MSN.com Dumps Yahoo in Favor of Own Search Engine
The war of the search engines has dramatically intensified. Search engine result pages from Microsoft’s www.MSN.com are now being provided by the MSN Search (beta) search engine. How will other industry players like Google and Yahoo react? Will Microsoft’s market clout allow it to take over yet another multi-billion dollar market?
Prior to this development, MSN.com contracted with Yahoo to provide MSN’s users with search results. For months now, the MSN Search (beta) robot “MSNbot” has been rapidly spidering the web, working swiftly and efficiently to index and prioritize hundreds of millions of webpages. Search engine optimization firms have noted that “MSNbot” is very adept at progressing through the entire content of websites while not missing any sub directories, or obscure links.
If Microsoft has created such a great search property, is it destined to become the dominant search destination? The ultimate fate of the new MSN search engine will undoubtedly be in the hands of the consumers who use it. As additional search products such as desktop search, toolbars, and MSN messenger continue to arrive, the competition will inevitably heat up.
Google and Yahoo are in for some formidable competition. Microsoft can outspend both of them combined, and still have ample money left over to purchase a small country. Although Microsoft may not be recognized as an “innovator”, if they decide to enter a new market, their competitors had better be ready to wage a major battle.
It will be interesting to see how Microsoft will use its dominance in parallel markets to help leverage their new search engine. Some of us may recall the former prominence of Netscape, prior to the introduction of Microsoft’s internet explorer. Microsoft’s ability to include its internet explorer browser on all new Window’s desktop systems slaughtered Netscape, and their ability to successfully compete. Will Google and Yahoo be next?
And what about advertising? As of this change over users to MSN.com who enter a search query, no longer find advertisements from Yahoo’s search engine. Analysts agree Microsoft must have a plan in place to make money with their new search property, how this will be accomplished remains to be seen? MSN is now loosing millions of dollars in advertising revenue that Yahoo previously paid them. Sure, MSN can afford to do without this additional revenue, but the question remains what advertising model will MSN Search use to become profitable?
Microsoft’s ability to outspend their competitors could certainly be a major factor. If Microsoft offers discounted advertising, or other advertising incentives, Google and Yahoo may find themselves with a much smaller piece of the advertising revenue pie. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) companies use advertising mediums such as “Google adwords” to drive business for their clients. If www.titan-seo.com [SEO companies] do not see a profit potential for their clients when MSN rolls out their new advertising model it could spell disaster for MSN Search.
Ultimately, the war of the search engines will boil down to a popularity contest. Microsoft has the power, money, and domination of certain parallel markets to enable them to capture a large share of the search engine market. Google currently enjoys market leadership by a wide margin, but is loosing foothold on a continuing basis. How does MSN plan to turn the tables and win the war of the search engines? The first shots have been fired, who will attack next?
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