started, bought and sold several companies over the past years. They currently own and operate a successful publishing company and several online companies.
