The proposed unification of Yahoo and Microsoft Bing has taken a major step forward having sealed the approval of the European Union.
YaBing could soon be a reality having now gained an unconditional thumbs up from European lawmakers. Whilst this is just the first of many hurdles to overcome, it is a major stepping stone towards completing the union of the second and third most popular search engines in the world.
The merger is still on course for completion in the first half of this year, assuming that it can gain backing from the other major markets; not least in North America. Google’s stranglehold on the worldwide search market has been undiminished though, with the latest figures showing that they control 90% of searches. Yahoo and Bing by comparison only mustered 7.4% between them, which means there’s plenty of workto do in reducing the deficit.
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There have been few stories that have garnered quite so many virtual column inches as the Microsoft and Yahoo merger agreed earlier this week. The conclusion to a drawn out and often barbed takeover bid of the software giant and the second largest search firm has taken many by surprise.
Yes, Yahoo did the right thing by accepting that their search but somewhere in the process they have managed to lose the “boatloads of cash” Carol Bartz said they would have to be offered and replaced it with “boatloads of value.” Unfortunately investors appear to be more interested in the more tangible financial benefits of a cash heavy takeover, with 16% of their value wiped off almost as soon as the deal was struck.
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The headline story of Yahoo’s quarterly review is undoubtedly the 15 per cent drop in search revenue. A general trend away from paid search has hit the major engines hard, but seemingly Yahoo are suffering more than most.
The loss of revenue in paid search was attributed to “fewer click-throughs and fewer buyer intents” by Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz in a report by the Financial Times. She was quick too to brush off claims that search volume may also be suffering, although clearly the dramatic drop will have raised some questions by those within the company and others with a vested interest.
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Despite shelling out millions in developing and marketing Bing, Microsoft’s plans to conquer the search engine world don’t appear to be stopping there. Overnight it emerged that the IT technology giants are in late stage negotiations to finally seal a deal for Yahoo.
Patience clearly isn’t a word bandied around too readily in the halls of Microsoft’s Seattle HQ. Whilst Bing remains stuck in third place with only an 8.4% share of the US search market, it is still growing. Yahoo on the other hand is facing shrinking search volumes and a brand that is arguably more synonymous with news than it is with its status as a search engine.
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Following on closely my post on Tuesday – Users Spending More Time on Yahoo than Google – GigaOM have given some reasons for exactly why people use Yahoo! so much. With statistics made available by ComScore, Yahoo were found to be the top source for news, finance, sports, entertainment and mail.
Their stranglehold on the online news industry has ensured that Yahoo! maintained a high level of credibility and popularity as a brand. Unfortunately, critics might suggest that their popularity for the aforementioned news and information sources masks their inefficiency in their primary sector – search.
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Despite still seemingly being the second largest search engine in the world, Yahoo’s challenge for supremacy has been swept to one side in recent times. In fact, good news has been hard to come by ever since they turned down Microsoft’s billions to buy out the brand last year.
Yahoo have sat powerlessly on the sidelines watching Bing, a search engine created by their would-be buyers, swamp the market with advertising and generating a buzz all of its own. However, fresh research from Neilson Online has revealed that they have maintained a very high level of user attention, second only in fact to Facebook in the US.
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WebProNews, courtesy of statistics provided by Statcounter, today announced that Microsoft Bing has leapfrogged Yahoo as the number two search engine.
As reported earlier in the week in ‘The Birth of the ‘Decision Engine’: Microsoft Bing Goes Live’, Bing isn’t a Google-killer, not yet at any rate. The primary objective was instead to oust the current incumbents of the second most popular search engine spot; something they appear to have done with remarkable ease and swiftness.
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Yahoo! announced on Friday another change to his search engine rankings algorithm. This comes soon after the last update in January.
Expect to see some movement in the natural results. It also serves as a useful reminder that having a position in the search engine results is not a right. SEO is about setting your site up to be seen in the best possible light by the search engines but cannot act as a cast iron certainty that you will get the positions you desire.
Yahoo! has announced that Co-founder Jerry Yang has agreed to step down from his role as Chief Executive.
Jerry Yang
The embattled CEO has had a difficult period since taking over just over a year ago. Yahoo! Rejected a multi-billion dollar takeover offer from Microsoft and have recently seen Google walk away from a joint-venture advertising deal.
The Internet company (yes, that is a broad description!) stated that Jerry will remain in post until his replacement is appointed by the Yahoo! board of directors.
It is assumed that, despite overseeing the dramatic fall in the Yahoo! share price, billionaire Yang will cope with this change of role announced a month after the company published plans to make 10% of its employees redundant.
