

 Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Struck, Will Be Announced Within Next 24 Hours - krishna2
http://kara.allthingsd.com/20090728/microsoft-yahoo-deal-struck-will-be-announced-within-next-24-hours/

======
socratees
In terms of how this might benefit the innovation or the internet as a whole
is still a question. They both might together own 30% of the search market,
but what difference does it make? any thoughts?

~~~
patio11
This news actually has a practical impact on my business: if it means that I
can buy advertising across both search engines at the same time through the
same interface with the same creatives (ad text), then Microhoo can deliver me
enough clicks per month to make it worth my time to actually sign into their
website.

I pay Microsoft $30 a month for ads currently, and they just don't generate
the traffic necessary to justify me logging in and optimizing their ads like I
did for Google. (Which can fill $500+ per month of ads per me, even at the
cheaper post-optimization CPC prices.)

I also tend to rank fairly well on Bing for searches of consequence to me
relative to Google. Currently, that scarcely matters because few of my
customers use Bing. More of my customers presumably use Yahoo (you should see
how many @yahoo.com email addresses I have in my database) but for whatever
reason I've never ranked particularly well there. Thus I'd expect a modest
increase in traffic. However, the sad fact of the matter is ranking #1 on
Microhoo for a tier-one keyword has been worth less to me than ranking #8 on
Google for a tier-two keyword. (Tiers assigned subjectively based on search
volume, perceived fit to my business, and observed conversion rates.)

~~~
netsp
I run lots of accounts and my experience is the same but more. Here in
Australia, Google search seems to account for more then 10X Microsoft + Yahoo.

Yahoo (the number 2 at around 5%-10%) doesn't justify logging in to optimise.
It also doesn't justify getting good at working with the platform to get the
most out of it with less effort. The platforms are also just not as good as
adwords. On top of that, the conversion rates seem to always be lower. I'm not
sure if this is a reflection on Microhoo users or the ability of the system to
optimise the ads themselves. It might even be that having less 'stock' (ads)
to run, they are left with poorer choices and run my ads in less then optimal
scenarios where google would see the low ctr and run some other ad.

It all ads up to Yahoo & Bing being ignored.

*Ideally, I would like to run everything from a central console that links to Google, yahoo & whatever else.

------
krishna2
Long ago, it was Google who served Yahoo's search results.

~~~
krishna2
And it was Yahoo who served Microsoft's search results (via Inktomi). How
about that for recursion ?

------
joshu
I hope delicious comes out ok in all this.

~~~
axod
Does delicious generate revenue for yahoo? I can't see how it can be, but
maybe I'm missing something.

~~~
joshu
It generates data. Which was supposed to be able to help search, but they
never actually did the research.

------
wildwood
Is there any word on whether Yahoo Japan is involved in this? I know that Bing
is running in Japan now, but Yahoo Japan has always been a very separate legal
entity.

------
simon_kun
er, it's only for Bing to provide search results. Yahoo's been here before
with Inktomi.

~~~
whowhatwher3
no, msft will be collecting all the click data as well. yahoo may have the
chance to sell ads for search on the phone, but no one wants to do that
anymore. when you go to fill out a webform to sell ads on bing, it will be a
msft page being served

y! really is exiting search AND search marketing here

------
rbanffy
I really liked Yahoo. It will be missed.

~~~
BrentRitterbeck
It's a search deal, not an outright sale of the company.

~~~
redorb
Good call, I really think yahoo is bigger than just search. They could also
use the money to develop their properties like flickr and news - think of it
like in monopoly when 2 players trade with each ending up with a monopoly and
get started building hotels. In this case the odd man out (google) doesn't get
sympathy because he's rich and hansome; and already owns 60-8o% market share

~~~
BrentRitterbeck
Yahoo is terrible. The only reason I even go to Yahoo! is Yahoo! finance,
however, as soon as I get my hands on some real data sources again, Yahoo! is
gone completely.

~~~
quellhorst
Yahoo finance is probably the only yahoo service I still use also. Flickr very
rarely.

