Much has been said about the potential merging of Microsoft and Yahoo. The talk has been exceptionally heavy in the last month or so. I’ve talked about it here once or twice and probably will again. But most of the talk has been around the technology ramifications of the merger. The changes that would occur in search market share and what it would mean for Google. But what about us? What about the online entrepreneur?
We do SEO, PPC and various other things that could be affected by a merger of Microsoft and Yahoo. What changes can we expect from this merger if it were to happen? Here’s how I see it going down.
In the world of SEO, it narrows things down a bit. Instead of everybody trying to do the SEO for all three of the search engines, they only have two major ones. Of course, I’m of the camp that thinks that you follow a few tenets and don’t worry about what any one individual search engine wants, so that doesn’t change much for me.
From a PPC perspective, things will (regardless) change. Even without the merger, things are changing. Yahoo maybe in talks to test out using Google for search advertising. I’d be surprised if it didn’t happen as it would be a major blow to Microsoft and when was the last time Google passed that up. And Yahoo is unlikely to pass it up just out of spite. If, however, the merger were to go through, it would form a viable competitor to the Google advertising engine. Suddenly, choosing between the two would become a little less obvious. Some don’t choose now, but there are many that only use one of the engines.
As an Online Entrepreneur, the merger could mean several things. The most obvious is a healthy alternative to anything Google. For those that would actively rebel against The Great Googely Moogely, a merger could be very good. Another, less positive, way to think about the merger would be the elimination of choice. Instead of three engines, we would only have two. There are many that can’t stand either Google or Microsoft and actively try to use Yahoo and others whenever possible. The merger would cause there to only be two large choices. The rest would be table scraps and not push enough traffic to worry about.
In the end, I can’t say whether the merger will go through or not. Yahoo doesn’t seem to be very receptive and also seems to be getting quite a bit of help in thwarting the “attack”. Microsoft, on the other hand, doesn’t seem all that willing to give up. And let’s face it; Microsoft usually doesn’t give up. They’ve lost a couple of times, but rarely do they give up.
About Shane Ede
Its looking more likely every day that the merge will happen. From an economics point of view, if it happens, Microsoft may just launch an attack against Google and use Yahoo as a casualty. This, in blogging terms, is a good thing for bloggers because it will cause ridiculously low advertising on the part of Yahoo. Should be a good opportunity to snag some growth 😉
It does seem like there will be a merger. Microsoft is known for persistence, that’s how they win against originality and genius.
To be honest, there are things I like with Microsoft (Live Office for one), and stuff I like with Yahoo – their mail and web hosting as well as searching. The Microsoft ad center software is SO much better than Yahoo or Google – but because it doesn’t have the reach it often isn’t worth the trouble. This merger will make a stronger competitor to Google (good) and make room for innovative entrepreneurs (also good).
Microsoft has tried and tried to get the thorn aka Google out from its side. They appear to have conceeded defeat in their own search efforts and now want to take over the search market with Yahoo.
Google still gives by far the most refers to my site, although interestingly MSN searches consistantly give a lower bounce rate than Yahoo Traffic. Google is of course the best!