

Done deal: Yahoo/Microsoft finalize search deal - jrwoodruff
http://mashable.com/2009/12/04/microsoft-yahoo-finalizes-search-partnership/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

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staunch
I'm a bit concerned what it will mean when Yahoo's engine is shutdown and only
Bing's is left. Presumably it will cause a massive reshuffling of web traffic,
because Bing's crawler and ranking algorithms are different.

There will probably be some major winners and losers as a result.

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rgrove
The tech press hasn't done a very good job of being clear about the details of
the deal, which is unfortunate, since it's left many people with an inaccurate
picture of what it entails.

A modern search "engine" is really many, many engines. There are countless
backend systems layered on top of and alongside the core algorithmic search
system that most people think of when they think of a search engine (and that
Microsoft will soon be running for Yahoo! as part of this deal). None of those
other systems are going away as a result of this deal, nor is Yahoo! Search
itself going away.

Yahoo! isn't just going to flip a switch and start using Bing's algorithmic
search. As part of the deal, Microsoft has licensed the core algo search
technology that currently powers Yahoo! Search, so you're likely to see more
of a melding of the two.

Disclaimer: I work for Yahoo! Search (on the frontend, not the backend), but I
speak for myself, not for Yahoo!.

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staunch
Thanks for replying. Can you tell me if what I was worried about is likely to
happen? Will there be a big reshuffling of web traffic due to Bing returning
results that differ from Yahoo's current results?

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rgrove
Your question presupposes that the search results from a given search engine
tend to remain static over time, but they're actually in constant flux. All
the major search engines make frequent tweaks (sometimes small, sometimes
large) to their ranking algorithms, and indexes are updated endlessly around
the clock with new and changing content.

I don't think there's anything to worry about.

